HCA Holdings Inc. announced on Wednesday that earnings for the fiscal year would be higher than expected, resulting in investors boosting the stock price almost 11 percent, the Tampa Bay Business Journalreported.
The results are unrelated to the for-profit hospital chain’s announcement that it has no plans to to privatize Sarasota Memorial Hospital, a public non-profit facility that has been operating since 1925, according to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
HCA Holdings is the official name for HCA Healthcare, the nation’s largest operator of healthcare facilities. Five of the nine Sarasota hospital board member seats are up for election this August, and a sudden surge of new Republican candidates for the positions led to speculation that HCA was hoping to pack the board with pro-privatization members, the Herald-Tribune reports.