Community Health Systems - Community Health Systems

Community Health Systems Inc. is a Fortune 500 company based in Franklin, Tennessee. It is the largest provider of general hospital healthcare services in the United States in terms of number of acute care facilities. As of April 30, 2016, it owns, leases or operates 160 hospitals in 23 states.

In August 2015, the company announced plans to spin off 38 hospitals and its management and consulting subsidiary, Quorum Health Resources, into a new publicly traded company called Quorum Health Corporation. The company completed the spinoff of Quorum Health Corporation on April 29, 2016. Quorum owns or leases hospitals across 16 states, primarily in cities or counties with populations of 50,000 or less. It is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol: QHC.

On October 3rd, 2016, CHS was removed from the S&P Midcap 400 and added to the S&P Smallcap 600. Under CEO Wayne T. Smith, the Company's stock has lost over 76% of its value since the year 2000.

History

Founding and early years (1985-2010)

E. Thomas Chaney, former executive of Hospital Affiliates, Inc. and David Steffy and Richard Ragsdale, former executives at Hospital Corporation of America spinoff Republic Health Corporation, formed Community Health Systems in 1985.

The company made its initial public offering in 1991. In 1996, the company was purchased by private equity firm Forstmann Little & Company. Community Health Systems went public again in 2000. In August 2003, the company acquires Southside Regional Medical Center. On October 10, 2015, the 372-bed Grandview Medical Center began operating in Birmingham, Alabama, replacing Trinity Medical Center.

In 2000, Community Health Systems paid $31 million to the United States Department of Justice to settle a review of its billing practices.

In 2007, Community Health Systems purchased Plano, Texas-based Triad Hospitals for $6.8 billion, adding nearly 50 hospitals, hospital management and consulting business Quorum Health Resources, and nearly doubling the size of the company. Among the facilities included in the deal was McKenzie-Willamette Hospital in Springfield, Oregon; Trinity Medical Center in Birmingham, Alabama; and the seven hospitals of Lutheran Health Network in the Ft. Wayne, Indiana region. In 2010, McKenzie-Willamette's healthcare workers' union, SEIU, Local 49, claimed that workload increases, slashed benefits, and staff reductions had lowered the quality of both patient care and quality of life for employees. The union, in its "Profits Before Community" campaign against the hospital, continues to highlight that profits have tripled while charitable care and employee benefits have steadily decreased since the hospital moved from a non-profit to a for-profit enterprise under CHS.

Recent developments (2011-present)

In 2011, it was accused by Tenet Healthcare of overbilling Medicare in its aggressive admissions policy compared to its peers. It was subpoenaed by Medicare on its aggressive billing to the Medicare systems.

In 2013, Community Health Systems entered into an agreement with Health Management Associates to purchase HMA for about $3.6 billion in cash and stock. The merger was completed in January 2014 and made Community Health Systems the largest for-profit hospital operator at the time, with 206 hospitals in 29 states.

On August 4th, 2014, Community Health Systems paid $95.14 million dollars to the United States Department of Justice to resolve multiple lawsuits "alleging that the company knowingly billed government health care programs for inpatient services that should have been billed as outpatient or observation services." As part of the agreement, Community Health Systems was required to enter into a corporate integrity agreement that required the Company to participate in compliance efforts.

It was reported on August 18, 2014 that hackers broke into Community Health System's records system and stole data on 4.5 million patients. This data included names, Social Security numbers, physical addresses, birthdays and telephone numbers. CHS provided all patients whose records were impacted with free identity theft protection.

On February 2nd, 2015, Community Health Systems was required to pay $75 million to settle allegations "that they made illegal donations to county governments to reap more federal dollars under a now-discontinued matching program." The allegations were brought about by a former CHS employee in a complaint under the False Claims Act.

In October 2015, Community Health Systems paid $13 million to the United States Department of Justice to resolve allegations related to the False Claims Act.

On December 6th, 2016 a former CFO of a CHS hospital was awarded $1.9 million in a whistleblower lawsuit he filed after he was terminated for refusing to submit false financial documents.