Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare, which operates more than 170 hospitals, saw revenue increase in the third quarter of 2017, but the company's net income declined year over year.
HCA's financial results were in line with the third quarter preview the company issued in October. HCA ended the third quarter of this year with net income of $426 million on revenues of $10.7 billion. That's compared to the same period of 2016, when the company recorded net income of $618 million on revenues of $10.3 billion.
On an earnings call Tuesday, HCA Chairman and CEO R. Milton Johnson said the company took an estimated $140 million hit from hurricanes Irma and Harvey. HCA has a total of 18 hospital campuses, eight freestanding emergency rooms, five surgery centers and one freestanding cancer center in the Houston and Corpus Christi, Texas, markets, which were two areas significantly impacted by Hurricane Harvey. The company has 50 hospital campuses, 32 surgery centers, 17 freestanding ERs and 10 diagnostic imaging centers in Florida, where several facilities felt the impact of Hurricane Irma.
The Texas Medicaid Waiver program also took a toll on HCA finances. The company said it took a $50 million hit related to the program in the third quarter of this year.
Mr. Johnson said the hurricanes and the Texas Medicaid waiver reduction make evaluating the third quarter results more complex. "However, if you look at the broad trends to normalize with the destruction in the hurricane affected markets, we believe many of the trends are comparable with the first half of 2017," he said.
In addition to releasing its third quarter financial results, HCA announced the board approved a new $2 billion share repurchase program. Including this newly announced program and the company's share repurchase program announced in November 2016, HCA has approximately $2.15 billion authorized for share repurchases.
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