LV hospital owners vulnerable

Single Sign-On: You can use Facebook account to log in to LasVegasSun.com. (We will use your first and last name from your profile.)
Trusted Commenting: Facebook connected users automatically become trusted commenters.

Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2000 | 11:18 a.m.

Tenet Healthcare Corp. and other hospital chains could face cuts in Medicare reimbursements for the most expensive patient care, under changes scheduled to begin in the 2001 fiscal year.

Hospitals would have to spend at least 25 percent more next year on a patient's care, or roughly $3,500, before qualifying for extra Medicare payments for the most expensive cases, the rules say.

Tenet, which runs several teaching hospitals that typically care for high-cost patients, is the most vulnerable to such a change in so-called outlier reimbursement among publicly traded hospital companies, industry analysts said. Tenet owns Lake Mead Hospital in North Las Vegas.

The Medicare change could also affect earnings growth of HCA, the nation's largest hospital operator, and Universal Health Services Inc. Both operate multiple hospital operations in Las Vegas.