Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare, which operates 74 hospitals, saw its net loss widen in the fourth quarter of 2017.
The for-profit hospital operator ended the fourth quarter of 2017 with revenues of $5 billion, up from $4.9 billion in the same period of the year prior. On a same-facility basis, patient revenue was up 6.1 percent year over year in the fourth quarter of 2017, with adjusted admissions up 1.3 percent.
After factoring in operating expenses, a $252 million write-down of the company's deferred tax assets due to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, and a $22 million year-over-year increase in noncontrolling interest expense, Tenet reported a net loss of $230 million in the fourth quarter of 2017. That's compared to the fourth quarter of 2016, when the company posted a $79 million net loss.
To improve its financial position, Tenet launched a $250 million cost reduction initiative last year, which involves divesting hospitals in non-core markets and cutting 2,000 jobs, or about 2 percent of the company's workforce.
Tenet's hospital divestiture plan is expected to yield more than $1 billion of proceeds. A presentation published with the company's fourth-quarter financial results said the hospital divestiture plan is on track. Tenet sold its last two Philadelphia hospitals in January, and the company said it expects to complete the divestiture of 368-bed MacNeal Hospital in Berwyn, Ill., in March.
Tenet is also exploring the sale of Conifer Health Solutions, its healthcare business services subsidiary. The company said in December it expects to decide whether to sell Conifer during the first half of 2018.
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