CHS explores sale of its business

Becker's Hospital Review ^ | September 19, 2016 | Ayla Ellison

[buckalfa]

Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems is working with advisers to explore a variety of options with financial sponsors, including the possible sale of its business, sources with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg.

The for-profit hospital operator said discussions are at a preliminary stage. "There can be no certainty that the exploration will result in any kind of transaction," said CHS.

[buckalfa]

Community Health Systems of Franklin, TN apparently is looking for a buyer. CHS is a for profit hospital operator ranked among the Fortune 500. CHS operates 160 hospitals in twenty-three states. Their immediate problem is massive debt, created when CHS purchased Health Management Associates in 2013. Other problems include burdensome IT costs, falling admissions despite the ACA, plus extremely poor community relations, charges of Medicare fraud, and labor strife at certain facilities.

The main story is too big too fast financed by debt. Of course the burdens of Obamacare have not helped. The cautionary tale is that financial state of health care in America is fragile, and that if the trend continues many more communities may be with out a hospital,

[Blue Devil Reaganite]

Yes, the debt was a problem, but so is the ineptitude of the management teams they put in the local hospitals. They figured that they could centralize many of the functions, which they did, but they tried to put in the dumbest and cheapest local leaders they could possibly find. Many of them ran the local organization into the ground. Ultimately, if their Central group had less power, far fewer people, and they hired better people locally, they would probably be thriving, like some of their competitors.