HCA Holdings Inc. (HCA) led hospital stocks higher after the U.S. government proposed new Medicare payment rates that would soften the blow of federal budget cuts. HCA, the largest for-profit hospital company in the U.S., gained 5.5 percent to $40.37 at the close in New York in its biggest increase since Nov. 7. The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said April 26 that it plans a net raise in payments to acute-care hospitals of 0.8 percent beginning Oct. 1. Investors were expecting no change to as much as a 1 percent decrease, according to Brian Tanquilut, an analyst at Jefferies & Co.
