The nation’s largest hospital chain said profit fell 22 percent in the second quarter as its hospitals performed fewer surgeries, hurting its revenue. Excluding a pretax loss on the retirement of debt, HCA said it earned 51 cents per share, compared with profit of $293 million, or 67 cents, last year. Revenue rose 4 percent, to $8.06 billion from $7.76 billion. Analysts forecast 59 cents per share on $8.14 billion in sales.
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