Universal Health Denies Report of Filling Beds Solely for Financial Gain
December 08 2016 - 10:20AM
Dow Jones News
Hospital company Universal Health Services Inc. on Thursday
denied conclusions in a recent news report that it exaggerated
patient symptoms and filled beds solely for financial gain.
Shares of Universal Health had fallen sharply on Wednesday after
BuzzFeed News published what it said was a yearlong investigation
that painted a picture of Universal Health pressuring employees
from at least 10 hospitals across nine states to fill beds by
"exaggerating people's symptoms or twisting their words to make
them seem suicidal." The article focused primarily on the company's
psychiatric operations.
Pennsylvania-based Universal Health, which is one of the
nation's largest hospital companies, disputed the allegations
Thursday and called the BuzzFeed report misleading.
"Among other things, the story ignores the pre-eminent role of
the clinician in treating patients, and misleads the reader by
attempting to make unsupported assumptions about our behavioral
health operations," the company said. The stock rose 3.2% to
$114.88 in premarket trading.
A representative from BuzzFeed couldn't be reached for comment.
The BuzzFeed report itself includes a comment from Universal Health
saying, among other responses, that it "absolutely rejects" the
allegations.
BuzzFeed said its report is based on interviews with hundreds of
current and former staff, patients and government investigators, as
well as a cache of internal documents. BuzzFeed said Universal
Health Chief Executive Alan Miller declined requests for an
interview.
Write to Joshua Jamerson at joshua.jamerson@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 08, 2016 10:05 ET (15:05 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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