UPDATE 2-LifePoint Hospitals posts profit above estimates

* Q4 EPS 71 cents vs 60-cent Wall St estimate

* Sees FY EPS $2.50-$2.80 vs $2.66 estimate

* Shares up 3.7 percent (Adds details from results, shares, analyst comment)

NEW YORK, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Hospital operator LifePoint Hospitals Inc (LPNT.O) posted better-than-expected quarterly profit on Friday, as an acquisition helped boost admissions.

Shares rose 3.7 percent as the company also reported a lower-than-expected amount of bad debt, which is payments owed by patients that the hospitals do not expect to collect.

"Overall, this seemed to be a solid quarter for LifePoint, and the market should view these results favorably due to the turnaround in bad debt expense," Oppenheimer & Co analyst Michael Wiederhorn said in a research note.

Fourth-quarter net income rose to $38 million, or 70 cents per share, from $28 million, or 53 cents per share, a year earlier.

Earnings from continuing operations were 71 cents per share, 11 cents ahead of the analysts' average estimate, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue rose nearly 11 percent to $746.9 million.

LifePoint's bad debt expense -- a measure closely watched by Wall Street -- was 12.6 percent of revenues. That was higher than 11.6 percent a year ago, but lower than the 13.5 percent expected by Oppenheimer.

LifePoint projected 2010 earnings per share in a range of $2.50 to $2.80. Analysts were looking for $2.66.

Shares of LifePoint rose $1.12, or 3.7 percent, to $31.52 in morning trading on Nasdaq. (Reporting by Lewis Krauskopf; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn, Dave Zimmerman)