Healthcare industry

Fitch Ratings assigned an A-plus rating Monday to a $147.9 million refunding planned by Los Angeles-based Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

CHICAGO - Almost out of cash to keep operating, an upscale retirement facility in downtown Chicago financed with $229 million of bonds filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this week after the failure of negotiations with a group of investors aimed at buying the facility breathing room.

Texas Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, told a 10-member committee established to lay the groundwork for building a medical school in Austin that it is too early to know how much the proposal will cost.

CHICAGO - Promedica Health System will hold a retail order period Wednesday followed by institutional pricing Thursday for $145 million of refunding bonds.

Fitch Ratings assigned a AA to the Maine Health and Higher Educational Facilities Authority's $37.25 million of Series 2011C revenue bonds, which are expected to sell by negotiation this week.

When Jackson Laboratory of Bar Harbor, Maine, scuttled plans to establish a research facility in Florida, several other states came banging at the door of the genetics research company. Connecticut won out.

Standard & Poor's warned that retiree health care benefits are a growing burden for public universities.

Wisconsin’s not-for-profit hospitals last year generated $28 billion in economic activity and provided $1.4 billion in community benefits, according to new studies.

Regional Health, the dominant health care provider in western South Dakota, will enter the market Thursday with $181 million of bonds.

CHICAGO - Novi, Mich.-based Trinity Health's possible acquisition of the stand-alone, 159-year-old Mercy Health System, based in Chicago, last week advanced when the two Catholic health care providers announced they had signed a nonbinding letter of intent to negotiate a union.

Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Saints Medical Center of Lowell to Caa1 from B1 after it and the for-profit Steward Health Care System of Boston ended their merger discussions.

CHICAGO - Moody's Investors Service warned Thursday that Illinois' crackdown on the property-tax exemptions of nonprofit hospitals over the amount of charity care they provide could pose a credit threat to the sector here.

Adventist Health closed a deal Monday to take over the formerly bankrupt Sierra Kings Heath Care District’s Central California clinics and hospital.

CHICAGO - Two large Chicago-area health care systems announced Wednesday they have finalized a merger that will create the largest Catholic health care network in Illinois.

Moody’s Investors Service has revised its outlook on Mercy Hospital’s A2 rating to negative from stable due to a decline in operating performance.

Moody’s Investors Service last week affirmed its Baa2 rating on King’s Daughters’ Hospital and Health Services but revised the outlook to negative from stable, warning that the facility faces volume and operating pressures.

Highmark Inc. announced Tuesday that it has reached an agreement to affiliate with West Penn Allegheny Health System Inc.

Fitch Ratings downgraded more than $370 million of debt issued for Eisenhower Medical Center to BBB from A-minus.

San Diego-based Rady Children’s Hospital received an A-plus from Fitch Ratings on $150 million of bonds to be sold through negotiation the week of Nov. 7.

Moody’s Investors Service has revised its outlook to positive from stable on Minnesota’s HealthPartners Inc.’s A3 rating in recognition of its improved operating performance.