| Company: | Health Management Associates, Inc. |
| Ticker Symbol: | NYSE: HMA |
| Class Period:: | January 17, 2007 to July 30, 2007 |
| Date Filed: | Aug-02-07 |
| Lead Plaintiff Deadline: | Sep-30-07 |
| Court: | Middle District, FL |
| Allegations: |
A class action lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida on behalf of a class (the "Class") of all persons who purchased or acquired securities of Health Management Associates, Inc. ("Health Management" or the "Company") between January 17, 2007 and July 30, 2007 inclusive (the "Class Period").
The Complaint alleges that defendants violated the federal securities laws, by issuing a series of material misrepresentations during the Class Period thereby artificially inflating the price of Health Management securities. The Complaint alleges, among other things, that defendants engaged in a scheme to manipulate Health Management's policies in order to create the impression that the Company had its "bad debt expenses" under control in order to borrow additional money, and to get the Board to approve of their recapitalization plan. On January 17, 2007, Health Management announced a major recapitalization which was completed in March 2007 and which required the company to borrow $3.25 billion of new debt to refinance existing debt and pay shareholders a special one-time cash dividend of $10.00. The Individual Defendants benefited substantially from this one time dividend, given that they were major shareholders and each defendant received large sums of money.
As revealed on July 31, 2007, Health Management, throughout the Class Period, was experiencing a deterioration in the collectibility of its accounts receivable from uninsured patients. Health Management announced that for its second quarter of 2007 it took a $39.0 million charge, and recorded it as an additional reserve to reflect a decline in collectibility of accounts receivable from uninsured patients. Moreover, the Company updated its fiscal 2007 diluted EPS from continuing operations objective range to be between $0.45 and $0.50 to reflect increased uninsured volumes, a deterioration in the collectibility of accounts receivable related to those uninsured volumes, and lower than anticipated overall paying volumes.
On this unexpected news the price of Health Management stock dropped almost 25% to close at $8.06 on July 31, 2007.
If you acquired the securities of the defendants during the Class Period you may, no later than the Lead Plaintiff Deadline shown above, request that the Court appoint you as lead plaintiff through counsel of your choice. You may also choose to remain an absent class member. A lead plaintiff must meet certain requirements.
The Complaint alleges that defendants violated the federal securities laws, by issuing a series of material misrepresentations during the Class Period thereby artificially inflating the price of Health Management securities. The Complaint alleges, among other things, that defendants engaged in a scheme to manipulate Health Management's policies in order to create the impression that the Company had its "bad debt expenses" under control in order to borrow additional money, and to get the Board to approve of their recapitalization plan. On January 17, 2007, Health Management announced a major recapitalization which was completed in March 2007 and which required the company to borrow $3.25 billion of new debt to refinance existing debt and pay shareholders a special one-time cash dividend of $10.00. The Individual Defendants benefited substantially from this one time dividend, given that they were major shareholders and each defendant received large sums of money.
As revealed on July 31, 2007, Health Management, throughout the Class Period, was experiencing a deterioration in the collectibility of its accounts receivable from uninsured patients. Health Management announced that for its second quarter of 2007 it took a $39.0 million charge, and recorded it as an additional reserve to reflect a decline in collectibility of accounts receivable from uninsured patients. Moreover, the Company updated its fiscal 2007 diluted EPS from continuing operations objective range to be between $0.45 and $0.50 to reflect increased uninsured volumes, a deterioration in the collectibility of accounts receivable related to those uninsured volumes, and lower than anticipated overall paying volumes.
On this unexpected news the price of Health Management stock dropped almost 25% to close at $8.06 on July 31, 2007.
If you acquired the securities of the defendants during the Class Period you may, no later than the Lead Plaintiff Deadline shown above, request that the Court appoint you as lead plaintiff through counsel of your choice. You may also choose to remain an absent class member. A lead plaintiff must meet certain requirements.
