Healthcare industry

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.

Moody’s Investors Service this week downgraded the Sierra Kings Hospital District’s general obligation bonds to Baa3 from Baa1 ahead of a planned $4 million sale of GO bonds.

Bonds sold in 1996 to help finance an assisted-living facility in Cherry Hill, N.J., are in default after U.S. Bank NA, the trustee for the debt, dipped into reserve funds to meet July 1 interest and principal payments owed to investors.

DALLAS - The University of Arkansas in Little Rock will ask the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees next month for a $31.6 million bond issue to build a new nanotechnology center and other facilities on the Little Rock campus.

CHICAGO - Indiana's Parkview Health System will enter the market over the next few weeks with $480 million of fixed- and variable-rate debt that will be used to refinance outstanding auction-rate debt and bank-held variable-rate bonds and to raise new money.

The West Virginia Public Employees Insurance Agency voted last Friday to eliminate subsidized retirement health care for new hires in an effort to cut the state’s other post-employment benefits liability.

CHICAGO - Wayne County, Mich., officials said they plan to issue up to $500 million in taxable bonds in fiscal 2010 to cover about half of its roughly $888 million unfunded liability for its accrued retiree health-care costs.

CHICAGO - The University of Chicago Medical Center on Tuesday will sell the first tranche of a $225 million issue to begin a $500 million borrowing that will help fund a $700 million, 10-story, 240-bed hospital pavilion.

DALLAS — Two large deals that include Build America Bonds are coming to market this week in Texas.

CHICAGO — Moody’s Investors Service this week revised its outlook to negative on the Cleveland Clinic Health System’s debt as it prepares to enter the market next month with $800 million of fixed-rate bonds.

Moody’s Investors Service has upgraded Riverside Health System’s credit one notch to A2 due to a track record of strong operating performance as RHS prepares to issue $68 million of fixed-rate new-money and refunding bonds early next month.

CHICAGO - Cleveland's University Hospitals Health System today will take retail orders on $101 million of fixed-rate and variable-rate revenue bonds to raise funds for its $1 billion capital improvement plan and to refinance some outstanding debt.