Hospital Corporation of America

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Hospital Corporation of America
Type Private
Founded 1968
Headquarters Nashville, Tennessee, United States
Number of locations 273
Area served United States and London
Key people Richard M. Bracken (CEO)
Industry Health care
Revenue ▲US$28.374 billion (2008)
Profit ▼US$673,000,000 (2008)
Employees 180,000
Website http://www.hcahealthcare.com

The Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) is the largest private operator of health care facilities in the world.[1] It is based in Nashville, Tennessee, United States and is widely considered to be the single largest factor in making that city a hotspot for healthcare enterprise.

Contents

[edit] History

The founders of HCA included two members of the Frist family, which became very wealthy as a result[citation needed]. The former majority leader of the U.S. Senate, Bill Frist is a member of the family but sold all his HCA shares in 2005. Most of his $20 million (or more) personal fortune was made through his holdings in HCA. Richard M. Bracken is the Chief Executive Officer of HCA.

During the 1970s-1980s the corporation went through a tremendous growth period acquiring hundreds of hospitals across the United States which numbered 255 owned and 208 which HCA managed.

In 1989, the hospital operator was acquired for $5.3 billion in a management buyout led by Chairman Thomas J. Frist[2] and completed a successful initial public offering in the 1990s. In the late-1990s, after a merger with Louisville-based Columbia Hospital Corporation which formed Columbia/HCA, the company was investigated by the government for Medicare and Medicaid fraud and paid a settlement of $1.7 billion, the largest fraud settlement in US history at the time. Then-CEO Rick Scott was ousted by the board of directors but he was not criminally prosecuted.[3]

The name subsequently reverted to "Hospital Corporation of America." HCA abandoned the use of its name in its home market and instead promotes its Nashville hospitals under the TriStar brand.

On July 1, 2005, Senator Frist sold all of his HCA shares two weeks before disappointing earnings sent the stock on a 9-point plunge. Frist claimed that he sold his shares to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest if he ran for president. Other executives sold their stock at the same time. Shareholders sued HCA in a lawsuit alleging that the company made false claims about their profits to drive up the price which then fell when the company reported disappointing financial results. The lawsuit was settled in August 2007 with HCA agreeing to pay $20 million to the shareholders. [4]

In 2006, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Bain Capital, together with Merrill Lynch and the Frist family (which had founded the company) completed a $31.6 billion acquisition of the hospital company, 17 years after it was taken private for the first time in a management buyout. At the time of its announcement, the HCA buyout would be the first of several to set new records for the largest buyout, eclipsing the 1989 buyout of RJR Nabisco. It would later be surpassed by the buyouts of Equity Office Properties and TXU.[5]

[edit] Facilities

 This section's factual accuracy may be compromised due to out-of-date information. Please help improve the article by updating it. There may be information on the talk page.

As of December 31, 2006, HCA operated 173 hospitals and 107 freestanding surgery centers located in 20 states and London, England [6].[7][8] The London sites include The Harley Street Clinic, The Lister Hospital (Chelsea), London Bridge Hospital, The Portland Hospital, The Princess Grace Hospital and The Wellington Hospital. In August 2007, HCA sold its hospitals in Switzerland due to decreasing revenue.

[edit] References

  1. ^ BBC news - July 2006 - US hospital firm bought for $33bn
  2. ^ Freudenheim, Milt. Buyout Set For Chain Of Hospitals. The New York Times, November 22, 1988.
  3. ^ Richard L. Scott, The New York Times
  4. ^ http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/08/13/ap4015202.html
  5. ^ SORKIN, ANDREW ROSS. "HCA Buyout Highlights Era of Going Private." New York Times, July 25, 2006.
  6. ^ News
  7. ^ HCA news releases
  8. ^ HCA private hospital group, London, UK

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] Sources

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