Healthcare industry

The future of Medicaid, which eats up nearly a quarter of states' budgets, will play a key role in governments' fiscal health over the next several years, Standard & Poor's said in a new report on the federal program.

The Illinois Finance Authority board advanced about $600 million of borrowing planned by the University of Chicago, Children's Memorial Hospital, and others before the end of the year and into 2012.

Moody’s Investors Service affirmed Agnesian Health Care’s A3 rating while revising its outlook to positive from stable in recognition of its favorable operating margins.

Moody’s Investors Service affirmed its Baa1 rating on UC Health and revised the outlook to positive from stable, saying that the newly reorganized system has exhibited recent improvements in operations.

Moody’s Investors Service last week downgraded to A2 from A1 its rating on Elkhart General Hospital, affecting $86.6 million of bonds.

Standard & Poor’s affirmed its BBB-plus credit rating and stable outlook for the not-for-profit ACTS Retirement-Life Communities of West Point, Pa.

The Dormitory Authority of the State of New York approved $531 million in financings for higher education and health care, including $340 million in 23-year, fixed or variable-rate tax-exempt bonds for the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

A proposal to allow the New York Department of Health to replace hospitals' leadership would be a credit positive, Moody's Investors Service said.

LOS ANGELES — Downey Regional Medical Center, a non-profit hospital located in greater Los Angeles, is close to reaching an agreement with Avanti Health Systems LLC that would enable it to exit Chapter 11 bankruptcy and make its bondholders whole.

Moody's Investors Service has downgraded the rating of Turnersville-based Kennedy Memorial Hospital University Medical Center to A3 from A2. The outlook remains stable at the lower level, analysts said.

Staff of the California Health Facilities Financing Authority recommended approving a plan to issue $275 million of bonds on behalf of San Diego-based Scripps Health.

Fitch Ratings assigned a AA-minus rating Wednesday to a planned $355 million bond issuance on behalf of Sacramento-based Sutter Health, which owns, leases and-or operates 31 hospitals.

CHICAGO — Blaming a bad housing market and the failure to reach an agreement with bondholders, an Ohio senior-living facility that missed its most recent debt-service payments filed for Chapter 11 protection last week.

WASHINGTON — States are facing a "big squeeze" of slow economic growth, the need for increased spending on Medicaid and other programs, the loss of federal funds and requests for help from cash-strapped local governments, two groups said in a report released Tuesday.

CHICAGO — Six months after a devastating tornado destroyed its competitor's facility, Freeman Health System in Joplin, Mo., will come to market next week with $25 million of bonds, primarily to fund additional beds needed to meet a surge in demand for its services.

Moody's Investors Service last week affirmed its Baa1 rating on Summa Health System in Ohio.

Moody's Investors Service has downgraded Hospital Sisters Services Inc.'s rating by one notch to A1 due to sizeable operating losses at the Springfield, Ill.-based system.

Proponents of a measure to increase South Dakota’s sales tax to fund K-12 and Medicaid said they have gathered more than twice the required signatures to put it on next year’s ballot.

Moody’s Investors Service placed Cleveland-based MetroHealth System on watch list for potential downgrade due to a decline in financial performance through the first nine months of fiscal 2011. The credit is rated A2.

A parcel tax that will help the struggling Doctors Medical Center stay afloat passed with nearly three-fourths of the vote on Tuesday.