HCA Healthcare reported that recent hurricanes had and will have negative impacts on results, and shares slumped about 10% Friday afternoon. The insurer posted third-quarter earnings per share of $4.88, with revenue rising 8% to $17.49 billion. Both missed consensus forecasts. HCA says it 'incurred additional expenses and experienced loss of revenues estimated at $50 million, or $0.15 per diluted share,' associated with Hurricane Helene's impact on hospitals in Florida, Georgia and North Carolina.
Federal price transparency rules are showing signs of stoking more hospital competition and making prices more reflective of the cost of care, a new review found. There's still limited understanding of how the rules are affecting market dynamics, and experts acknowledge they haven't yet translated to lower across-the-board patient costs. Turquoise Health examined more than 390,000 rates that health systems negotiated with insurers for 37 common services in the 10 biggest U.S. metro areas. "We're still in the early days, but we see encouraging signs that price transparency is helping make progress" rebuilding healthcare competition and lowering some prices, said Forrest Xiao, the company's director of quantitative research.
Heading into FY 2025, states are expected to wrap up unwinding-related eligibility redeterminations for Medicaid; however, uncertainty remains regarding post-unwinding Medicaid spending and enrollment trends and what the new "normal" will look like. Adding to this uncertainty are the loss of pandemic-related enhanced federal funding, shifts in state fiscal conditions, and the upcoming election, all which can have implications for Medicaid spending trends.
Lawyers for Steward Health Care were awarded more than $36 million — or more than $420,000 per day in fees — for their work on the first three months of the company's bankruptcy case. New York-based law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges filed a request Tuesday for reimbursement of $36,255,939.14 for fees and expenses, which included rates for attorneys billing as much as $2,350 per hour. Other rates included $750 per hour for a law clerk, and up to $595 per hour for paralegals. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez in Houston approved the request on Wednesday afternoon. The funds will come out of Steward's assets — which otherwise would go towards paying off its billions of dollars in unpaid debts.
A group of Democrats led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren proposed new restrictions on private-equity firms, saying tougher rules are needed to prevent buyout firms from "looting" the businesses they own in the wake of hospital operator Steward Health Care System's bankruptcy. On Thursday, six senators and eight U.S. representatives announced the Stop Wall Street Looting Act of 2024, an updated version that puts more teeth in a measure Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, has pushed since 2019.
While the problems at Steward Health Care absorbed the spotlight over the past nine months, many other hospitals across Massachusetts continued to struggle financially in what an industry group called a "deeply troubling" trend. New financial data released by a state agency found that more than half of acute care hospitals in Massachusetts experienced negative operating margins through a significant portion of the fiscal year ending June 30. Only 25 out of 58 hospitals reported positive operating margins during that span, and the statewide median operating margin fell to 1.1 points to -0.9%.