Inside Baseball at HCA

To be sure, Weakley is taking such threats seriously.

"Some are likely to suggest that the complexity of what is being proposed (for Medicare) is so great that the reforms suggested are never going to happen," he has written. But "with a Ph.D. economist (and a physician) in charge at CMS, pricing efficiency is perhaps a more serious focal point than ever at the federal level. The effort to improve pricing efficiency is likely to continue."

Still, Painchaud sees one reason to look on the bright side when it comes to HCA at least. Notably, he points out, company insiders have now two months without selling any stock at all.

"It's often what insiders don't do that's important," he says. "Given the history at HCA, inactivity is a great thing."