Tenet Healthcare Corp. (NYSE:THC - news), one of the biggest U.S. hospital companies, said on Tuesday its quarterly loss narrowed from a year ago, when it suffered damage from Hurricane Katrina, but patient admissions, a key measure, declined.

Dallas-based Tenet posted a third-quarter net loss of $89 million, or 19 cents per share, compared with a net loss of $401 million, or 85 cents per share, a year earlier.

It reported an operating loss of 6 cents per share.

Late last month, the company warned it would report a net loss of $82 million to $92 million, or 17 cents to 20 cents per share. It also expected an operating loss of 5 cents to 7 cents per share, compared with the analyst target of a loss of 2 cents per share.

Total revenue fell 1.5 percent to $2.1 billion from $2.2 billion a year earlier.

Admissions from continuing operations declined 3.3 percent, exacerbated by tighter Medicare requirements. Admissions from private insurers fell 6.3 percent.

Hospitals are being hurt by a rise in the number of patients without health insurance. Tenet is also recovering from a series of government probes into charges it inflated Medicare billing.

In June, Tenet reached a $900 million deal with the Justice Department to settle charges it bilked Medicare, the federal program for about 43 million elderly and disabled.

That probe and several lawsuits related to patient care led many doctors to flee the company, further pressuring patient admission volume.

Tenet shares are down 10 percent this year, compared with the Morgan Stanley Healthcare Provider Index (^RXH - news), which is down about 3.6 percent.

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