Abbey Healthcare Gains in Quarter : Earnings: The Costa Mesa provider of home respiratory services also receives a $85-million line of credit and picks a chief operating officer.

Abbey Healthcare Group Inc., which provides a broad range of home respiratory services, reported higher first-quarter earnings Tuesday, attributed to lower interest costs and improved collection of accounts receivables.

Separately, the company announced that it has received an $85-million line of credit from General Electric Capital Corp. to expand the company and that it has selected Michael Miller to be chief operating officer, a newly created position.

Abbey reported net income of $2 million, equal to 31 cents per share, in contrast with a net loss of $1.4 million for the same period last year. Revenue rose nearly 3% to $57.5 million, compared to $55.9 million for the same quarter in 1991.

The company, which raised $38.3 million through an initial public offering in February, said the GE Capital credit line includes a $10million loan and a $75-million revolving loan, which will be made available to the company as needed.

Abbey’s original GE Capital loan--which it took on as a result of a 1988 leveraged buyout of Foster Medical Corp.--consisted of a $35-million loan and a $5-million revolving loan.

The earlier loan “was structured in such a way that the company was paying a high interest rate,” said Timothy M. Aitken, the company’s president and chief executive.

The modified loan agreement is expected to save the company $8 million in annual interest costs, said Aitken, who would not specify the new rate but described it as “substantially lower.”

Miller, 43, was formerly senior vice president of Carelink Home Healthcare, an Irvine provider of home fetal-monitor services.

Miller succeeds Tom Weidel, who remains vice president in charge of the western region.