Tenet's Dallas Dash May Leave Some Behind

Updated from 7:24 a.m.

One Tenet (THC Quote - Cramer on THC - Stock Picks) office -- intimately familiar with the company's Medicare practices -- could escape a widely heralded corporate relocation.

Last week, Tenet announced plans to move its headquarters from the coastal resort town of Santa Barbara, Calif., and consolidate it with the rest of the company's administrative offices in more affordable Dallas. Tenet formalized its decision, released just minutes ahead of last Thursday's annual meeting, after fielding criticism for years about its fancy home base.

"As we build the new Tenet ... it is clear that our effectiveness as an organization will be enhanced if we have our corporate staff together in one central location," CEO Trevor Fetter stated. "The consolidation of our corporate offices is part of our overall effort to make Tenet a more effective and efficient company."

Tenet plans to transfer all corporate functions to Dallas within a year and then sell its current headquarters. When questioned by TheStreet.com, Tenet could not say how many of its 115 corporate staffers the company would actually keep.

Nor would it elaborate on the plans for -- or purpose of -- a separate business office that has been operating in Los Angeles for years.

"The Los Angeles office is small, about 30 people, and specializes in cost reporting," Tenet spokesman Steven Campanini said. "No decision has been made about its future."

Former Tenet insiders have far more to say about the Los Angeles office, however. They claim the business unit was actually supposed to relocate to Dallas, along with other administrative offices, nearly a decade ago. But they say that Los Angeles employees protested and, in the end, simply moved into their current home -- located on two floors of the company's original headquarters.

Quite simply, they say, Tenet could not afford to estrange the very employees who carried out the company's controversial Medicare policies, which have been under formal government scrutiny for a year and a half.

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