Tenet Healthcare Shares Punished

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Tenet Healthcare's (THC Quote) journey to the recovery room just got longer.

The Dallas-based hospital chain continued to make some progress in the quarter, swinging to a profit from a year-ago loss, but the company still fell short of Wall Street targets. It also scaled back its outlook for the full year and dropped a key promise for 2009, when it had hoped to prove its comeback by generating $1 billion in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

While Tenet continues to attract more patients to its hospitals, with admissions now rising for the fourth quarter in a row, fewer of those patients enjoy generous health insurance coverage in the tough economy. ...