Lincare: A poster child for...
By Mike Moran
Updated Thu June 4, 2009
Clearwater, Fla.-based Lincare was a hot topic of discussion at a recent investment conference. Here's an excerpt from a financial blog about the conference:
At the New York event, says Kiplinger's, was Jim Chanos of Kynikos (which means cynic in Greek) Associates, described as "the short seller who famously uncovered fraud at Enron in 2001." Chanos had a bone to pick with health-care companies. "There's a new sheriff in town," Chanos said, referring to President Obama. He thinks the administration views health care as a right that should be available to all citizens. Therefore, the government will squeeze profitability out of for-profit education and health-care companies. Chanos called Lincare (ticker: LNCR) "the poster child" of the type of company that will suffer as the administration seeks to curb health-care costs. It's not as if Lincare is booming at the moment, anyway. In the first quarter of 2009, Lincare revenues were $371.7 million, down from $415.4 million for the first quarter of 2008. And net income for the first quarter was $26 million compared to $58.2 million for the first quarter of 2008. The cause? "Dramatic reductions," said Lincare, in Medicare reimbursement
for the company's primary product lines, brought about by the implementation on Jan. 1 of previously enacted legislation.
Click here
to read the full blog.
Liz Beaulieu
Comments