Vanguard's profits up 42%
* Vanguard Health Systems, Nashville, said last week that its profits increased 42%, to $19.6 million, for its third fiscal quarter, compared with profits of $13.8 million for the three months ended March 31, 2004. Revenue was up 39.3%, to $643 million. The company said expansion of services and physician recruitment in its established markets offset the weaker performance of two Massachusetts hospitals the company recently purchased from Tenet Healthcare Corp. For the nine months ended March 31, Vanguard lost $81.7 million, compared with profits of $23.7 million in the year-ago period. Revenue rose 24.6% to $1.64 billion.
McKesson posts loss for year
* McKesson Corp., San Francisco, lost $156.7 million in its fiscal year ended March 31, because of an $810 million after-tax charge to settle securities lawsuits. Revenue rose 15.8% to $80.5 billion. The company had net income of $646.5 million, or $2.19 per share, in the previous year. McKesson in January agreed to pay $960 million to settle a class-action lawsuit on behalf of stockholders and set aside an additional $240 million to cover lawsuits brought independently by other stockholders. The civil lawsuits followed a federal probe into accounting practices at HBO & Co., which McKesson acquired in 1999.
MedCath's net income up 44%
* MedCath, Charlotte, N.C., said earnings rose 44% in its fiscal 2005 second quarter and more than quadrupled in the first half of the year, boosted by growth in admissions and surgeries and still benefiting from the late 2004 sale of the struggling Heart Hospital of Milwaukee. MedCath, which operates 11 heart hospitals, said it expected to announce several partnerships in the near future. The company earned $3.8 million in its quarter ended March 31, or 20 cents per share, up from $2.6 million, or 14 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter. Revenue rose 13.8% to $192 million.