Six details:
1. HCA ended the quarter with 121 freestanding outpatient surgery centers, four less than at the end of the third quarter in 2019.
2. HCA reported 232,493 outpatient surgery cases in the third quarter, a 6.7 percent decrease from the same period last year. For the first three quarters of the year, the company reported a 15.3 percent drop in outpatient surgery cases, to 629,723.
3. Outpatient revenue was 35.5 percent of all patient revenue for the quarter.
4. Same-facility outpatient surgery cases dropped 6.3 percent in the quarter, to 224,496.
5. The company’s ASC volume declined 4.7 percent in the quarter, CFO Bill Rutherford said during the Oct. 26 earnings call, as transcribed by Seeking Alpha. The decline occurred primarily in July and August, while September volume was up 1 percent year over year.
6. On Oct. 8, HCA announced it would return, or repay early, $1.6 billion in federal provider relief fund distributions and $4.4 billion in Medicare accelerated payments received during the pandemic.
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