15 Columbia / HCA Suits Consolidated Into 2

A federal judge consolidated 15 shareholder lawsuits surrounding the investigation at Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp. into two cases, making them easier to manage and possibly easing the way for a settlement. One lawsuit is seeking class-action status, the first shareholder action against the nation’s largest for-profit hospital chain, which was filed three weeks after the FBI raided Columbia/HCA’s El Paso operations in March. The other was brought by New York on behalf of the state’s $90-billion public employee pension fund, which owns more than 2.6 million shares of Columbia stock. The lawsuit accuses Columbia/HCA’s top executives of threatening investor profits through mismanagement. The New York lawsuit seeks company officers to repay Columbia/HCA, while the class-action case seeks reimbursement for shareholders. The value of Columbia/HCA shares, which went as high as $44.87 in February, plummeted with the news of a sweeping federal probe into whether the company overbilled Medicare. On Monday, shares rose $1.25 to close at $33.63 on the New York Stock Exchange. Separately, the company said its top attorney and its vice president of financial operations are resigning, the latest in a string of departures at the embattled hospital chain.