Nashville-based HCA Healthcare, which operates Asheville’s Mission Hospital and five other hospitals in Western North Carolina, reported Friday that it made $2.27 billion in profits in the three-month period that ended Sept. 30, triple the amount in the same period last year.
The record earnings coincided with the summer surge in COVID-19 hospitalizations caused by the Delta variant. HCA said COVID patients accounted for 13 percent of all admissions to the chain’s 183 hospitals during the period.
Shares of HCA’s stock have also tripled in price since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic more than 20 months ago, creating a financial bonanza for investors and company executives. HCA is the largest employer in Asheville.
Samuel N. Hazen, HCA’s chief executive officer, credited the company’s record profit margins to a “disciplined operating culture.” He said HCA was on track to use its cash to buy back $8 billion in company stock in 2021. He also announced a 48-cent per share dividend to shareholders.
“During the third quarter we experienced the most intense surge yet of the pandemic, and our colleagues and physicians delivered record levels of patient care to meet the demand caused by the Delta variant,” Hazen said. “Once again, the disciplined operating culture and strong execution by our teams were on display.”
The earnings report came a day after dozens of nurses gathered outside Mission Hospital Oct. 21 to protest what they called unsafe staffing levels at the hospital, which HCA acquired when it took over the nonprofit Mission Health System in 2019. Registered nurses at Mission last year voted to join a labor union, National Nurses United, after complaining about HCA’s policies.
Earlier this year HCA’s board of directors rejected an attempt by shareholders to make quality of patient care as important as profits in setting executive compensation. Hazen will be paid more than $30 million this year, company filings show.
William B. Rutherford, HCA’s chief financial officer, said the chain used contract labor, overtime, bonuses, and “whatever it took to staff to the patient load that we had,” resulting in about 10 percent to 12 percent of full-time staff being placed in premium pay categories. “And as COVID does subside, we expect those premium programs that we implemented during the quarter to subside,” Rutherford said.
Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Peter H. Lewis is a former senior writer and editor at The New York Times. He can be reached at plewis@avlwatchog.org
Thank you for letting us know about HCA’s profits. For those on Facebook, the group Mountain Maladies is helpful for patients with questions about different facilities in Western, NC. It might be a good time to compare facilities.
The question is: how do we back out of this HCA mess?
Years ago, doctors were sometimes referred to as leeches. Bleeding was a fairly accepted treatment for certain illnesses. The term continued to be used but more related to fees charged by some notorious physicians. HCA gives new meaning to the term by adding multiple exponents to the volume of monetary bleeding they inflict upon the patients, staff and communities they supposedly serve. Meanwhile, the investors and administrative officers profit handsomely at the expense of others. Behavior like this is acceptable for international arms dealing but inexcusable for the medical care industry.
I have had COVID since Oct. 2020. At that time no one really knew how to treat it luckily I had a Doctor in Charlotte who put me on outpatient care, monitored oxygen, heart rate, and called daily. After about three months I was actually doing worse. There was intense pain in my legs my heart rate was going nuts and he told me to call the Ambulance and have ultrasounds done of my heart and legs looking for blood clots .I was taken to Mission where a team took my vitals once, I was put in a room that looked like a supply room turned into a small isolation cell. The nurse came in without a mask and when I asked her to put one on she said “it’s ok hon, I have already had it”. I insisted she put it back on. I was then seen by a Doctor who was in so much protective gear he looked like the tin man. Did not come near me and said I had probably just pulled a muscle.
They did a partial ultrasound of just one leg, a few other tests then put me back in the room for an hour . When I made the decsion to call to see where my belongings were they sent the same nurse who came in and told me I could leave. I asked again about protective gear and she said they had been told to save it for the Doctors except for the mask and gloves which could be reused!!!! I was taken out thru the ER with a room full of unmasked patients. Long story short I then looked into teaching hospitals, found one, and am better. What I find amusing in their New Infectious Control Center. Obviously they found a way to make money