Unions target HMA

Health Management Associates executives warned analysts in a recent conference call that union activists are aggressively targeting the Naples-based hospital operator.

The company says the Service Employees International Union is targeting HMA to organize its employees. “Based upon my personal experience and having closely watched SEIU's campaigns against other large health systems, it now simply appears to be our turn,” says John Starcher, HMA's group president for the eastern division, according to a transcript of the call posted on SeekingAlpha.com.

Starcher oversees the company's hospitals in Pennsylvania, where union organizers are particularly active. “You might be aware that the union was present at our recent annual stockholders meeting,” says Starcher. “It has also put up a website. It has run newspaper ads. It has passed out fliers at various physician seminars and physician career fairs.”

Starcher says HMA is among the last large publicly traded hospital companies that hasn't been unionized. HMA operates 70 hospitals with about 10,500 beds in non-urban areas around the country.