Healthiest Hospital Stock: Tenet Tops Poll

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- This week, TheStreet.com asked its users: "Which hospital stock do you think will benefit most from healthcare reform and the upcoming swine-flu season?"

And from the looks of things, there's a clear winner. Operations like LifePoint Hospitals(LPNT Quote), Universal Health Services(UHS Quote) and Community Health Systems(CYH Quote) received a few nods, racking up 5.4%, 12.2% and 14.1% of the vote, each.

Health Management Associates(HMA Quote) put on a better showing, producing 21.5% of the vote.

But in the end, Tenet Healthcare(THC Quote) managed to amass a solid 46.8% of the vote total.

In truth, the results shouldn't be all that surprising, coming during the same week that Tenet raised its adjusted EBITDA outlook for 2009 due to a smattering of better summer results.

Shares in the company were losing 11 cents at $5.66 on Friday afternoon, but have surged by more than 390% since the year began.

Many in the hospital sector, however, got a boost on Wednesday after Democratic Senator Max Baucus released his long-awaited version of the health care reform bill, in part mandating all individuals to get health insurance. LifePoint jumped 26 cents to $26.14 on the same day, while Health Management Associates went higher by 21 cents to $8.17. Tenet changed hands at $5.95 by the closing bell on Wednesday after adding 21 cents.

-- Written by Sung Moss in New York

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