Beverly Enterprises Sees Net Income Increase

Beverly Enterprises Inc. of Fort Smith had a 28 percent increase in net income for its quarter ended Sept. 30. Beverly also announced a plan to sell a “significant portion” of its nursing homes.

In a conference call about the earnings, CEO William Floyd cited investor concerns about high patient-liability costs.

Beverly has already sold off all of its Florida facilities because of high liability costs in that state. Floyd said the company is now looking at individual facilities, in addition to considering statewide liability rates. A few troubled nursing homes can adversely affect “what otherwise is a very attractive market to us,” Floyd said.

Beverly reported earnings of 15 cents per share — 3 cents more than predicted. It had a net income of $15.6 million, up 29 percent from last year’s $12.1 million in the same quarter.

Medicare payments have been credited with some of the company’s income increase.

Rising occupancy for the company’s 461 skilled-nursing facilities, was also listed as a reason for the income jump. Occupancy averaged 87.8 percent and Medicare patients accounted for 10.5 of the company’s patients.