Ahead of the Bell: Health services and hurricanes

Emergency medical services companies may get a lift after providing emergency services during hurricane season, a JPMorgan analyst said Thursday, but hospital operators will probably lose some third-quarter revenue.

Analyst Dawn Brock noted that four major storms have made landfall in the last few weeks, most recently Hurricane Ike on Saturday. She said Emergency Medical Services Corp. and Pediatrix Medical Group Inc. did emergency assistance work following the storms, and the additional revenue from that work could help them beat Wall Street expectations. She said hospitals that had to close and evacuate patients will get slightly lower patient admissions.

In addition to the decreased patient volume and revenue growth, Brock expects some pressure on third-quarter results from evacuations and store closings, along with the cost of making emergency preparations including stocking up on food, fuel and supplies and hiring more staff and security personnel.

She said four Tenet Healthcare Corp. hospitals were damaged mildly by Hurricane Ike, but none of the other publicly traded acute care hospital operators suffered any damage. Community Health Systems Inc. and Health Management Associates Inc. evacuated some patients, but reopened their hospitals this week, while Lifepoint Hospitals Inc., MedCath Corp. and Universal Health Services Inc. were not affected.

Sun Healthcare Group Inc. doesn't have any hospitals in the states hit by Ike, she wrote, but other post-acute care hospitals had to evacuate small numbers of patients. Although no hospitals were damaged severely, power loss has delayed a few re-openings.

The 2008 Atlantic hurricane season officially ends Nov. 30.