Tenet Healthcare Corp. has said that it believes the share ofexchange business that UnitedHealth Group Inc. currently holds willbe absorbed once the latter exits the market.

According to Reuters, UnitedHealth, which is one ofthe largest sellers of plans on the exchanges, plans to stopselling individual insurance coverage through the program next yearin most states. Losses are the reason for its decision, the companysaid.

Tenet, for its part, has done well, picking up quite a bit ofbusiness at its hospitals — it’s the third-largest U.S. for-profitoperator of hospitals — from patients who now have insurance thanksto Affordable Care Act exchanges. On May 2 the company said that,in the first quarter of the year, hospital admissions of patientscovered through the exchanges increased more than 27 percentcompared with the same period last year.

Tenet has gone out of its way to ensure that it benefits fromnewly insured patients buying coverage on the exchanges. Its chiefexecutive, Trevor Fetter, said in the report that the company hasemployed a strategy of making sure its hospitals are included byinsurers on the exchanges as in-network choices. That’s brought asteady stream of new patients through its hospitals’ doors.

While UnitedHealth’s departure from the exchanges is bound tohave fallout, Tenet appears to be, if not optimistic, at leaststoic about how the situation will play out. Tenet’s senior vicepresident of public affairs, Daniel Waldmann, said in the report,“You are going to see that [insurers making adjustments]. There areothers who will be looking to pick up that UnitedHealthbusiness.”

Waldmann pointed to the jockeying for position that occurred onthe introduction of seniors’ Medicare Advantage managedcare plans as an example of how the market shifts and adjusts.