Aetna appeal cuts HCA payout

SOURCE: NashvillePost.com
AUTHOR: Staff Reports

HCA Healthcare will not receive the full $150 million awarded to it in an arbitration case involving Aetna Inc.

An appellate arbitrator ruled in late March that the Nashville-based hospital giant will receive "only" $86 million. Aetna had appealed the original decision handed down in a Florida court last fall. 

HCA filed suit in Florida state court on Aug. 25, 2015, alleging Aetna's out-of-network benefit payments and administration practices resulted in underpayments. In a recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Aetna said the arbitration proceedings stemming from the companies' dispute covered services and care rendered to members in its individual public exchange products from 2014 through 2016. The insurer largely exited the individual exchange business at the end of 2016. 

HCA officials accounted for the $86 million in its first-quarter earnings but did not bring up the appeal in their quarterly call with investors. 

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Nashville-based Healthcare Realty Trust has acquired the Methodist Professional Center on the campus of Indiana University Health Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis. 

The health care investment company paid $47 million to buy the 143,500-square-foot facility from Birmingham-based The Sanders Trust. It is home to the Senate Street Surgery Center and Clariam Cardiovascular Center. The building sits on 1.4 acres and was built in 1992.

Healthcare Realty has more than 200 properties in its network. Indianapolis is one of the investment firm’s more important markets: It owns more than 520,000 square feet of land in the area, which accounts for about 3.5 percent of its portfolio.