Beverly Enterprises Posts $22.4 Million Loss

For the third quarter ended Sept. 30, 2000, Beverly Enterprises Inc. of Fort Smith reported a net loss of $22.4 million, compared with net income of $7.9 million during the same period a year ago.

This year’s loss was attributed in part to a pretax charge of $44.4 million related to increased reserves for patient-care liability costs, primarily in Florida, where costs have been increasingly high and unpredictable. Beverly and most of its competitors are experiencing substantial increases both in the number of claims and lawsuits and in the size of the typical claim and lawsuit.

The third-quarter loss also included a pretax charge of $4.6 million, about $2.6 million of which was related to severance agreements associated with three former executives.