Conifer Health Solutions, the revenue cycle management arm of Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare, will lay off more than 1,000 employees effective Nov. 2 as its contract with Chicago-based CommonSpirit ends.
Tenet Healthcare announced in February that it would regain full control of Conifer as CommonSpirit exits the joint venture and brings its revenue cycle operations in-house. Under the agreement, CommonSpirit will pay Tenet about $1.9 billion over the next three years.
According to a WARN notice filed with the Texas Workforce Commission on Sept. 2, 1,037 employees will be affected by the layoffs.
“Conifer is taking this action due to restructuring and technology initiatives related to, among other things, no longer providing services to CommonSpirit Health after Oct. 30, 2026,” the WARN notice stated. “This layoff is expected to be permanent.”
The layoffs affect primarily remote-based employees who report to Conifer’s office in Dallas.
A Conifer spokesperson declined comment on the layoffs.
CommonSpirit had a 23.8% equity stake in Conifer. Tenet CEO Saum Sutaria, MD, said on a Feb. 2 investor call that the system’s move to regain full ownership of Conifer is aimed at lowering the cost to collect and positioning the revenue cycle business to be more competitive. He said that revenue cycle effectiveness depends on having algorithms that can accurately and efficiently sort millions of claims to generate the highest yield.
“Our investments are split between things that we are doing to drive automation, things we’re doing to improve the reliability and speed of the workflow and things where we are deploying AI in order to either augment what people are doing, or in some cases, replace what people are doing in a higher-fidelity way,” he said.
CommonSpirit Senior Executive Vice President and CFO Michael Browning said on the system’s March 3 investor call that the decision to exit the Conifer joint venture “aligns directly with our unification strategies across CommonSpirit to drive greater operational integration, efficiency and patient experience.”
Mr. Browning thanked Conifer for allowing the system to transition and said that the company has been a good partner for CommonSpirit.
“We were able to negotiate a deal that Tenet has said publicly was good for them and we believe is good for us as well,” he said. “When we look at the opportunity to improve quality, service, culture and financial performance, it not only allows us to improve our current book of business, but also provides benefits beyond that.”
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