For-profit systems see stocks jump

Shares of for-profit hospitals represented a bright spot for the healthcare sector in the immediate aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court decision on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Publicly traded systems such as HCA, Nashville; Community Health Systems, Franklin, Tenn., and Tenet Healthcare Corp, Dallas, saw their shares shoot up an average of 8% to 9% on the news that the healthcare law would remain mostly intact, including the individual mandate.

In contrast, the reaction from other sectors of the healthcare industry was more muted, with post-acute care, pharmaceutical and medical device companies dropping slightly, but not out of line with the broader market.

With the European debt crisis still spooking investors, healthcare stocks largely followed the performance of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500, falling roughly 1%.

Analysts who cover the sector said it's hard to tease out how much healthcare stocks reacted to the larger market—or how much the market was responding to the historic ruling on healthcare reform.

But there was no mistaking what happened with hospital stocks, which saw an immediate spike in the first 15 minutes following the decision and were retaining their momentum throughout the morning.

At the closing bell, HCA was trading up 10.8%, Community Health Systems, 8%, and Tenet, 5.4%.

Among insurance companies, Medicaid-focused managed-care organizations reacted positively to the healthcare decision, with Amerigroup Corp. spiking 4.7% and Molina Healthcare, 8.2%.

Similarly, HMS Holdings Corp., a company that makes sure healthcare claims are paid correctly, shot up more than 14%.

Commercial health plans, in contrast, underperformed the sector, with WellPoint dropping 5% and Aetna declining 2.7%.