HCA Nashville

[satalac]

Oh you guys make me feel old now.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

you're in college right? i am too, i was just remembering a happier more carefree time

[BrandonTO416]

I'm out of college.

[Hopeful]

No offense is intended to anyone here, but, it's appearent that some posts are not well researched.

First, HCA doesn't build a high rise building in Nashville because we re-invest all of our money in our hospitals across the country. There was a proposal a few years ago to build a 7 story structure on the corporate campus. This was sidelined as too costly when our hospitals could better use the money and return value to the communities we serve and to our stock holders, in that order. HCA employs close to 200,000 people nationwide, very few of them at the corporate campus.

HCA is committed to Nashville, but in a more sublime way. All corporate employees, including those that do not work in Nashville, are required to live in Nashville. This is to draw the best and brighter staff here to Nashville and also to keep the payrolls here in town. I myself am only in Nashville 2 days a week, but, I am required to live there, and I love it. Nashville is a great little city.

Next, for the uninformed, for profit medicine not only provides as much free care to the medically indigent as charity or not-for-profits, AND our facilities pay taxes to our local communities, both property and sales taxes, contributions that not-for-profits are exempt from providing. So not only did HCA provide 248 million dollars in uncompensated care in the fourth quarter of 2004, it also paid property taxes on each facility in the multi millions of dollars. On top of this HCA provided 626 million in healthcare that it has had to write off on bad debt because Americans don't have insurance.

HCA also leads the way not only for other for-profit healthcare entities, but also for not-for-profit healthcare. It was HCA that convinced the federal government to allow us to bill the uninsured at the same rate as our lowest insurance discount. Prior to that it was federal regulation that would not permit hospitals to bill the uninsured at the same rate as the insured, they required us to bill them at the list price.

Don't be naive to think that Not-for-profits don't make a profit. Every hospital has to make a profit to buy that new CT Scanner (1.2 million each, every 7 years) or that new surgical instrument that a doctor demands if you want his patients to be sent to you.

I hope some of you learn a few things while your in MBA....the real world is not so superficial as some of these postings. You may read all about HCA's posted revenues ( as a publicly traded company we must reveal our finances, charity care, not so much) at MSN MONEY HCA EARNINGS

And if you think that medicine should be free, then, you work as a volunteer and support your families, keep up with your continueing education, and pay your liability insurance with your family money....hahahahaha, see how far you get.

[Hopeful]

Oh, and as to the trouble HCA got into with the federal government, that was Columbia, not HCA or Dr. Tommy Frist. Tommy lost control of the company in a take over in the 90's to a company from Texas, Columbia. Columbia had a different approach to medicine, one that proved not to be appropriate. All company officers that were charged, two CFO's in Florida, were acquitted on appeal. The circuit court ruled that each CFO was following the recommendations of the Medicare appointed intermediary that interprets the Medicare regulations. I have a personal joke, How do you defraud Medicare? Bill them. The regulations are byzantine by any standards.

I won't speak poorly of the Frist family, since I have made a nice profit both from working for them and from speculating on their stocks. They are OK by me for republicans, I have never voted for one. I have met both Tommy and Bill and they are good humans, just products of an older, less tolerant generation, and both products of Nashville and MBA.

Also, I do work there if you can't tell, and it is not a rigid work environment at all. This year the corporate campus offered same sex partner benefits for the first time to our employees. I am not sure if this is the case in our hospitals, simply because I haven't asked. My boss is homosexual as are many of my co-workers, many of them are very out. They are promoted and given salary increases on par with everyone else I work with. There is no glass ceiling, for women or gays. I know of at least 3 senior VPs that are very out, and many of our leading officers are women, including our CIO.

Don't think that because we are some southern company that we backward. HCA is at the forefront of medicine but not to in front in terms of employement. We are operating in a labor intensive field, getting too far out in front would eat up profits that could be re-invested in our hospitals.

I have worked for the Not-for-Profits and a couple of For-Profits and I can tell you, the investor owned hospitals are much more honest and much better places to work.

Thanks for letting me rant....later.

[brewerw]

The point is the Frist didnt share there money as a public company. They lied, my dad was an accountant, dont even go there.

[BizGuy]

Don't think that because we are some southern company that we backward.  HCA is at the forefront of medicine but not to in front in terms of employement.  We are operating in a labor intensive field, getting too far out in front would eat up profits that could be re-invested in our hospitals.

I have worked for the Not-for-Profits and a couple of For-Profits and I can tell you, the investor owned hospitals are much more honest and much better places to work.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks Hopeful for your comments. Sometimes, I have to remind myself that a lot of the forumers here haven't even attended college, much less actually had a real job.

I'd agree with just about everything, but I'd have to emphasize that I spoke with Mr. Bovender about five years ago and asked him about a new HQ building rumored to be built along Charlotte Pike. His reply was that HCA "will not build a showy HQ because of the public's perception that a healthcare company was making too much money." (Pretty close to what you said, but more emphasis on their image). As such, HCA could always get a developer to lock up his capital in a large office building (a'la Alex Palmer, et.al.), and then lease the space w/o touching their capital for new facilities. Health care organizations do this all the time, and HCA did it downtown too at Nashville Place. But HCA has a lot of property on Charlotte, and they probably wanted to build on their own land (this would have been their own building then). So ... and I'm speculating... that's probably why they nixed the plans for a new building.

You're so right about the non-profits vis-a-vis the for-profits. I'm most familiar with the Dallas market, but HCA has been a client of mine... as have many nfp's. As I mentioned in my prior posting here, NFPs actually have a tax advantage and do not have shareholderst to contend with. Consequently, their top-level executives have more of a free hand to spend their money, and (not surprisingly) their bonuses are obscenely high. My liberal mother-in-law loves that they don't make a "profit", but she hates rich people though. Ha Ha.

One more thing. The HCA hospitals in Dallas have outstanding reps.