Healthcare industry

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.

The Dormitory Authority of the State of New York gave final and preliminary approval to six bond transactions totaling more than $245 million at its monthly board meeting Wednesday.

U.S. attorneys last week filed a motion to dismiss the federal lawsuit filed in March by Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum challenging the massive health care reform bill.

Moody’s Investors Service revised to positive from stable its outlook on $87 million of A3-rated debt from Green Bay-based Bellin Memorial Hospital due to improved operating performance.

Barclays Capital announced the addition of two senior members to its public finance health care unit Monday as it continues to grow the one-time Lehman Brothers team.

Democratic governors and senators yesterday pushed for the Senate to add an amendment to a tax-extenders bill that would provide federal funds to states to help them through their budget crises, with members expected to begin voting on the bill today.

CHICAGO — Ohio’s bankrupt Forum Health this week announced an agreement to sell its assets to a for-profit health care provider, marking the third proposed sale of a financially struggling nonprofit provider to a for-profit entity in the last few months.

Illinois regulators last week approved nonprofit Chicago-based Resurrection Health Care’s sale of two suburban Chicago hospitals to Tennessee-based for-profit Vanguard Health Systems.

Several Democratic governors are lobbying to extend through June 2011 the increased federal Medicaid match they have been receiving since the passage of the stimulus last year.

CHICAGO — The Illinois Finance Authority board this week gave final approval to deals for OSF Healthcare System and NorthShore University Health System that will raise new money for each and shift outstanding variable-rate debt to fixed rate to reduce market and liquidity risks.

The New York City Capital Resource Corp. yesterday approved a $17 million recovery zone facility bond deal to partially finance the construction of a medical office building in Queens.

The Detroit Medical Center extended by 10 days a letter of intent to sell its eight hospitals to a Tennessee-based for-profit health care company for $1.5 billion.