Hospital operator HCA lifts full-year forecast as admissions rise

• U.S. hospital operator HCA Healthcare's shares are up 3 percent after reporting a 24.8 percent rise in quarterly profit.
• The company also boosted its full-year earnings forecast on higher patient admissions. 
• Prior the earnings announcement, analysts worried that patients were delaying non-emergency surgeries due to worries about soaring out-of-pocket medical costs.

Ambulances are parked outside the emergency room at Good Samaritan Hospital in San Jose, California. 

Noah Berger | Bloomberg | Getty Images

U.S. hospital operator HCA Healthcare reported a 24.8 percent rise in quarterly profit and boosted its full-year earnings forecast on higher patient admissions, sending its shares up 3 percent.

The upbeat results, coming from the largest U.S. for-profit hospital operator, allayed concerns that patients were delaying non-emergency surgeries due to worries about soaring out-of-pocket medical costs.

Net income attributable to HCA rose to $820 million, or $2.31 per share, in the second quarter ended June 30, from $657 million, or $1.75 per share, a year earlier.

Revenue rose to $11.53 billion from $10.73 billion a year ago, while revenue per equivalent admission rose 2.1 percent.

Same-facility equivalent admissions, which include patients who stay in the hospital overnight and those who are treated on an outpatient basis, rose 2.8 percent.

The company raised its profit forecast for the year to a range of $9.00 to $9.40 per share, from its prior forecast of $8.50 to $9.00 per share.