2016 Deal of the Year: Healthcare Financing

Who won this year's Deal of the Year award for Healthcare Financing? The winner will be honored on Thursday, December 1 at 583 Park Avenue in Manhattan, and later that night will compete with winners in the seven other categories for the right to be named The Bond Buyer's 2016 Deal of the Year.

VOICE OVER: With 12 hospitals serving in Chicago area and central Illinois, Presence Health is a key player in the state's not-for-profit healthcare market and is its largest provider of Medicaid services.

A new management team brought in to turn around system's pressured operations faced a crisis late last year after it found accounting errors that drove up operating losses.

That set in motion a series of downgrades that left the system at risk of losing its investment-grade status, as well as covenant defaults that could've accelerated the repayment of $1 billion in debt.

The team responded with a bridge financing that allowed the system to shed bank debt and file its 2015 audit on time. The system took out the bridge financing and restructured its entire debt portfolio with a $1 billion issue led by JPMorgan. The sale marked the largest high-yield not-for-profit healthcare deal in recent memory and generated significant savings that Presence said can be reinvested into services while providing some breathing room for its turnaround plan to achieve results.