Hospital Corporation of America HCA is one of the first hospital companies Free Essay Example

Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) is one of the first hospital companies in the United States based out of Tennessee. The founders were Dr. Thomas Frist Sr., Dr. Thomas Frist Jr. and Jack Massey. Their vision was to create a healthcare company with the resources and medical expertise to provide patient centered care at the time many communities were rapidly growing and there was a need for an increase in access to healthcare. The organization was formed in 1968, and HCA worked closely with local physicians and used innovative business practices and access to capital to start new hospitals in critically under-served areas.

They upgraded existing facilities and collaborated to manage hospitals for other owners. HCA built a solid group of leading facilities that continued many years later. The organization is made up of 185 hospitals and 119 freestanding surgery centers located in 21 U.S. states and in the United Kingdom. They have 249,000 employees, 38000 physicians and 87000 nurses.HCA merged with Columbia Healthcare Corporation in year 1994.

Columbia and HCA, together, had more than 350 hospitals, 145 outpatient surgery centers and 550 home care facilities. Leadership sought to enhance quality healthcare through providing a simple core group of successful hospitals. Therefore, Columbia and HCA sold many businesses in order to accomplish their strategy. Come to turn out, the organization became the target of a federal healthcare fraud investigation in 1997. The federal investigation led to 500 agents raiding Columbia and HCA offices in seven states.Home health operations and Medicare billing practices were included in the investigation. RichardScott, the CEO, resigned by the end of July, at the request of the board of directors.

Dr.Frist was then prepared to take a new approach. Rather than developing a national brand, Frist had chosen to focus on the communities. He sold the home care division of Columbia and HCA, and made plans to change laboratory billing procedures, increase reviews of Medicare coding, and discontinue existing contracts with physicians that allowed them to invest in the company’s hospitals. The goal was to take physicians ability to invest in the company’s hospitals. This was primarily to prevent the physicians’ referencing the less-profitable patients to competitors. From July 1998 andthe beginning of the following year, Columbia and HCA sold 33 surgery centers, 40hospitals, and all home care facilities.After the investigation, the organization reached a settlement with the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice to drop the civil claims actions against them, which were subject to certain conditions. The settlement was for them to pay a $745 million dollar fine for the claims related to coding, outpatient laboratory billing, and home health problems. The company changed its name back to only HCA as a strategy to reflect that they have been restructured back to the origin of the way they were found. After a $33 billion dollars in transaction, HCA became a private company again.So, the Affordable Care Act requires that every state in the U.S. has an online health insurance exchange that sells federally regulated, subsidized health insurance to small businesses and individuals. This called for companies like HCA to adopt a strategy of developing networks for healthcare providers. Organizations with strong networks can target large quantities of patients, because they are covered in a greater number of healthcare plans in the market. An important part of HCA’s history and a key to the deliverance of healthcare excellence for HCA is its diversity and inclusion in the workplace. HCA provides care to every patient and fosters a diverse culture within its workforce, physicians, patients, partners, and communities. HCA’s mission statement states, Above all else, we are committed to the care andimprovement of human life. In recognition of this commitment, we will strive to deliverhigh quality, cost- effective healthcare in the communities we serve. This mission statement is the foundation of their business strategy. HCA recognizes the unique worth of every individual, treats all those served with compassion and acts with integrity and fairness in the way it conducts its business. HCA staff also pledge to treat one another with loyalty, respect, and dignity. HCA is built to create a better working environment in adhering to their mission statement. Some of these implicit values are upheld through programs such as the HCA Hope Fund. Through the HCA Hope Fund Organization, employees can obtain financial assistance under certain circumstances. HCA boasts a simplified method of resolving disputes that includes third party involvement at no cost to the employees. Leaders of HCA practice an open door policy, allowing any employee access to his or her leadership. A quality workplace is also achieved through always posting work schedules at least 14 days in advance and limiting unwanted overtime hours. In order to treat all individuals with compassion and kindness, HCA reiterates the importance of acknowledging cultural differences, recruiting and retaining a diverse team, and demonstrating standards of compliance and ethical conduct. The Ethics and Compliance Program of HCA oversees the development of these efforts.Tenet Healthcare Corporation (THC), Community Health Systems, Inc. (CYH), and Universal Health Services, Inc (UHS) are all competitors of HCA. They can be classified into the general medical and surgical hospitals sector. Like Hospital Corporation of America, Community Health Systems, Universal Health Services, and Tenet Healthcare Corporation all own and operate hospitals, surgery centers, and other healthcare facilities. Of these hospital management companies, Tenet Healthcare is the oldest, incorporated in 1968. Tenet also has the greatest number of shareholders, setting a record for the company at 4,356. However, HCA shares have consistently traded at a higher price than that of Tenet Healthcare since the beginning of 2015. Tenet had a 47.69 percent chance of bankruptcy, while Hospital Corporation of America’sprobability of bankruptcy is listed at 39.19 percent according to Macroaxis.com. HCA generates over $20 billion more in revenue than its competitor. Tenet Healthcare also has had $11 billion of long-term debt. HCA’s competitors are increasing market share to stay in the industry, but HCA has the largest market share as a healthcare provider. Rivalry for HCA is very relevant, especially due to many competitors operating in the same areas as they do.Due to the Affordable Care Act, HCA has opportunities to increase their number of patients, which will increase their economic growth. Healthcare reform may increase reimbursement rates of uninsured patients. They also have opportunities to place additional hospitals in urban areas that leads to potential increases in consumers. On the other hand, healthcare reform can potentially become a threat by causing a decrease in efficiency through implementation of new programs, software, and measures of productivity. After researching HCA’s history and status of today, they seem to be doing ok. There primary issue today is their terrible reputation for not caring for the communities, because of the claims from the past and because they are a for profit organization. HCA will have to work harder on sustaining their quality of care to fix their reputation. I recommend hiring more full time employees, ensure that their ERs and impatient services are used efficiently and keep up with new technology as strategy to compete with not for profit organizations. It is imperative for them to obtain accurate measures to improve patient satisfaction, which is the key to improving their bad reputation.

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