Economy

With the healthcare industry facing dramatic changes, Scottsdale Healthcare Corp. is getting a ratings lift after the sale of eight buildings under a new finance strategy.

Standard & Poor’s said the announcement of a proposed merger between health care giants Trinity Health and Catholic Health East does not affect their credit ratings yet, but that a consolidation would likely result in a credit with a weaker rating than Trinity’s AA rating.

Wyoming, Mich.-based Metro Health is seeking a strategic partner for a merger to help navigate changes in the health care industry.

Several Virginia municipalities have retained legal counsel to fight Gov. Bob McDonnell's plan to toll Interstate 95, which commonwealth officials have said could help close a $10 billion funding gap over the next 25 years.

A court hearing on a dispute between Highmark Inc. and West Penn Allegheny Health System Inc. over their failed $475 million merger agreement will continue Thursday in Pittsburgh.

Dallas Area Rapid Transit will close out its commercial paper program with Bank of America by issuing $128.3 million of sales-tax revenue bonds in a deal postponed due to the storm on the East Coast.

Chesapeake, Va.'s triple-B rated toll bridge deal last Wednesday saw investors chasing yield and oversubscribing the $151 million deal by more than 12 times.

More than half of those polled by the University of Arkansas in a recent telephone survey favor a proposed sales tax increase to support $1.3 billion of state highway revenue bonds.

A proposed merger between two large nonprofit healthcare systems is a credit positive for the nonprofit healthcare sector, Moody's Investors Service says.

An association representing safety-net hospitals is lobbying Congress to restore cuts that are built into the new federal health care law.

The New York State Thruway Authority picked Tappan Zee Constructors to begin negotiations on a contract to construct the new $5 billion Tappan Zee bridge.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo received the Energy Highway Task Force's blueprint for additional electric generation and transmission capacity.

Raising the base fare on New York subways and buses to $2.50 is the most likely fare-increase scenario, said Joseph Lhota, chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Connecticut officials celebrated the completion of the Arrigoni Bridge overhaul two months ahead of schedule.

Crittenton Hospital, in an affluent suburb of Detroit, comes to market Tuesday with $108M of new-money and refunding bonds.

The Regional Transportation Authority of Illinois qualified 10 financial advisory firms to assist the agency on future bond deals and other fiscal transactions over the next five years.

Fitch Ratings lowered West Penn Allegheny Health System's $737 million revenue bonds CCC from B-plus, citing uncertainty over its proposed Highmark affiliation.

Fitch placed the A rating of revenue bonds for Medford, Ore. continuing care retirement community Rogue Valley Manor on negative watch due to the potential impact of a lawsuit.

City of Hope, a Los Angeles County research hospital, received a bump from a stable to positive outlook on its A1 Moody's rating.

California Governor Jerry Brown appointed Jay Hansen to the California Health Facilities Financing Authority.