For-profit hospitals put to test in MA

The pending return of healthcare giant Tenet Healthcare Corp. to Massachusetts has the potential to shake up the state's hospitals and doctors networks, which are already rapidly consolidating. The for-profit system, which owns 49 hospitals in 11 states, will enter a marketplace much changed from the one it left in 2004, when the chain sold Saint Vincent Hospital in Worcester and the MetroWest Medical Center hospitals in Framingham and Natick to Vanguard Health Systems Inc. for $126.7 million. By agreeing last month to buy for-profit Vanguard for about $1.8 billion—a deal that will bring the three Massachusetts hospitals back into the Tenet fold—Dallas-based Tenet signaled that it has become more aggressive about expanding nationally.