Tenet Healthcare Corp

Tenet Healthcare Corp. said it reached a contract agreement with the California Nurses Assn. for staff at nine Tenet hospitals in California. The Dallas-based hospital operator said the agreement was subject to a ratification vote by the nurses. Wages would increase 4% after a year and an additional 2.5% six months after the first raise.

Tenet Healthcare Corp., the second-biggest U.S. hospital operator, reached wage agreements with the Service Employees International Union on contracts in California, Florida and with the national organization. The terms for separate contracts cover 5,700 SEIU union members at 14 hospitals in California and 2,300 at three institutions in Florida, the Dallas-based company said. The California contracts expire March 11, 2011, and those in Florida expire on different dates in 2010.

Tenet Healthcare Corp., the second-largest U.S. hospital chain and the biggest in California, said its fourth-quarter loss widened to $2.02 billion on costs including a write-down in the value of hospitals in two regions. The loss amounted to $4.33 a share, compared with a loss of $954 million, or $2.05, a year earlier, Dallas-based Tenet said. Revenue fell 2% to $2.41 billion. Tenet had $1.

Tenet Healthcare Corp. said Monday that it would spend hundreds of millions of dollars to build a new healthcare system in New Orleans. "We were a major healthcare provider here before the hurricane. We still are after the hurricane," Chief Operating Officer Reynold J. Jennings said from New Orleans, referring to Hurricane Katrina, which slammed into the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29. Tenet had been the largest private hospital company in the region.

Tenet Healthcare Corp. agreed to buy St. Louis University Hospital for $300 million. Santa Barbara-based Tenet, the second-largest U.S. for-profit hospital chain, said it will also invest $100 million in a venture to develop new programs with the university and that it will spend $50 million over five years to maintain St. Louis as a teaching center. Tenet said it expects to assume ownership of the hospital, its fifth in the area, on Saturday. Tenet shares fell 19 cents to close at $36.

Tenet Healthcare Corp. has agreed to sell to the University of Southern California both USC University Hospital and USC Norris Cancer Hospital, it was announced Monday. Financial terms were not disclosed. The facilities near downtown Los Angeles are staffed by USC medical personnel and include a teaching facility. The university owns the land and Dallas-based Tenet manages the buildings and equipment.

Tenet Healthcare Corp. said Monday that it had completed the sale of a San Diego hospital that was accused of paying kickbacks to doctors in exchange for patient referrals. Tenet said the 306-bed Alvarado Hospital Medical Center was sold to Plymouth Health of Sherman Oaks, completing a deal announced Oct. 27. Dallas-based Tenet said $22.5 million in pretax proceeds would be applied to general corporate purposes.

Tenet Healthcare Corp. is suing Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc., claiming that Kaiser failed to pay about $16 million for services provided to Kaiser patients at Tenet-run hospitals. The lawsuit was filed in Orange County Superior Court. In addition to Tenet, three dozen hospitals are also named as plaintiffs in the case. Kaiser spokesman James Anderson said Kaiser disputed the allegations, but he declined to elaborate.