Healthcare industry

The Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board has approved bond proposals from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith.

New Jersey’s not-for-profit hospitals avoided cuts in state aid for the current fiscal year, but that could change for the fiscal 2012 state operating budget, according to Moody’s Investors Service.

Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox last Saturday approved the $1.5 billion sale of the Detroit Medical Center to a for-profit Tennessee-based health care company. The deal awaits federal approval and is expected to close Dec. 31.

Moody’s Investors Service has revised its outlook on Edward Health Services Corp.’s A2 rating to positive from stable in recognition of its improving operations, affecting $282.4 million of debt.

Moody’s Investors Service has upgraded Rush University Medical Center’s Obligated Group rating by one notch to A2 due to its improved operating performance in recent years.

CHICAGO — Aurora Health Care Inc. in Wisconsin enters the market as soon as Tuesday to refund $140 million of outstanding debt in a deal officials scaled down from $377 million due to rising long-term interest rates.

Fitch Ratings Tuesday assigned a junk rating to debt issued for the Sonoma County Indian Health Project.

CHICAGO — Indianapolis would float $86 million of tax-increment financing bonds to finance construction of a new corporate campus for Eli Lilly and Co.— the pharmaceutical giant that is the city’s top private-sector employer — under a plan Mayor Greg Ballard will submit to the City-County Council next week.

Requiring local government employees and retirees in New York to pay a share of health insurance premiums could save more than $1 billion annually, according to a think tank report released Monday.

Moody's Investors Service last week boosted its outlook to stable from negative on the Cleveland Clinic Health System in part because the prestigious system has scaled back some of its ambitious capital program.

SAN FRANCISCO — The University of California will sell $760 million of mostly taxable Build America Bonds next week to help finance upgrades to three medical centers.

The Minneapolis City Council last week approved up to $16.5 million of recovery zone facility bonds toward the American Academy of Neurology’s plans to build a new global headquarters, according to a news release from the city’s Community Planning and Economic Development Department.

The Cook County Health and Hospital System plans to issue up to $200 million of debt over the next five years to finance a new capital plan.

CHICAGO — The board of the Detroit Medical Center voted to extend the deadline for its $1.5 billion acquisition by a for-profit Tennessee health care company to Dec. 31, saying the parties were still waiting for state regulatory approvals.

The Dormitory Authority of the State of New York gave both preliminary and final approvals Wednesday to up to $1.4 billion of bonds for education, higher education, and health care projects at a board meeting in Albany.

CHICAGO — The triple-A rated University of Michigan Wednesday will sell $220 million of general revenue bonds to finance part of its 10-year, $5.5 billion capital plan.

DALLAS — Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal will eliminate a $106.8 million deficit in the $25.5 billion budget for fiscal 2011 mostly by cutting expenditures for higher education and health care.

CHICAGO — Nonprofit health care providers could see a drop in patient volume as the sector adjusts to a business model that emphasizes keeping people out of hospitals as a result of the new federal health care law, Standard & Poor’s analysts said here Monday during the agency’s Health Care and Transportation Ratings roundtable.

CHICAGO — UC Health, which operates the primary safety-net hospital in Cincinnati, is coming to market Tuesday with $207.5 million of revenue bonds to finance capital projects.

Moody’s Investors Service has pushed Keokuk Area Hospital’s rating on $5.4 million of debt further into junk bond territory due to its weak operating performance.