Vital Signs, Vol. V: Healthways' class-action woes

Also in our monthly roundup of news nuggets from Nashville's healthcare scene: HCA lures Emory cardiologist and Psych Solutions preps for growth spurt

Email | Print By Walker Duncan

Disease manager Healthways continues to pop up in the headlines as more and more plaintiff firms add to the class-action dog pile that has been building over the last month.

A raft of lawsuits – most of which still require a lead plaintiff to lend their names (and credibility?) – claim damages from the company’s executives, asserting they misled investors in the lead-up to the drastic drop in the company’s share price earlier this year.

Despite these issues, the company has kept its eye on the prize operationally, opening its first German service center in early June and matching analysts’ expectations with its third-quarter performance later in the month. Still, its beaten-down shares have stubbornly stayed in the low $30s.

Speaking of trying to keep a business running in the face of numerous annoyances: Shareholders of skilled nursing operator Advocat last month batted down yet another activist proposal from Bristol Capital Advisors.

California-based Bristol has for years been pushing the company to explore sale or liquidation options. This time around, 86 percent of Advocat’s shareholders against the proposal, but don’t expect Bristol principal Paul Kessler to lay low for long.

Elsewhere on the public-company scene, Psychiatric Solutions continues to get love from a number of market watchers. The Wall Street Journal’s SmartMoney feature wrote recently that the company is poised for “fast growth” and local analyst Kevin Campbell at Avondale Partners reiterated his ‘buy’ rating on the company.

Campbell cited as key elements in the company’s outlook “achievable same-facility growth goals coupled with a ‘full’ acquisition pipeline with the prospect of declining acquisition multiples driving further growth.” Translation: Psych Solutions will put its cash to work to fire up its formidable growth engine.

A new face has joined the local cardiology community as the continuing battle over the hearts of Nashvillians continues. HCA Inc. in early June said it had hired Steven V. Manoukian, luring him away from Emory Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta, where he practiced for the last 19 years.

Manoukian is set to serve as the director of cardiovascular research with Centennial Medical Center’s Sarah Cannon Research Institute. He also will man a post as medical director for cardiology services at HCA’s corporate office.