Healthcare industry

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.

CHICAGO — The new federal health care law’s emphasis on high-quality, low-cost medical care could have widespread credit implications for the sector, Moody’s Investors Service said in a report last week.

San Diego has reached tentative agreements with its employee unions on a retiree health care plan that will save the city more than $700 million over the next 25 years, according to Mayor Jerry Sanders.

DALLAS — Louisiana lawmakers will consider a resolution this week to require legislative approval of a plan to issue revenue bonds to finance a proposed new state hospital in New Orleans.

Fitch Ratings last Thursday upgraded bonds issued for Greenspring Village Inc., a continuing-care retirement community in Springfield, Va., to A from BBB-plus.

CHICAGO — The University of Chicago Medical Center will enter the market with $182 million of debt beginning next week to wrap up its planned borrowing for a new hospital pavilion that will house its complex-care services.

DALLAS — The Louisiana House Appropriations Committee declined Monday to give the go-ahead for construction of a $1.2 billion state hospital in New Orleans until a more complete business plan is developed.

Moody’s Investors Service has affirmed its A2 rating on Kettering Health Network’s $41 million of bonds but revised its outlook to negative from stable, warning that planned debt sales could pressure the system’s balance sheet.

Moody’s Investors Service revised its outlook to stable from negative and affirmed its A2 rating on Oakwood Healthcare Inc., a multi-hospital system headquartered in Dearborn.

Standard & Poor’s last week said Illinois’ decision not to renew some of its managed-care contracts with Carle Foundation subsidiary Health Alliance Medical Plans won’t affect the Urbana-based system’s A-plus rating, although the loss of business could pose a credit risk down the road.