December 4, 2002

High hospital prices come under further scrutiny when Tenet Healthcare tells analysts to expect significantly lower profits than they had anticipated as company moves away from its aggressive pricing strategy; Centers for Medicare and Medicare Services says it will scrutinize billing of any hospital receiving excessive payments, practice that appears to be widespread; Tenet also tells analysts it plans to change how it contracts with managed care companies to rely more heavily on fixed payments; plans to offer substantial discounts to patients without insurance so they do not bear brunt of high hospital prices; chief executive Jeffrey C Barbakow tries to persuade investors that company's prospects remain bright; chart (M)

Former Pres Clinton tells Democratic Leadership Council that party lost midterm elections because candidates failed to offer convincing case that Democrats can manage national security in dangerous times; says Democrats must confront issue directly, challenging Republicans on issues like failing to spot signs of impending attacks before Sept 11, and what he calls muddied response to terrorist threat; Clinton brushes aside calls to return to liberal roots, which his allies see as recipe for disaster in 2004; he explains that when people feel insecure they would 'rather have someone who is strong and wrong than somebody who is weak and right'; he recounts his administration's successes in many areas and scolds fellow Democrats for not rallying around leaders, as when Sen Tom Daschle questioned Pres Bush's Iraq policy and was attacked as unpatriotic; cites key areas where Bush officials might have detected terrorist plot, says money should be spent less on reorganization and more on protecting public places, and chastises Democrats for allowing Republicans to take over domestic security bill (M)

Barclays Bank says pretax profit will probably be at low end of analysts' expectations of 3.2 billion pounds to 3.6 billion pounds ($5 billion to $5.6 billion); graph (S)

India's gross domestic product is expected to grow 5 percent to 5.5 percent in year ending next March, compared with 5.4 percent year earlier (S)2

Turkey says US may not deploy substantial numbers of ground troops on its territory in event of war with Iraq; new government, led by party with Islamist roots, says US may station warplanes and use Turkish air space to carry out air strikes, but only if UN Security Council adopts new resolution authorizing use of force; Min Yasar Yakis cites Turkish public opinion in presenting position to Deputy Sec Paul D Wolfowitz; photo; map; Turks do not preclude stationing of Special Operations force and small ground units (M)