Healthcare industry

The Massachusetts Health and Educational Facilities Authority Thursday will create a merger committee to move forward with Gov. Deval Patrick's plans to combine the authority with the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency, although market participants worry the initiative may increase borrowing fees.

CHICAGO - Chicago-area not-for-profit hospitals enjoy an estimated $498 million in tax-exemption benefits annually while collectively providing just $176 million in charity care, according to a new report from a Chicago-based fiscal research organization.

CHICAGO - A nonprofit hospital's debt structure - particularly its variable-rate debt exposure and associated liquidity risks - is one of several credit factors that Moody's Investors Service will pay special attention to in 2009, the rating agency said in a report released yesterday.

WASHINGTON - In an effort to boost disclosures for non-pension, health care, and other post-employment benefits, the National Federation of Municipal Analysts is urging issuers to release as much supplemental information in annual financial statements and bond offering documents as necessary "to effectively explain and communicate" their specific OPEB situation and funding approach.

Standard & Poor's took negative credit actions on a pair of North Dakota hospitals last week.

Death and disease know no recession. Hospitals do.

The Internal Revenue Service is auditing $149.7 million of revenue bonds issued in 2005 by the Maryland Health and Higher Educational Facilities Authority.

State officials will still move ahead with plans to potentially merge the Massachusetts Health and Educational Facilities Authority with the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency despite the fact that state Sen. Marian Walsh Tuesday announced that she would relinquish her new role at MassHEFA.

WASHINGTON - Continuing care retirement communities face more rating downgrades than upgrades in 2009 because of limited access to capital, slower unit re-occupancy caused by falling real estate values, and significantly reduced liquidity due to losses on investments, Fitch Ratings said yesterday.

After a seven-year hiatus from bonding, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey today plans to sell $253 million of revenue refunding bonds with a special "lockbox" structure to secure debt service payments.

Standard & Poor’s last week revised its outlook to stable from positive on the A rating it gives Little Company of Mary Hospital and Health Care Centers.

Wisconsin’s 145 hospitals have a $22 billion annual impact on the state’s economy and employ 100,000, according to a new study from the University of Wisconsin-Extension and the Wisconsin Hospital Association.

Voters in Medina County in South Texas will go to the polls at a special election on June 16 to establish a hospital district. If approved, the district could issue bonds supported by a levy of up to 10 cents per $100 of assessed property value to support Medina Regional Hospital.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick's administration last week announced that it will begin evaluating a potential merger of the Massachusetts Health and Educational Facilities Authority and the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency in an effort to cut expenditures and create efficiencies between the two entities, yet critics say the move could increase borrowing costs for colleges and hospitals throughout the state.

CHICAGO — The well-respected Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic, beginning on Monday, will reoffer two of three term bonds coming due over the next two months and convert the third to a fixed-rate structure amid negative credit reports that include a downgrade from Standard & Poor’s.

Federal courts this week rejected two attempts by California to get out of a federal court order to provide expensive improvements to the state’s prison health care system, the Associated Press reported.

The Dormitory Authority of the State of New York yesterday announced the selection of a new slate of underwriters and gave preliminary and final approval to sales of $772.6 million of debt at its monthly board meeting.

Standard & Poor’s has revised AA-plus rated Northwestern Memorial Hospital’s outlook to negative from stable due to a weakened balance sheet ahead of this week’s sale of $455 million of fixed-rate bonds through the Illinois Finance Authority.

The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey plans to refinance up to $575 million of debt before April 15, in part to avoid accelerated debt payments on a series of outstanding variable-rate bonds.

The North Carolina Medical Care Commission is expected to sell $46 million of fixed-rate revenue bonds for FirstHealth of the Carolinas on Tuesday. The Series 2009A bonds are the first of two tranches that will finance construction costs for a new heart hospital.