Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp. reported Friday it lost $1.29 billion during the fourth quarter as the hospital giant continued a restructuring prompted by a massive federal investigation into its billing practices.
Revenues for Columbia, which has several facilities in the Chicago area, dropped 9 percent, and the company took $843 million in write-offs during the quarter. The loss remained within analysts’ latest expectations, which were revised when the company last week said its loss could reach $1.35 billion, prompting a selloff in its shares.
The quarterly loss amounted to $2.01 per share on a diluted basis; for the year-earlier period, the Nashville-based company reported profits of $414 million, or 61 cents a share.
Revenues from continuing operations for the quarter totaled $4.4 billion, down from $4.8 billion in the 1996 period.
“They wrote off everything they could find,” said Kenneth Abramowitz, an analyst at Sanford Bernstein.
Three Columbia middle managers have been indicted in Florida, and the company is under investigation over allegations it overbilled Medicare, Medicaid and other government programs.
