Company: THC
Filing Date: 2025-02-18
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000070318-25-000009
Chunk: 60

Company: TENET HEALTHCARE CORP
Filing Date: 2025-02-18
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 7
Chunk 60
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, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (“EMTALA”). Generally, as required by EMTALA, patients may not be denied emergency treatment due to inability to pay. Therefore, services, including the legally required medical screening examination and stabilization of the patient, are performed without delaying to obtain insurance information. In non‑emergency circumstances or for elective procedures and services, it is our policy to verify insurance prior to a patient being treated; however, there are various exceptions that can occur. Such exceptions can include, for example, instances where (1) we are unable to obtain verification because the patient’s insurance company was unable to be reached or contacted, (2) a determination is made that a patient may be eligible for benefits under various government programs, such as Medicaid or Victims of Crime, and it takes several days or weeks before qualification for such benefits is confirmed or denied, and (3) under physician orders we provide services to patients that require immediate treatment.

Based on our accounts receivable from uninsured patients and co-pays, co-insurance amounts and deductibles owed to us by patients with insurance at December 31, 2024, a 10% increase or decrease in our self‑pay collection rate, equivalent to a fluctuation of approximately 3 percentage points in the collection rate, which we believe could be a reasonably likely change, would result in a favorable or unfavorable adjustment to patient accounts receivable of approximately $10 million.

ACCRUALS FOR GENERAL AND PROFESSIONAL LIABILITY RISKS

We accrue for estimated professional and general liability claims, to the extent not covered by insurance, when they are probable and can be reasonably estimated. We maintain reserves, which are based on modeled estimates for the portion of our professional liability risks, including incurred but not reported claims, to the extent we do not have insurance coverage. Our liability consists of estimates established based upon calculations using several factors, including the number of expected claims, estimates of losses for these claims based on recent and historical settlement amounts, estimates of incurred but not reported claims based on historical experience and the timing of historical payments. We consider the number of expected claims and average cost per claim to be the most significant assumptions in estimating accruals for general and professional liabilities. Our liabilities are adjusted for new claims information in the period such information becomes known. Malpractice expense is recorded within other operating expenses in our consolidated statements of operations.

Our estimated reserves for professional and general liability claims will change significantly if future trends differ from projected trends. We believe it