Late News: LifePoint sees higher profits, completes deal

LifePoint Hospitals, Brentwood, Tenn., said it would complete its acquisition of a Kentucky hospital on April 30 and looks forward to making future deal announcements soon. The company also reported higher profits for the first quarter. The acquisition of 75-bed Clark Regional Medical Center, Winchester, Ky., will give LifePoint three hospitals outside of Lexington, Ky., which will give the company some scale in the area, said Bill Carpenter, president and CEO of LifePoint. Clark Regional has low market share because of its aged plant, but the $60 million replacement hospital that LifePoint has pledged to build as part of the deal will solve that problem, Carpenter said. Carpenter declined to specify the number of deals LifePoint expects to complete this year, but said the company is considering a number of deals. For the first quarter, LifePoint earned $42.9 million compared with profits of $38.4 million in the year-ago quarter. Revenue rose 6.9% to $786.2 million.