Healthcare industry

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.

SAN FRANCISCO - Wells Fargo Securities announced that it has hired David Bloom to be its western region managing director covering health care for public finance investment banking.

Connecticut lawmakers this week overrode the governor's veto to start the process of creating a public health insurer that could use bond financing for part of its implementation.

Standard & Poor’s on Monday downgraded Howard Young Medical Center Inc.’s rating to BBB from BBB-plus due to large operating losses in fiscal 2008 that prompted a debt service covenant violation.

Wishard Health Services last week unveiled its proposal to ask Marion County voters in November to approve up to $704 million of bonds to fund construction of a new $754 million hospital campus to replace aging facilities.

Moody’s Investors Service this week revised its outlook on CentraCare Health System’s underlying A3 rating to stable from negative ahead of its $50 million bond sale next month.

CHICAGO - Des Moines-based Iowa Health System - the state's largest health care provider - this week plans to sell $50 million of new-money bonds and early next month will shift $350 million of its variable-rate debt to a fixed-rate structure as the system seeks to reduce its floating-rate exposure.

The collateral damage from California’s budget crisis now includes three nonprofit regional centers that serve the developmentally disabled, who saw Moody’s Investors Service drop their credit ratings to junk-bond status.

Standard & Poor’s has revised its outlook on John Tolfree Health System’s $12.3 million of debt issued in 1999 for West Branch Medical Center to negative due to declining volume levels.

CHICAGO - Not-for-profit hospitals in Illinois - on the defensive over the level of charitable care they provide to warrant their tax-exempt status - provided $4.7 billion in community benefits in 2008, according to the latest report from the Illinois Hospital Association.