Tenet Healthcare's ASC chain, Dallas-based United Surgical Partners International, continues to spur the company's growth, according to a Feb. 8 earnings call transcribed by Seeking Alpha.
"Tenet is entering a new era with a greater proportion of our performance coming from our highly efficient ambulatory surgical business and a reduced debt profile," CEO and Chair Saum Sutaria, MD, said in the call. "We will have significant financial and capital flexibility to increase shareholder value over the long-term."
USPI's net operating revenues for the fourth quarter of 2023 were more than $1 billion, a 15.4% increase compared to the fourth quarter of 2022. Dallas-based Tenet's net operating revenues for the fourth quarter of 2023 were nearly $5.4 billion.
As of Dec. 31, 2023, USPI had interests in 461 ASCs (322 consolidated) and 24 surgical hospitals (eight consolidated) throughout 35 states. In 2023, the company added 30 ASCs to its portfolio and has a de novo development pipeline of more than 30 centers.
The company expects these de novo acquisitions and the growth of USPI to lead to continued growth in 2024, Dr. Sutaria said.
"The pipeline is very robust at this stage and healthy, inclusive of both single centers and platforms that have multiple centers within it, a good mix of acuity across different services, meaning orthopedics and other things," Dr. Sutaria said.
Dr. Sutaria added that Tenet is "very confident in the long-term growth rates of this business" and USPI has "consistently acquired centers at attractive valuations and achieved post synergy multiples to below five times while improving our quality and delivering a 96.6% overall patient experience score under our management."