Healthcare industry

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.

CHICAGO — The nation’s largest nonprofit health care provider, Ascension Health, will acquire Alexian Brothers Health System, a union that marks the latest in a consolidation trend as hospital systems seek to bolster their capital positions and navigate the challenges of federal health care reform.

The board of the bankrupt Sierra Kings Healthcare District in California earlier this month approved a letter of intent to join Adventist Health.

The Internal Revenue Service is auditing the bonds of two issuers based in Florida — a health care provider and a community development district.

WASHINGTON — The Great Recession significantly widened states’ pension and retiree health care funding shortfalls, the Pew Center on the States concluded in a report released Tuesday.

Standard & Poor's last week revised its outlook to positive from stable for AHS Hospital Corp., which operates three facilities in northeastern New Jersey. The rating is A.

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service has closed its audit of $308 million of variable-rate bonds issued by Murray City, Utah, in a 2003 conduit health care transaction without any change to the bonds’ tax-exempt status.

Heartland Regional Medical Center received positive credit news from both Fitch Ratings and Moody’s Investors Service.

Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic will enter the market Wednesday and shift $290 million of variable-rate securities to a fixed-rate structure to open up room in its debt portfolio for future floating-rate debt that would finance two proton therapy centers.

CHICAGO — Indiana University Health Inc., the state’s largest health care system, on Monday will price $228.2 million of variable-rate bonds in the first of three borrowings that will total nearly $800 million.

DALLAS — Sen. David Vitter, R-La., met last week with federal officials to oppose Louisiana’s request for credit enhancement on $400 million of revenue bonds for a new $1.2 billion teaching hospital in New Orleans.

CHICAGO — The Illinois Finance Authority expects to launch a program in the coming months that links state Medicaid providers with private investors willing to purchase overdue payment vouchers in case lawmakers fail to act on Gov. Pat Quinn’s $2 billion borrowing plan to ease the state’s liquidity crisis.