NEW YORK (Reuters) - Community Health Systems Inc (CYH.N: Quote, Profile, Research), the largest publicly traded U.S. hospital chain, reported a fourth-quarter loss on Thursday, due to costs associated with last year's acquisition of Triad Hospitals.

The Franklin, Tennessee-based company posted a net loss of $88.3 million, or 94 cents per share, compared with a net profit of $53.6 million, or 57 cents per share, a year ago.

Excluding items associated with the Triad acquisition, Community earned 37 cents per share from continuing operations. Analysts on average had expected 40 cents per share, according to Reuters Estimates.

Net operating revenue for the quarter doubled to $2.53 billion, shy of Wall Street expectations of $2.77 billion.

Costs and expenses nearly doubled to $2.46 billion.

For the full year, Community still expects to earn $2.25 to $2.45 per share from continuing operations, with first-quarter earnings of 50 cents to 55 cents per share.

With the July acquisition of Triad, Community Health said it was forced to increase its allowance for doubtful accounts due to an increase in the number of patients qualifying for charity care and the number of patients who are indigent non-resident aliens.

The impact of the changes decreased accounts receivable by $166.4 million, reduced net operating revenue by $96.3 million and increased the provision for bad debts, or bills owed to the company that it does not expect to collect, by $70.1 million.

(Reporting by Bill Berkrot, editing by Richard Chang)