HealthCare Posts Small Gain After 1985 Losses

Helped along by a $575,000 tax credit from previous losses, HealthCare USA said Thursday that net income for the first quarter totaled $980,000, contrasted with a loss of $3.5 million a year earlier. The 1985 first-quarter loss included a charge of $3.9 million against the company’s discontinued hospital business.

Revenue from continuing operations for the first three months of 1986 totaled $52.9 million, up 26% from $41.9 million.

Income from continuing operations was ahead just 2.3% to $405,000 in the first quarter, compared with $396,000 a year earlier.

The modest hike may be a sign that the company--which lost $13.1 million in 1985--has weathered the worst of its problems, industry analysts said.

“While it’s nice to see them in the black . . . we really need two or three more quarters to see what trend is developing,” said Larry Selwitz, an analyst with the Los Angeles-based brokerage of Bateman Eichler Hill Richards Inc.

Last year HealthCare sold or closed down virtually all of its hospital operations, medical office buildings, emergency care clinics and prepaid dental health plans as part of a drive to concentrate on its profitable health plan operations in California and Michigan. Membership in those plans increased 21%, to more than 250,000, during the quarter.

That growth, said Harlan Loomas, the company’s chairman and chief executive, was responsible for the increase in revenues. He said that HealthCare intends to continue pushing for new members but will couple those efforts with a cost-cutting program aimed at slowing the company’s rapidly increasing operating costs.