Healthcare industry

Despite a downgrade to Ba1 by Moody’s Investors Service, the Temple University Health System saw strong demand for $311 million of revenue and refunding bonds issued through the Philadelphia Hospitals and Higher Education Facilities Authority.

Fairview Health Services got hit with a downgrade from Moody’s Investors Service and a warning of further negative action due to fiscal 2011 operating losses and potential fallout from the state attorney general’s probe into its bill collection practices.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn last week signed sweeping health care legislation that dramatically eases the Medicaid funding burden on state coffers while defusing a fiscal threat posed to not-for-profit hospitals.

Charity care is on the rise at Missouri hospitals and that increase is not expected to abate due to lower Medicaid enrollment and job losses due to the economy, according to a report released last week.

Proctor Hospital’s rating has sunk deeper into junk-bond territory and the Illinois health care provider could still fall further due to its ongoing operating struggles.

Fitch Ratings has upgraded Olmsted Medical Center’s rating one notch to BBB-plus from BBB in recognition of the Minnesota hospital’s strong financial performance.

CHICAGO — The Illinois Senate passed legislation Tuesday raising the state's cigarette tax by $1 as part of a $2.7 billion Medicaid reform package aimed at easing the program's strain on state finances.

CHICAGO — The Illinois House approved a bill Friday that raises the cigarette tax by $1 and establishes charity care standards for the state's nonprofit hospitals in order to preserve their property tax exemption.

CHICAGO — Michigan officials are putting the final touches on a fiscal 2013 budget that will likely mark the state’s first contribution since the early 1990s to prefund its towering retiree health care liability.

At its meeting on Wednesday the board of the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York approved approximately $3.9 billion in financings for higher education and health care institutions.

CHICAGO — Nearly half of nonprofit hospitals expect capital spending to rise over the next five years, driven primarily by a need to invest in information technology, according to a new survey from Fitch Ratings.

Fitch Ratings last week dropped the Citrus County Hospital Board, Fla.’s bonds, issued on behalf of Citrus Memorial Health Foundation Inc., to BB-minus from BB-plus. The downgrade affects $39.4 million of outstanding debt.

DALLAS — Top Louisiana officials said Monday that higher education and public health would be devastated by fiscal 2013 spending cuts mandated by a budget passed late last week by the House.

CHICAGO – Janesville, Wis.-based Mercy Alliance Inc. will issue $172 million of new-money and refunding bonds Wednesday in a deal that will shed floating-rate risk in the hospital's debt portfolio.

CHICAGO — Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn is expected to soon sign legislation shifting more of the funding burden for retiree health care to recipients, a move projected to save more than $250 million annually and shave billions off the state’s other post-employment benefits unfunded liability.

The Suffolk County, N.Y., Legislature on Tuesday voted to have employees pay for part of the cost of their health insurance for the first time in the Long Island county’s history.

Moody’s Investors Service Tuesday upgraded to B1 from B3 the rating on Southern California University of Health Science’s Series 1997 bonds and also revised the outlook to positive from negative on $7.5 million of outstanding bonds.

A federal bankruptcy court last week approved a deal allowing the Flint-based McLaren Health Care Corp. to buy Cheboygan Memorial Hospital, a troubled facility located in northern Michigan.

Moody’s Investors Service last week affirmed its A1 rating on the Parkview Health System and revised the outlook to stable from negative, noting the system’s improved operating performance.

DALLAS — Bearing a healthy prognosis from rating agencies, Children's Medical Center of Dallas will look for interest-rate savings with a $164.5 million refunding.