Healthcare industry

DALLAS - Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal Monday asked for consideration of an alternative, no-debt financial plan for a proposed $1.2 billion state hospital in New Orleans.

Standard & Poor’s last week lowered its rating on the Nevada Regional Medical Center into junk bond territory due to ongoing strains on the balance sheet.

Kentucky plans to competitively sell $145.8 million of lease-revenue bonds Tuesday to complete work on a new state mental hospital. The deal precedes an estimated $362.3 million offering of lease-appropriation obligations.

DALLAS - A proposal to scrap plans for a $1.2 billion state hospital in New Orleans in favor of a smaller, less-expensive project was outlined Thursday at a joint news conference by U.S. Sen. David Vitter, Louisiana Treasurer John Kennedy, and House Speaker Jim Tucker.

CHICAGO - Moody's Investors Service Thursday lowered its rating on Ohio-based Mercy Medical Center to its lowest investment-grade level — and revised its outlook to negative — warning that the facility is suffering from a sharp decline in its fiscal position.

Sierra Kings Health Care District voters Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a proposed sale of the bankrupt hospital to Adventist Health.

Standard & Poor’s has raised its rating to BBB-minus from BB on revenue bonds issued for Princeton Community Hospital.

The proposed $1.2 billion University Medical Center in New Orleans may be built with the proceeds from bonds supported solely by hospital revenue if federal mortgage insurance is denied for the debt.

Moody’s Investors Service last week affirmed Allina Health Systems’ A1 rating and signaled an upgrade could be in the offing if it maintains its strong financial performance of the last two years.

DALLAS — The proposed $1.2 billion University Medical Center hospital in New Orleans will require an annual subsidy from Louisiana of $100 million, according to a new financial analysis of the 424-bed facility.

WASHINGTON — State revenues are expected to rise in fiscal years 2011 and 2012, but a record jump in Medicaid costs, combined with voters’ reluctance to take on new debt, could keep states from issuing bonds for infrastructure and other investment projects, officials and market participants said Thursday.

DALLAS — A temporary one-cent sales tax increase approved by Arizona voters in May 2010 has produced $100 million less than originally projected and failed to prevent $454 million in cuts to education and a $564 million rollback in health care spending, according to state reports.

San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee Tuesday unveiled a proposed charter amendment to reform city employee pension and health benefits.

CHICAGO — The financial toll of the tornado that ripped through Joplin, Mo., on Sunday, killing more than 100 and destroying a local hospital, remains unknown, but Moody’s Investors Service expects the health care system’s rating will weather the impact and Missouri said it stands ready with aid.

CHICAGO — A Wisconsin judge on Thursday struck down the state’s controversial law that curtailed the collective bargaining powers of most public unions and raised pension contributions and health care premiums, concluding that lawmakers violated state open-meetings rules in their haste to pass the legislation.

The Louisiana House Ways and Means Committee adopted a $4.8 billion construction bill this week, but yanked the authorization for $900 million of revenue bonds for the proposed new state hospital in New Orleans.

DALLAS — The University of Colorado Hospital Authority plans to issue $200.8 million of variable-rate revenue bonds this week for a new medical tower on its rapidly expanding Anschutz Campus in Aurora.

With health care reform and the passage of the Affordable Care Act, the industry faces increasing uncertainty over how an organization will be able to manage with less robust revenue and accelerating consolidation, according to a new study by National Public Finance Guarantee Corp.

Medicare’s trust fund will run out of money in 2024 and Social Security’s will be exhausted in 2036, according to the annual reports of their boards of trustees released Friday.

DALLAS — The Texas House’s chief budget writer warned his colleagues Thursday that funding for state aid to public education and Medicaid could run out before the end of the next two-year budget cycle.