Tenet Healthcare Corporation said on Wednesday it had secured a five year, $800-million revolving credit facility with a group of banks led by Citigroup and Bank of America.

The facility will be secured by patient accounts receivable at Tenet's acute care and specialty hospitals. Tenet said it expects the new facility to provide a flow of income in order to meet the company's anticipated operating needs.

This new, receivables-backed credit line should also give Tenet reasonable annual facility costs and less restrictive operating covenants. It would also free up $262.5 million of cash used to support previous letters of credit, thus improving our liquidity even further,' said Trevor Fetter, Tenet's president and chief executive officer.

According to a statement released by Tenet, the new facility is expected to include standard terms and conditions for a secured, asset-backed credit facility. The final terms of the agreement are scheduled to be completed and finalized by late October.