Healthcare industry

Moody’s Investors Service has dropped Juneau County’s rating to A2 from A1 due to a weakened general fund and a negative balance in its health services fund. The downgrade affects $12.4 million of outstanding general obligation debt.

Moody’s Investors Service last week upgraded HealthPartners Inc.’s rating to A3 from Baa1, citing a track record of profitability with improved performance in fiscal 2008 and 2009.

The Detroit Economic Development Corp. last week approved an inducement resolution to issue $15 million of recovery zone facility bonds to finance construction of a new medical office building in the city.

DALLAS — New Orleans is spending millions to purchase a hospital damaged by Hurricane Katrina and renovate the vacant facility to serve residents of the city’s east side.

WASHINGTON — Congress returns to work this week still lacking a clear game plan for extending bond programs and other federal assistance for state and local governments, despite pleas for the extensions from governors meeting in Boston through the weekend.

Travis County Healthcare District, which operates as Central Health, plans to seek authorization from Travis County commissioners for $18 million of 20-year certificates of obligation to finance a new health clinic.

BOSTON – U.S. governors this weekend called for greater fiscal discipline in their states to calm bond market fears over their debts, but they offered little consensus on efforts to extend certain federal government stimulus programs, specifically Build America Bonds.

CHICAGO — The Minnesota Nurses Association and 14 hospitals in the Twin Cities area reached an agreement late last week on a new contract, averting a threatened strike by 12,000 nurses that was set to start this week.

Bexar County commissioners will be asked to move up the sale of the fourth and final tranche of debt to finance Bexar County Hospital District’s ongoing expansion project of its facilities in San Antonio.

Kansas Gov. Mark Parkinson joined other governors last week in support of a proposal to continue a $25 billion program of emergency federal aid to state Medicaid programs.

Congress’ failure to pass a six-month extension of enhanced federal matching funds under the Federal Medicaid ­Assistance Program will deprive states of billions of dollars in expected revenue, lead to drastic cuts in programs and result in the loss of thousands of jobs, 13 governors warned Wednesday.

WASHINGTON — About 30 states must revisit their fiscal 2011 budgets to compensate for the loss of expected enhanced federal matching Medicaid funds that were in a jobs bill Congress failed to approve last week.

Flint’s McLaren Health System Corp. is hoping to move its Pontiac-based hospital to a medical park in nearby Clarkston, according to a report in Crain’s Detroit Business.

Standard & Poor’s upgraded the Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center to A-plus due to its strong balance sheet.

Fitch Ratings stripped Bethesda Home and Retirement Center of its investment-grade rating, lowering the credit to BB-plus from BBB-minus due to its deteriorating balance sheet in 2008 and 2009. The action affects $2.6 million of bonds issued through the former Illinois Health Facilities Authority. The outlook was revised to stable from negative.

CHICAGO — As nonprofit hospitals in the Twin Cities brace for a threatened nurses’ strike, Moody’s Investors Service warned yesterday that a prolonged walkout could pressure some hospital ratings if already-thin operating margins are hurt by increased costs for temporary nurses and a drop in patient revenue.

New York State will pick up the debt-service tab for North General Hospital, which plans to file for bankruptcy, officials said Monday.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — The public health care district in Marin County, Calif., regains control of the county’s largest hospital today, in a shift that is likely to presage a bond offering in coming years.

WASHINGTON — Officials at two nonprofit hospitals have warned the Internal Revenue Service that new requirements imposed on bond-financed and 501(c)(3) hospitals by this year’s health care insurance overhaul would be burdensome and costly.

DALLAS — The Comanche County Hospital District has lost its investment-grade rating from Standard & Poor’s as the rural health care facility in West Texas copes with a declining population and weak economy.