Healthcare industry

BRADENTON, Fla. — Government-owned hospitals in Florida will come under scrutiny by a panel appointed by Gov. Rick Scott to review whether they are in the best interest of taxpayers.

SAN FRANCISCO — A nonprofit mental-health service provider in Los Angeles County has gone belly-up, leaving a state-backed insurer on the hook for more than $5 million of bonds.

Moody’s Investors Service this week put Loyola University Chicago’s A3 rating on watchlist for a possible upgrade in recognition of the positive impact on its credit profile expected from the school’s upcoming sale of its health system.

SAN FRANCISCO — In this city known for its eccentricities, why should retiree benefit reform be any different?

CHICAGO — Rising pension costs facing many nonprofit health care providers could mean less money to spend on other needs, such as capital projects, Standard & Poor’s warned in a new report.

CHICAGO — The Urbana, Ill.-based health care provider Carle Foundation is set to enter the market later this month with $230 million of new-money debt, and will privately place another $100 million of bonds with two banks in a structure that lowers borrowing costs and limits liquidity risks.

Gov. Gary Herbert last week signed a bill to provide $83 million in bonding authority for buildings at Utah colleges and a mental hospital, despite reservations about using debt.

Moody’s Investors Service last week revised its outlook on $2.74 billion of Aa3-rated University of Pittsburgh Medical Center debt to positive from stable.

Moody’s Investors Service last week affirmed Jefferson Regional Medical Center’s Baa2 underlying rating but revised its outlook to positive from stable due to its continued strong operating profitability, improved liquidity, and favorable debt coverage measures.

The Illinois Health Services and Facilities Review Board last week advanced Central DuPage Health and Delnor Health System’s merger plans by approving an ownership change.

The Cook County Board of Commissioners tapped a new interim chief for the health and hospital system after the unexpected resignation of two-year chief financial officer William Foley last week.

SAN FRANCISCO — Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has reached a tentative deal with a coalition of unions that could help curb the city’s ballooning pension and retiree health care benefit costs.

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service is auditing $38.77 million of defaulted special assessment bonds that were sold in 2005 by the Aberdeen Community Development District in Florida to finance infrastructure for a residential community.

San Francisco voters will get another chance to weigh in on reforming the city’s pension and retiree medical benefit costs.

CHICAGO — With his proposal to borrow $8.75 billion to pay down bills floundering, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn is pressing lawmakers to authorize $1.75 billion to $2 billion of short-term bonding to pay off Medicaid-related bills before federal reimbursement rates drop in July.

The Kentucky Legislature is in overtime trying to come up with an agreement to plug a $176 million deficit in the state’s Medicaid program this year.

CHICAGO — The bankrupt Fairview Obligated Group, operator of several Chicago-area continuing care retirement communities, will hold an auction next month on its Rockford campus as investors who hold $57 million of mostly tax-exempt debt await word on how much they stand to recoup.

LOS ANGELES — California’s Sierra Kings Healthcare District is nearing a deal that could lead to its exit from Chapter 9 bankruptcy.

CHICAGO — Dayton, Ohio-based MedAmerica Health Systems will begin taking retail orders Wednesday on $100 million of fixed-rate bonds followed by institutional sales Thursday.

San Francisco’s unfunded pension and retiree health care liabilities have ballooned to around $6 billion, according to a report by a Stanford academic and former California assemblyman.