The largest chain of for-profit hospitals in the country is trying to explain why its Medicare revenue dropped for the first time in more than five years. HCA officials held a conference call with analysts after markets closed Monday night.
Medicare reimbursement is a big chunk of any hospital’s business, and Nashville-based HCA has been able to get more money out of the federal program year after year. But the company now says that trend line has fallen apart in 2011, with Medicare revenue dropping $4 million in the 2nd quarter.
HCA has hired an outside firm to see if there are billing errors. Otherwise, company executives say heart surgeries may be to blame. The numbers dropped way off, especially in markets where cardiac surgeons have recently left HCA hospitals and where competing hospitals have invested in heart surgery programs.
For profit hospital companies have been operating under a cloud and lower stock prices since April. That’s when one of the other large hospital chains – Community Health Systems of Franklin – was sued for overbilling Medicare. HCA’s share price is now half what it was when the company returned to the public market earlier this year.
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