“Whatever happened to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation into Senator Bill Frist’s sale of his shares in HCA, the nation’s largest for-profit hospital chain? This is a question that popped into many minds Monday, when HCA, the company that the senator’s family helped found, announced that it is selling to a group of private equity investors that includes the likes of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Merrill Lynch, as well as Dr. Thomas Frist, Jr.– HCA’s former chief executive, and the senator’s brother. The $33 billion buy-out comes at a time when HCA is wrestling with sliding earnings, slow growth, and spiraling costs. More than half of the beds in HCA’s 176 hospitals are empty, and in the most recent quarter, net income dropped 27 percent. By purchasing the company, the parties involved are betting that HCA’s fortunes will improve. Senator Frist is not involved in the buyout, but the announcement does revive questions about his sale of HCA shares last year — shortly before the stock peaked at $58 and change.” [editor’s note: Adapted from Money-Driven Medicine: The Real Reason Health Care Costs So Much, with which regular readers of this blog are already quite familiar. - SAT] (07/28/06)