DOW JONES NEWSWIRES 
 

Tenet Healthcare Corp. (THC) lowered its 2009 revenue outlook because of weaker-than-expected admissions and said it plans to offer $450 million in 10-year senior notes as part of a plan to improve its financial flexiblity.

Still, shares rose 7.2% premarket to $3.89 as the hospital operator left its earnings target unchanged thanks to cost cuts and other factors. The stock through Friday had more than tripled this year.

Last week, Tenet began a tender offer to purchase as much as $1 billion of senior notes that mature in 2014. The company has been trying to turn itself around following years of financial and legal trouble, cutting costs and conducting debt exchanges. Meanwhile, hospitals in general have been cutting back on capital spending and taking other measures to conserve cash as rising unemployment threatens to increase the ranks of the uninsured and consumers put off elective procedures.

The company now sees net operating revenue up 3% to 5%, down one percentage point from its prior forecast, with adminssion now seen flat to down 1%. Tenet said in February that it was expecting flat to up 1%. The lowered outlook comes after Tenet said last month that it was dealing with lower-than-expectded profitable commercial managed-care admissions.

Through the first eight full weeks of the second quarter, Tenet said Monday that total admissions were down 0.6%, with a 7% drop from commercially insured patients more than offsetting 1.5% growth from government-covered people.

-By Mike Barris, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5658; mike.barris@dowjones.com