Healthcare industry

Standard & Poor's stripped Ohio-based Alliance Community Hospital of its investment grade rating based on revised stand-alone, acute-care hospital criteria.

Driven by the expansion of the U.S. federal government’s Medicaid program, spending by states in fiscal 2015 rose to its highest rate in 23 years, according to report released by the National Association of Budget Officers on Thursday.

The Nov. 10 agreement between the town of Morristown, N.J., and Atlantic Health System on Morristown Medical Center property tax appeals could have a "ripple effect" for no-for-profit hospitals across the U.S., according to Moody's Investors Service.

Already endangered by state and federal spending cuts, many rural hospitals in Texas are facing additional strain from falling oil and gas prices.

Moody’s Investors Service has revised the University of Chicago Medical Center's outlook to stable from negative thanks to two years of stronger operating margins.

Rating upgrades overlook rural and secondary markets with high unemployment and aging demographics that will continue to challenge hospitals in those markets.

Detroit-based Henry Ford Health System will acquire Allegiance Health, a union that offers benefits for both in what marks the latest in an ongoing wave of healthcare consolidations.

The New Jersey Health Care Facilities Financing Authority appears to be settling a tax dispute with the Internal Revenue Service over revenue bonds it issued in 1993 for Deborah Heart and Lung Center, which later entered into a total return swap.

Standard & Poor's revised its outlook on the Iowa Board of Regents' University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics to stable from negative after a decision to trim capital spending.

Fitch Ratings downgraded three series of bonds issued by the Berks County Municipal Authority, Pa. on behalf of Reading Hospital and Medical Center Project to A-plus.

Moody's upgraded MIT spinoff Broad Institute to Aa3 with a stable outlook from A1 and positive, citing sustained growth and healthy operating cash flow.

The nation's largest not-for-profit healthcare system — Ascension Health — will acquire the much smaller and lower-rated Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare's southeastern Wisconsin facilities.

The Marin Healthcare District of Marin County, Calif, plans to sell $170 million of investment-grade bonds next week to finance earthquake readiness measures and medical improvements at a 63 year-old hospital.

South Carolina’s Tuomey Healthcare System has negotiated a reduced settlement of $72.4 million with the Justice Department for filing 21,000 false Medicare claims.

Raymond James has hired Jack Dudick in the firm’s Healthcare Finance group in Chicago.

Christopher Brogdon, who was at the center of more than a dozen problematic healthcare municipal bond deals for which at least $2 million was unaccounted for, will resign from the board of healthcare firm AdCare.

Fitch Ratings revised its outlook on Elmhurst Memorial Healthcare’s BBB rating to positive from stable in recognition of its post-merger growth.

South Dakota’s Sanford Health is bringing $176 million of A-plus rated hospital bonds to market this week in a deal that will mark the final financing of the system’s largest construction project to date.

Standard & Poor’s has lowered St. Anthony’s Medical Center by two notches to A-minus over dents in its operating performance.

Moody’s Investors Service dropped Good Samaritan Hospital in Knox County, Indiana by one level to Baa2 and warned of the potential for further deterioration by leaving a negative outlook on the rating.