Tenet Healthcare Corp. shares fell slightly after the hospital chain reported lower than anticipated third-quarter earnings.
Tenet stock prices fell by 2.6% after hours from $20.33 to $19.71 after the company reported a net loss of $9 million for the third quarter.
But the earnings are a slight improvement from the same quarter a year ago. The Dallas-based hospital chain reported $570 million in earnings at the end of the third quarter, a 0.7% increase from last year.
The nation's third-largest for-profit hospital chain saw an increase in patient revenue and ambulatory-care services. Patient revenue increased to $3.8 billion, up from $3.6 billion, or 5.3%, in the same quarter last year.
Revenue from ambulatory services experienced a 36.2% increase from last quarter. The ambulatory segment reported $448 million in operating revenue, compared to $329 million in 2015.
Tenet expects to report $19.6 billion to $19.8 billion in operating revenue by the end of the year.
Hospitals over the past year have seen rising labor costs, pressures to invest to prepare for value-based reimbursement and a flattening of volumes from the Affordable Care Act exchanges. As third-quarter earnings season hits full stride this week, early results have been decidedly mixed.
Community Health Systems, for example, offered a preview that shows the Franklin, Tenn.-based chain was hit by the costs of hospital divestitures and lower-than-expected volumes. CHS expects a loss from continuing operations (before income taxes) in the third quarter of $83 million compared with an operating gain of $121 million in the year-earlier quarter.
