Hospital Giant HCA Is Close to a Record Buyout

The NYT reports that the U.S.'s largest for-profit hospital corporation is about to be bought out by private investors for a record $21 billion, which includes around $10 billion of debt. But this gets interesting. HCA was taken private in the 1980s, then taken public again. It was founded by the Frist family, the same family of Dr. Bill Frist, Senate majority leader. And the two leaders of this most recent buyout are -- Thomas Frist Sr., the founder of HCA and his son, Thomas Frist, Jr. Oh, and this is the same hospital that settled a $1.7 billion lawsuit for Medicare fraud. Oh, and Senator Frist is still under investigation for his recent stock sale of HCA. I'll have to see where the HCA hospitals in my area are and be sure to avoid them if I ever get sick.