ValleyCare’s parent reports $79M loss in 3Q

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

The parent company of ValleyCare Health System, which operates three Mahoning Valley health-care facilities, reported a loss of $79 million in its third quarter on Tuesday.

Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems Inc. reported a profit of $52 million in the same quarter a year earlier.

The company brought in revenue of $4.38 billion in the third quarter of 2016, a 9.6 percent decrease from the third quarter of 2015.

For the year so far, Community Health has brought in nearly $14 billion, a 4.6 percent decrease over last year.

The company has reported a total loss this year of $1.5 billion compared with a profit of $241 million reported for the first nine months of 2015.

Community Health Systems is one of the largest publicly traded hospital companies in the U.S. with 158 affiliated hospitals in 22 states with an aggregate of nearly 27,000 licensed beds.

Locally, Community Health’s ValleyCare locations are Northside Medical Center on Gypsy Lane, Youngstown; Trumbull Memorial Hospital on East Market Street, Warren; and Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital on Squires Lane Northeast in Howland.

The company said in September it would “divest” in 12 hospitals to pay off its debts of $850 million. The company hasn’t named all the locations it will divest in but it did announce an agreement for the sale of four hospitals and assets of Curae Health Inc. Facilities.

The hospitals included in that transaction expected to be completed by early 2017 are: 95-bed Merit Health Gilmore Memorial in Amory, Miss.; 112-bed Merit Health Batesville in Batesville, Miss.; 181-bed Merit Health Northwest Mississippi in Clarksdale, Miss.; and 126-bed Highlands Regional Medical Center in Sebring, Fla.

On April 29, the company completed the spinoff of Quorum Health Corp., comprised of 38 affiliated hospitals and related outpatient services in 16 states, together with Quorum Health Resources LLC, a subsidiary providing management advisory and consulting services to nonaffiliated hospitals.

After the spinoff, QHC became an independent public company. Financial and statistical data reported on Tuesday included Quorum operating results through April 29.

“Our operating and financial performance in the third quarter was below expectations due to lower than expected volumes and higher than expected expenses in certain areas,” said Wayne T. Smith, chairman and chief executive officer of Community Health, in a statement. “Moving into the fourth quarter, we are intensely focused on driving operational improvements and generating better results.”