Healthcare industry

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.

Moody’s Investors Service has revised its outlook to stable from negative on the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics Aa2 rating due to the system’s improved operating performance.

Moody’s Investors Service affirmed its Ba2 rating for outstanding revenue debt issued for Citrus Valley Health Partners, including $52.6 million of Series 1998 fixed-rate certificates of participation and $25 million of Series 1998 auction-rate COPs.

The Internal Revenue Service closed an audit of $61.3 million of revenue bonds issued in 2005 by the Coastal Bend Health Facilities Development Corp. of Corpus Christi, Tex., and has determined the debt can remain tax-exempt.

Moody’s Investors Service last week placed Marietta Area Health Care’s Ba1 rating on negative watch, affecting $38.5 million of outstanding debt. Marietta has an additional $33 million of letter-of-credit-backed debt not rated by Moody’s. Analysts expect to issue a full review of the credit within the next 30 days.

WASHINGTON — A critique of two proposed hospital projects in Montgomery County, Md., echoes warnings that the enactment of health care reform will make it more challenging for nonprofit health providers to finance projects through the municipal bond market.

CHICAGO — Nonprofit health care providers grappling with what to do about interest rate swaps that for years saved them money but now have become costly burdens face a “stark choice” that can depend on their fiscal position and appetite for risk.

DALLAS — The University of Colorado Hospital will use bond financing for a $400 million expansion at the new Anschutz Medical Campus at the site of the former Fitzsimons Army Hospital in Aurora, officials said yesterday.

An economic analysis of the new state teaching hospital in New Orleans has recommended that the bond issue for the facility be increased by $150 million.

CHICAGO — The federal health care overhaul could cost Indiana up to $2.9 billion through 2020, a new report estimates.