Disclosure of Foreign Investment Decisions by Investor-Owned Healthcare Systems.

This study offers an in-depth inquiry into the disclosure of foreign investment and divestment decisions of American for-profit, publically traded international hospital systems over the last 25 years (1991-2016). Content analysis of the annual reports of eight publicly listed healthcare companies is performed using Microsoft Access in two levels of analysis. The reasons disclosed for investing or divesting overseas were consolidated at the company level. Among the four categories comprising foreign investment reasons, the most fully reported is the opportunity to meet unmet patient demand, followed by the availability of payment for services. Government receptivity is the last category reported, although it is recognized as an important factor in foreign investment. Foreign divestment reasons focused on the need to reduce long-term debt, focus on the core domestic business, and long-term growth. This study suggests policy makers consider statutory provisions for foreign investment and divestment disclosures in annual reports that include the names of the buyers and the sellers and the full amount for the individual sales of each hospital in the interest of the stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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