During the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, Ron Rittenmeyer, executive chairman and CEO of Tenet Healthcare Corporation (NYSE:THC), discussed the Company’s ongoing actions to improve financial performance and returns for shareholders. The presentation is available on the investor relations section of Tenet’s website at www.tenethealth.com/investors.

“Tenet is operating with urgency, accountability for performance and a relentless focus on quality care, patient satisfaction, cost management and compliance,” said Mr. Rittenmeyer. “We are focused on flattening and simplifying our enterprise, growing our hospital and ambulatory positions in attractive markets and reducing costs to improve our financial performance and enhance returns for our shareholders. We also are making strong progress on completing our non-core hospital divestiture program, exploring a potential sale of Conifer, identifying additional run-rate savings and continuing to refresh our Board, among other initiatives. We will continue executing on these strategies, which we believe will best position Tenet for future growth and success.”

Highlights of the presentation include:

  • Commitment to enhancing shareholder value by strategically repositioning the Company to yield higher margins and better free cash flow;
  • Focusing resources to grow Tenet’s leadership position in healthcare delivery;
  • Accelerating improvement in quality and patient experience;
  • Execution of the divestiture program of non-core markets and assets, which is on track and expected to yield in excess of $1 billion of proceeds (over $700 million in cash and approximately $300 million from the elimination of capital leases and related debt);
  • Process underway to sell Conifer, a valuable but non-strategic asset, while ensuring it is in the best position to continue to provide quality service to its clients;
  • Recently announced cost reduction plan expected to realize $250 million of annualized run-rate savings by the end of 2018, which should reduce corporate overhead by 20% and further streamline the Company’s hospital operations, Conifer and USPI;
  • Plan to reduce leverage well in advance of any significant debt maturities, targeting 5.0x or less by the end of 2019;
  • Ongoing refreshment of the Board of Directors, which ensures a strong mix of capabilities and experience that aligns with the Company’s strategic direction and will help maximize the future value of Tenet; and
  • Clarity on the new tax law, which is positive for Tenet from an economic perspective, due to the expectation of lower cash tax payments and reduction in taxable income that the Company anticipates reporting on its federal tax return. Although the change meaningfully lowers adjusted earnings per share in 2018, the Company anticipates the new tax law will positively affect EPS over the next two to three years due to the lower tax rate.

About Tenet Healthcare

Tenet Healthcare Corporation is a diversified healthcare services company with nearly 130,000 employees united around a common mission: to help people live happier, healthier lives. Through its subsidiaries, partnerships and joint ventures, including United Surgical Partners International, the Company operates general acute care and specialty hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, urgent care centers and other outpatient facilities in the United States and the United Kingdom. Tenet’s Conifer Health Solutions subsidiary provides technology-enabled performance improvement and health management solutions to hospitals, health systems, integrated delivery networks, physician groups, self-insured organizations and health plans. For more information, please visit www.tenethealth.com.

The terms "THC", "Tenet Healthcare Corporation", "the company", "we", "us" or "our" refer to Tenet Healthcare Corporation or one or more of its subsidiaries or affiliates as applicable.

This release contains “forward-looking statements” - that is, statements that relate to future, not past, events. In this context, forward-looking statements often address our expected future business and financial performance and financial condition, and often contain words such as “expect,” “assume,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “plan,” “project,” “believe,” “seek,” “see,” or “will.” Forward-looking statements by their nature address matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain. Particular uncertainties that could cause our actual results to be materially different than those expressed in our forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the factors disclosed under “Forward-Looking Statements” and “Risk Factors” in our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016 and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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