Healthcare industry

CHICAGO — St. Louis-based SSM Health Care System took retail orders yesterday on $280 million of fixed-rate bonds that will be open to institutional investors today. The deal will be followed early next month with $300 million of floating-rate debt.

Moody’s Investors Service last week upgraded its rating to A3 from Baa1 on Capital Region Medical Center. The upgrade affects $36 million of outstanding debt issued through the Missouri State Health and Educational Facilities Authority.

Standard & Poor’s last week revised the outlook on Nevada Regional Medical Center’s BBB-minus rating to negative. The action affects $21.7 million of debt.

Clarian Health Partners Inc. could spend up to $500 million to build a new patient tower at its Methodist Hospital site in downtown Indianapolis. Financing would include a mix of donations, cash, and tax-exempt bonds.

The new federal health care law will likely mean less revenue for nonprofit hospitals in the long run, Moody’s Investors Service warned in a report out this week.

Fitch Ratings is considering slashing its rating on Beebe Medical Center in Lewes, Del., after a former staff pediatrician at the hospital was indicted on charges of rape and sexual exploitation.

Gov. Sonny Perdue Tuesday announced that he appointed a special attorney general, who will work for free, to direct Georgia’s participation in challenging the federal health care legislation recently passed by Congress.

Catholic Healthcare Partners of Ohio, one of the country's largest nonprofit health-care systems, on Wednesday will begin selling $450 million of fixed-rate debt, followed by $230 million of variable-rate debt early next month.

CHICAGO — Nonprofit hospitals have suffered a nearly 22% drop in pension plan median funding levels since 2007, a situation that could put further strain on the balance sheet of struggling facilities, according to a new report on pension challenges facing the sector by Standard & Poor's.

Plans to build a state hospital in midtown New Orleans with revenue bonds can go forward following a ruling by a U.S. district judge last week that the planning process complied with federal law.

CHICAGO — Henry Ford Health System could spend up to $1 billion in a massive expansion plan that would include a $500 million investment in its flagship Detroit facility, the provider said this week.

Moody’s Investors Service stripped Proctor Hospital of its investment grade rating recently, lowering the credit to Ba1 from Baa3 and warning of further action by assigning a negative outlook due to a decline in operating performance since fiscal 2007.

A labor union filed a lawsuit last week to try to stop a Bronx hospital from using recovery zone facility bonds to build a parking garage. The suit seeks an injunction to stop finalization of the financing and to require the public hearing process to begin again.

The Dormitory Authority of the State of New York gave final approval to $791.3 million of bonds at its board meeting yesterday, while also creating a finance committee as required under a public authorities reform measure enacted last year.

Cincinnati-based Catholic Healthcare Partners has acquired Jewish Hospital, which will become part of CHP affiliate Mercy Health Partners of southwest Ohio.

Fitch Ratings this week downgraded Marquette, a continuing-care retirement community located north of Indianapolis, to BBB from A-minus.

Standard & Poor’s last week stripped Proctor Hospital of its investment-grade rating, downgrading the facility to BB-plus from BBB-minus due to three years of declining operations that have hurt its debt-service-coverage ratios.

CHICAGO — Private-equity group Cerberus Capital Management LP yesterday said it would buy Boston’s nonprofit Cerberus Christi Health Care for $830 million, taking over the Catholic system’s long-term debt and spending $400 million on capital upgrades.

BRADENTON, Fla. — A biomedical institute on Florida’s east coast is exploring replacing its planned conduit issuer in hopes of lowering the cost of selling $70 million of bonds to finance the construction of a research ­facility.

The 11-member board that will have the final say on the plan to issue $400 million of revenue bonds to build Louisiana’s new $1.2 billion, 462-bed teaching hospital in New Orleans got its first permanent member this week.