Healthcare industry

CHICAGO — The Ohio State University will enter the market Tuesday with $741 million of bonds to launch a $2 billion capital expansion program.

The North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System Inc. has agreed to pay $3 million to settle a civil fraud lawsuit in a deal the U.S. attorney’s office announced Tuesday.

CHICAGO — Kalamazoo, Mich.-based Bronson Methodist Hospital next Tuesday is expected to enter the muni market with $200 million of mostly refunding bonds that will shift nearly all of its debt into a fixed-rate mode.

CHICAGO — Detroit-area hospitals plan to spend up to $1.3 billion on capital projects over the next several years in the hopes of creating a medical industry to help replace the city’s vanishing manufacturing base, according to a new report.

Standard & Poor’s lowered its rating to BB-plus from BBB-minus on bonds issued by the Chatham County Hospital Authority on behalf of Memorial Health University Medical Center Inc.

Moody’s Investors Service this week downgraded the underlying rating of Marietta Area Health Care to Ba2 from Ba1. Washington County issued the debt on behalf of the hospital.

Moody's Investors Service Monday downgraded Lowell General Hospital in Massachusetts to Baa1 from A3 as the health care provider plans to increase its debt load dramatically to help finance a new patient tower. The outlook is stable.

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said renovation efforts will begin soon on a storm-damaged hospital purchased late last week by the city for $16.3 million.

A new fiscal analysis projects federal health care reform could cost Nebraska up to $766 million over the next 10 years, largely due to its expansion of the Medicaid program.

DALLAS — The Bexar County, Tex., Hospital District plans to price $205 million of certificates of obligation Wednesday backed by the Build America Bond subsidy to expand San Antonio’s University Health System.

Moody's Investors Service cut Torrance Memorial Medical Center's long-term rating to A2 from A1 ahead of a $234 million issue planned for next month.

Seattle Children's Hospital will price $118 million of fixed-rate revenue bonds today in a deal driven partly by the huge demand for tax-exempt paper.

Many states will have to revisit their fiscal 2011 budgets and may have to rearrange their spending plans due to gaps between what they expected and what they actually receive from a six-month extension of extra federal Medicaid funding.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Kentucky Asset/Liability Commission on Wednesday expects to price $468 million of taxable notes to refinance obligations the state owes to the Teachers’ Retirement System for medical benefits.

DALLAS — The University of Texas System has approved building an $800 million hospital at its UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas that will be financed largely through revenue bonds.

WASHINGTON — Two medical groups have asked the Internal Revenue Service to allow hospitals to be flexible when conducting the community health needs assessments required under the health care reform law.

CHICAGO — The cash-strapped Chicago Public Schools will receive about $100 million from Illinois’ share of education funding in the new $26 billion federal jobs law, local and federal officials said Wednesday.

A Miami-Dade County grand jury last week released a report on Jackson Health System, describing its financial problems as “a colossal mess.” No formal charges were brought by the panel.

House members Tuesday sent to President Obama a $26.1 billion measure that would extend but gradually phase out higher federal Medicaid payments to states through June 30 and provide $10 billion to local school districts to prevent layoffs.

CHICAGO — The Illinois Finance Authority board on Tuesday advanced plans for a series of financings, including the first in the state in seven years to take advantage of the FHA 242 Hospital Mortgage Insurance Program. Another could be the first to tap the state’s Midwestern disaster area bond allocation.