Universal Health Denies Report of Filling Beds Solely for Financial Gain

Hospital company Universal Health Services Inc. on Thursday denied conclusions in a recent news report that it exaggerated patient symptoms and filled beds solely for financial gain.

Shares of Universal Health had fallen sharply on Wednesday after BuzzFeed News published what it said was a yearlong investigation that painted a picture of Universal Health pressuring employees from at least 10 hospitals across nine states to fill beds by "exaggerating people's symptoms or twisting their words to make them seem suicidal." The article focused primarily on the company's psychiatric operations.

Pennsylvania-based Universal Health, which is one of the nation's largest hospital companies, disputed the allegations Thursday and called the BuzzFeed report misleading.

"Among other things, the story ignores the pre-eminent role of the clinician in treating patients, and misleads the reader by attempting to make unsupported assumptions about our behavioral health operations," the company said. The stock rose 3.2% to $114.88 in premarket trading.

A representative from BuzzFeed couldn't be reached for comment. The BuzzFeed report itself includes a comment from Universal Health saying, among other responses, that it "absolutely rejects" the allegations.

BuzzFeed said its report is based on interviews with hundreds of current and former staff, patients and government investigators, as well as a cache of internal documents. BuzzFeed said Universal Health Chief Executive Alan Miller declined requests for an interview.

Write to Joshua Jamerson at joshua.jamerson@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 08, 2016 10:05 ET (15:05 GMT)

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