HCA Healthcare's hospitals recorded more revenue in the third quarter of 2026, but profit slipped while more patients arrived without insurance. Share buybacks, partly funded with debt, still lifted earnings per share.
HCA Healthcare runs hospitals and related facilities in the United States, providing care that ranges from overnight stays to surgery. If you live in Florida or Texas, you may well have driven past one of its buildings. The patient receives the care, but someone else usually pays: the federal Medicare and state Medicaid government health programs, or a private insurer. HCA's earnings depend on how many patients it treats and what each payer pays per case.
Medicare pays a set amount per hospital stay based on the patient's diagnosis, with extra money for hospitals that serve many low-income patients. Medicaid money flows partly through state taxes on providers, which states use to fund their share of the program and draw federal matching money. What remains depends on how many patients come, what each costs to treat and, above all, who pays. When a patient moves from an Exchange plan (insurance bought on the Affordable Care Act marketplaces) to no insurance, the hospital still delivers the care, but the payment shrinks or disappears.
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