Hospital Corporation of America (HCA)
The HCA or Hospital Corporation of America happens to be an American for-profit operator of various health care facilities. This company is based out of Nashville, Tennessee and happens to manage 119 free standing surgery centers and 177 hospitals within the United Kingdom and the United States.
The HCA was founded during 1968 in Nashville by Jack Massey, Henry Hooker and Thomas Frist Sr. and Thomas Frist Jr.
The first hospital that HCA had ever owned would be Park View Hospital, which happens to be near downtown Nashville. The group of founders had worked out of a small home that was not very far from Park View Hospital within the first few years of operation.
It would be during 1969, that the HCA would offer initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange. While the HCA continued to grow, the small house that was the office space for the group was not big enough and then in 1972 they happened to build some new offices behind Centennial Park located in Nashville.
It would be during the 1970 to 1980s that the HCA corporation would go through a pretty big growth period and acquire well of a hundred of hospitals within the United States. 208 of those hospitals were only managed by HCA while 255 of the hospitals were actually owned.
Then during 1988, HCA had been acquired for just over $5 million during a management buyout that was lead by Thomas Frist Jr. and managed to have a successful initial public offering during 1992. However, during 1993 it would merge with the Columbia hospital corporation which is based in Louisville and it formed the Columbia/HCA. Then during 1998, HealthSouth Corporation which is based within Birmingham, Alabama stated that it would be acquiring most of the surgical division from the HCA.
Then during 2006, Bain Capital and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts along with Merrill Lynch as well as the Frist family would complete just over $33 billion acquisition which made the company privately held again after 17 years when it had been private with a management buyout.
Then during 2010, the HCA had announced that they would again go public with an expected almost $5 billion initial public offering. Then during 2011, the HCA had sold more than 120 million shares at $30 per share, which raised about $4 billion during that time, which was the largest private equity backed initial public offering in history within the United States.
Starting in 2012, the HCA has 113 freestanding surgery centers and 162 operated hospitals that are located in the United Kingdom and within 20 in the United States.
However, it was during 1997 that the HCA was part of a fraud investigation that was started by many government departments in the United States. It would be later that year that Rick Scott would resign as chairman and he would eventually become the 45th Governor of Florida. During 2002 the case was settled, and it cost the HCA just over $2 billion which made it the largest fraud settlement in the history of the United States.
For more information, check out: http://hcahealthcare.com/