Business news in brief
In the Region
UHS faces Texas probes
Universal Health Services Inc., of King of Prussia, said federal regulators decided to stop paying for services under Medicare at a UHS mental hospital in Dallas after inspections found deficiencies that left patients in "immediate jeopardy." After UHS appealed the decision, the termination date for Medicare payments at Timberlawn Mental Health System was moved from Friday to Thursday, UHS told the Securities and Exchange Commission. UHS also said that its behavioral health operations at Texoma Medical Center, in Denison, Texas, had signed a "systems improvement agreement" with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services after surveys found that Texoma was not meeting federal Medicare standards. UHS has until October 2016 to fix the Texoma problems, and will continue to receive Medicare payments in the interim. - Harold Brubaker
Most trains to miss deadline
As expected, most railroads will miss the Dec. 31 deadline for installing positive train control (PTC), the Federal Railroad Administration said in a report Friday to Congress. SEPTA is one of only three railroads that has submitted a safety plan for a completed PTC program by the end of the year. Thirty-five other railroads have not. No penalties have been set for railroads that don't meet the deadline. The FRA report cited a lack of congressional funding to help railroads install the technology, designed to prevent collisions and excessive speed. PTC could have prevented the derailment of an Amtrak train in Philadelphia in May that killed eight riders, safety experts said. - Paul Nussbaum
Hershey posts 2Q loss
Hershey posted a second-quarter loss Friday, with the strong dollar and weakness in China weighing on sales for the chocolate maker. Sales and profit at Shanghai Golden Monkey, Hershey's China subsidiary, have been "significantly" below expectations, the company said. Hershey lost $99.9 million, or 47 cents per share, compared with profit of $168.2 million or 75 cents per share a year prior. Revenue remained flat at $1.58 billion. - Associated Press
Elsewhere
BCE signs 730,000 streamers
BCE Inc., Canada's largest telecommunications company, has signed up 730,000 subscribers for its CraveTV Internet-streaming service since debuting it in December. That number could grow when BCE makes the service available to all Internet users in Canada, not just its own cable-TV customers, CEO George Cope said on the company's second-quarter earnings call.
- Bloomberg News