09/15/2009
John Derbyshire has defined a Bleg. This is one.Tenet Healthcare Corp, (NY-THC) attracted a lot of attention on Wall Street on Monday. This $2.8B operator of for-profit hospitals indicated earnings would be much stronger than expected: (PDF). Analysts were shocked: Tenet Healthcare Boosts 2009 Earnings Forecast (Update3) By Elizabeth Lopatto Sept. 14 (Bloomberg):
”This is a stunning statement, to increase guidance that much from August to the end of September,” said Sheryl R. Skolnick, an analyst with Pali Capital LLC, a New York-based financial services firm, in an interview. “They had better be pretty darn positive that this is the right thing to do or they’re going to have some major problems on their hands.”
What has happened? The firm’s President Trevor Fetter says:
In the last few months we have seen trends in payer and patient mix, bad debt expense, and volume growth that are favorable relative to our prior expectations. Our pricing trends remain positive and consistent with prior expectations.”
What does this mean?
Driving along today about 3-15PM NY time, I was alerted to this by Bloomberg Radio. An analyst was interviewed who simply said that the Obama stimulus package had caused the Federal Government to pay the bad debts inflicted on Tenet (and on all other hospitals, whether profit or charity) caused by the previously (mainly unfunded) Federal mandate to treat illegals in Emergency Rooms . The analyst thought this would be a major bonanza for listed Hospital operators.
(VDARE.com emphasis.)
This is the kind of sudden parmeter change which causes Wall Street to experience stunning surprises. Generally analysts have a fairly accurate view on their companies.
I cannot presently find the interview on the Bloomberg website. (I make no allegations.)
But Wall Street analysts even inadvertently supplying Patriotic immigration data have not prospered.
Clearly the analyst’s explanation fits the cryptic language employed by Fetter
Question: Did any VDARE.com friend hear the interview, or perhaps receive the underlying research?
Please let us know.
Also ask Tenet President Trevor Fetter /Media David Matthews/ Investors Thomas Rice — and of course Bloomberg correspondent Elizabeth Lopatto — are Tenet and its peers benefiting from an Obama/illegal immigrant subsidy?
I almost said, for illegals? But what they care? They get paid for anyway — American Reparations.
If this is happening, it is a Corporation bail-out, pure and simple. Welcome to Democratic Populism.
This is a content archive of VDARE.com, which Letitia James forced off of the Internet using lawfare.