Businessweek

Tenet Healthcare Corporation operates as a health care services company. As of December 31, 2012, the company operated 49 hospitals, 117 outpatient centers and Conifer Health Solutions (Conifer), which provided business process solutions to approximately 600 hospital and other clients nationwide. With respect to business process services, the company provides comprehensive operational management for revenue cycle functions, including patient access, health information management, revenue integrity and patient financial services. It also offers patient communications solutions to optimize the relationship between providers and patients. In addition, its management services offerings supports value-based performance through clinical integration, financial risk management and population health management. Segments The company’s segments include Hospital Operations and other, and Conifer. Hospital Operations At December 31, 2012, the company’s subsidiaries operated 49 hospitals, including 3 academic medical centers, a children’s hospital and a critical access hospital, with a total of 13,216 licensed beds, serving primarily urban and suburban communities in 10 states. In addition, as of December 31, 2012, its subsidiaries operated a long-term acute care hospital, and owned or leased and operated 30 medical office buildings, all of which were located on, or nearby, its hospital campuses. The company’s subsidiaries also operated 117 free-standing and provider-based outpatient centers in 11 states, as of December 31, 2012, including diagnostic imaging centers, ambulatory surgery centers, and urgent care centers. The company’s general hospitals offers acute care services, operating and recovery rooms, radiology services, respiratory therapy services, clinical laboratories and pharmacies; intensive care, critical care and/or coronary care units, and physical therapy; and orthopedic, oncology and outpatient services. Its hospitals also offer tertiary care services, such as open-heart surgery, neonatal intensive care and neurosciences. Three of its hospitals — North Shore Medical Center, St. Louis University Hospital and Hahnemann University Hospital — offer quaternary care in areas, such as heart, liver, kidney and bone marrow transplants. St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children provides tertiary and quaternary pediatric services, including bone marrow and kidney transplants, as well as burn services. Sierra Medical Center, Good Samaritan Medical Center and North Shore Medical Center offer gamma-knife brain surgery; and Brookwood Medical Center, North Shore Medical Center, Saint Francis Hospital and St. Louis University Hospital offer cyberknife radiation therapy for tumors and lesions nearly anywhere in the body, including in the brain, lung, neck and spine, that may have been previously considered inoperable or inaccessible by traditional radiation therapy. Conifer The company’s Conifer subsidiary provides services primarily to health care providers to assist them in generating sustainable improvements in their operating margins. As of December 31, 2012, Conifer provided business process services to approximately 600 Tenet and non-Tenet hospital and other clients nationwide. Revenue Cycle Management—Conifer provides comprehensive operational management for patient access, health information management, revenue integrity and patient financial services, including centralized insurance and benefit verification, financial clearance, pre-certification, registration and check-in services; financial counseling services, including reviews of eligibility for government health care programs, for both insured and uninsured patients; productivity and quality improvement programs, revenue cycle assessments and optimization recommendations, and Joint Commission and other preparedness services; coding and compliance support, billing assistance, auditing, training, and data management services at every step in the revenue cycle process; accounts receivable management, third-party billing and collections; and ongoing measurement and monitoring of key revenue cycle metrics. Patient Communications Services—Conifer