Medication Nation

If you ever wondered what kind of racketeering operation is being utilized by PSYS look no further than the end of this article. We mentally impaired individuals, adolescents, adults, elderly are publicly traded commodities. Well, at least they are suffering with the economy now, I guess this means more abuse and negligence in the coming months as their padded executive salaries and already suffering staff to patient ratios go down the tubes.

http://finance.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ:PSYS

Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Nashville Business Journal

http://milwaukee.bizjournals.com/nashville/stories/2008/12/08/daily10.html

Citing stagnant growth in psychiatric care, Longbow Securities has downgraded shares of Psychiatric Solutions from “buy” to “neutral” status.

Longbow Research health care analyst David Bachman says in a release that behavioral health industry volumes are flattening and, “we believe PSYS is at risk of not meeting its 7 percent to 9 percent annual growth targets for same hospital revenue.”

The downgrade comes on the heels of a business boom for Franklin, Tenn.-based Psychiatric Solutions Inc. (NASDAQ: PSYS). In this year’s first quarter, the company reported net income was up 41 percent to $25.5 million.

And in March, Psychiatric Solutions acquired five inpatient psychiatric facilities in Florida and Kentucky, a deal expected at the time to generate revenue of about $68 million in the next 12 months.

The acquisitions included more than 300 acute beds and about 100 residential treatment center beds.

The downward industry trend is likely to continue, Bachman says, “as economic conditions worsen in 2009.”

Bachman says his opinion is based on Longbow’s quarterly industry behavioral health care facility admissions survey which shows “significant change” in volume growth at all levels of behavioral health care. Among the findings of the proprietary surveys of behavioral health care facility admissions personnel:

• Most industry contacts, 83.3 percent, reported no change in admissions volumes compared to the fourth quarter of 2007. Just 6.7 percent said admissions were higher year over year in this year’s fourth quarter.

• Children and adolescent populations experienced no growth for 94.4 percent of industry contacts. In contrast, 42.9 percent of contacts reported year-over-year increases in adolescent admissions in the previous quarter.

The adult side fared just slightly better, with 10.3 percent of contacts reporting year-over-year gains in admissions. More than three quarters of survey respondents reported flat admissions volumes since the 2007 fourth quarter..

• More moderation in capacity constraints, and open beds are common. Just less than half of contacts, 43.3 percent, reported operating at capacity during this year’s fourth quarter and 83.3 percent of facilities polled typically have open beds.