[When an analyst asked whether slower growth in bad debt during the first quarter was] sort of a fluke, ... You know, this is a volatile business. You have some months that are up and some months that are down and what you've got to do is kind of look and say, 'What is the trend, and what do you feel about it?'

Strong patient volume and revenue growth contributed to another extremely successful quarter,

The answer is debt. The pump is being primed by debt, but not by real growth.

There is a significant shortage of minority graduate business school students choosing hospital and health care management as a career. At HCA, we face this issue every day as we recruit young talent into our executive development program. Recognizing this growing problem, Barbara and I wanted to make a personal commitment to increasing minority leadership in health care. Given that Fuqua has the premier MBA Health Sector Management program in the country, a scholarship program aimed at minority students seemed to us the best way to fulfill this commitment.

This is an important step toward moving the company back into a normal cycle of reporting and payment with CMS.

This is an important step toward moving the company back into a normal cycle of reporting and payment with CMS,