Healthcare industry

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.

The Wisconsin Health and Educational Facilities Authority on Monday signed off on Aurora Health Care’s sale of $160 million of new-money and current refunding bonds set for this week.

DALLAS - Dallas County plans to take a giant step toward rebuilding the landmark Parkland Hospital this week with a $705 million issue made up mostly of taxable Build America Bonds.

SAN FRANCISCO - Lancaster Pollard & Co., a boutique health care and housing investment bank, last week hired Anthony Taddey to head a new Los Angeles office.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Louisiana State Bond Commission yesterday approved a $350 million revenue bond deal for the Woman's Hospital Foundation Project, of which $100 million will be Gulf Opportunity Zone bonds.

WASHINGTON - The Governmental Accounting Standards Board on Friday urged market participants to submit written comments on exposure drafts on health care and other post-employment benefit plans and Chapter 9 bankruptcies by Aug. 28.

WASHINGTON - The first industry groups to comment on two Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board proposals tied to its EMMA disclosure system are warning that they may be unfair or unduly burdensome in certain respects.

SAN FRANCISCO - About 100 highly rated higher education, health care, and other not-for-profit issuers are using self-liquidity to support short-term debt, according to a Moody's Investors Service report published this week.

Alliance, Ohio, disclosed yesterday that the Internal Revenue Service is conducting an audit of $55 million of hospital revenue bonds it issued in 2003.

CHICAGO - The Cleveland Clinic Health System will begin taking retail orders today on $800 million of fixed-rate revenue bonds that includes $500 million of new money and $300 million of refunding bonds.