Healthcare industry

Fitch Ratings has placed on watch the BB-minus rating on $747.7 million of Series 2007A revenue bonds issued by the Allegheny County Hospital Development Authority on behalf of the West Penn Allegheny Health System of Pittsburgh.

Fitch Ratings has affirmed its stable outlook and A-minus rating for the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

Quincy Medical Center Inc. has sought bankruptcy protection as a part of a plan for Steward Health Care System LLC of Boston to take it over.

Milwaukee-based Robert W. Baird & Co. is moving into the health care and senior-living financing sectors with the new hire of a public finance banking veteran.

Novi, Mich.-based Trinity Health has closed its acquisition of Chicago's Loyola University Health System in a deal that totals more than $1 billion.

Moody's Investors Service raised its rating to Baa1 from Baa2 on $137 million of bonds issued on behalf of the Altru Health System by the city of Grand Forks. The outlook is stable.

The Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board last week denied applications from two competing hospital systems seeking to build new facilities in the growing region north of Chicago in McHenry County.

Moody's Investors Service last week downgraded Northwest Community Hospital's rating one notch to A1 due to its weakened financial performance.

CHICAGO — Cleveland has sued the Cleveland Clinic over its decision to close a hospital on the city's east side, arguing in part that the prestigious clinic's acceptance of tax-exempt funding from the state requires it to provide equitable services to the city.

The newly merged Central DuPage Health-Delnor Health System last week announced the appointment of Brett Tande to be its vice president and treasurer. He left the private sector where he was a health care banker to join the new system this past spring.

Moody's Investors Service last week downgraded $1.1 billion of Catholic Health East debt to A2 from A1 due to cash-flow margins that fall below similar A-rated health care credits.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie Monday is set to sign into law legislation that requires government employees to pay more for pension and health care benefits.

CHICAGO - Standard & Poor's revised its outlook to negative from stable on a small Michigan hospital that is facing the possibility of accelerated debt-service payments on its debt, all of which has been either privately placed with a bank or is in the form a bank loan.

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said Monday the state should stick with the current plan to build a $1.2 billion, 424-bed hospital in the city. Construction financing for the University Medical Center includes $407 million of hospital revenue bonds.

Standard & Poor's on Monday revised its rating outlook to negative from stable and affirmed its BBB-plus rating on $5.7 million of Series 2002B bonds issued on behalf of Martin Memorial Medical Center.

The Erie County Fiscal Stability Authority has agreed to borrow $98 million to help Erie County Medical Center Corp. build a nursing home at its campus on Buffalo’s East Side.

Northern Berkshire Healthcare Inc., unable to restructure $43 million in secured bond debt, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The Quincy Medical Center missed a $380,000 bond payment due May 31, about a month after it said it would seek a buyer.

CHICAGO - Debate was expected to began Wednesday in the Wisconsin Assembly on a new budget, one day after the state's high court reinstated Gov. Scott Walker's budget repair bill that raised employee pension payments and health care premiums and curbed most public unions' collective bargaining rights.

CHICAGO - While its issuance levels recently have reflected the national slowdown, the Illinois Finance Authority is seeing some pickup in health-care deal flow with four issues for nearly $800 million in the works, including $533 million for the state's largest health care system and three direct bank purchases.