Healthcare industry

William Beaumont Hospital outside Detroit this week said it would cut 353 jobs, its third round of layoffs in a year.

The Flint-based McLaren Health Care System announced this week it would build a proton beam radiation therapy center, putting it ahead of five other systems that have battled for more than a year to be the first to build the potentially lucrative cancer center in the state.

Northwestern Memorial Healthcare last week announced its plan to sign an affiliation agreement with Lake Forest Hospital to form an integrated system.

CHICAGO — Ohio State University’s board of trustees this week approved a $1 billion expansion plan of the school’s medical center campus that will rely on $925 million of new-money bonds.

CHICAGO — Illinois erred in stripping Provena Covenant Medical Center in Urbana of its property tax exemption over charity-care levels and it should be restored because the hospital treats all patients regardless of their ability to pay, a Provena attorney told the state Supreme Court in oral arguments Wednesday.

Lower-rated borrowers that couldn't meet the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York's stringent credit requirements are likely to find the door open a little wider in the near future if staff recommendations presented yesterday are implemented.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Wills Memorial Hospital in Washington, Ga., last month sold nearly $13 million of taxable Build America Bonds with a draw-down structure and enhancements that officials believe may help other rural health-care providers access the capital markets in these difficult times.

Fitch Ratings on Monday downgraded to AA-plus from AAA its rating on $71 million of Nemours Foundation outstanding health care revenue bonds. The rating agency said the outlook is stable.

The Marion County Health and Hospital Corp. on Nov. 3 will ask voters in Indianapolis and Marion County to approve a $754 million bond proposal to finance a new facility that would replace Wishard Hospital.

CHICAGO - Downtown Chicago-based Roosevelt University is planning to sell up to $210 million of new-money and refunding bonds later this year to raise funds for a new multi-use building that will include new student housing as part of its evolution from a commuter school to a residential urban campus.

Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus unveiled health care reform legislation yesterday that would require bond-financed and other nonprofit 501(c)(3) hospitals to conduct regular assessments of community health needs, implement financial assistance programs, and limit how much they could bill certain patients and how far they could go to collect.

Standard & Poor’s revised its outlook to negative on two series of outstanding debt issued by Ward County on behalf of Trinity Health, the main tertiary provider in northwest North Dakota.

DALLAS — Orleans Parish Hospital Service District A is considering a financing plan for a $130 million renovation project at a hurricane-damaged hospital in east New Orleans that could rely on bonds for half of the needed funds.

Fitch Ratings on Friday revised the rating outlook to stable from negative on $260 million of bonds issued for the Mount Sinai Medical Center of Florida.

WASHINGTON - A group of municipal analysts is urging the Securities and Exchange Commission to require muni issuers to file with EMMA certain material event notices related to swaps, bank bonds, and liquidity facilities. But issuers and borrowers are warning that the proposed 10-day deadline for filing material event notices would be difficult or impossible to meet and are pushing for 30 days instead.

The Tarrant County Hospital District, which operates as JPS Health Network, could see a $10 million revenue shortfall in fiscal 2010 due to more uninsured patients seeking medical care. The increased demand by patients without insurance may result in the system’s first deficit since 1975.

CHICAGO - Facing decisions on how to deal with escalating operating costs and delayed state aid without eroding educational services, Minnesota's school districts have just one more month to issue debt without voter approval to address one of their growing fiscal burdens - other post-employment benefits for retirees' health care.

CHICAGO - The not-for-profit health-care sector continued to suffer from a variety of fiscal ills throughout 2008, with most credit measures declining across all rating categories and affecting even the largest and most highly rated systems, Moody's Investors Service said in a report on the sector's 2008 medians released Friday.

The municipal market was slightly firmer yesterday, as the Dallas County Hospital District came to market with close to $700 million of taxable Build America Bonds.In the new-issue market, Merrill Lynch & Co. priced $680.2 million of taxable BABs for the district in two series. Bonds from the $217.5 million series mature from 2020 through 2025, with a term bond in 2034. Yields range from 4.95% in 2020, or 3.22% after the 35% federal subsidy, to 6.17% in 2034, or 4.01% after the subsidy.

WASHINGTON - The Charleston Area Medical Center, West Virginia's largest medical provider, today will issue $178 million of revenue bonds after the center received a negative outlook from Moody's Investors Service.