Healthcare industry

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.

CHICAGO - After years of financial problems, Ohio's Forum Health this week filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, leaving uncertain how much bondholders would ultimately recover as the system moves through the reorganization process.

CHICAGO - As nonprofit hospitals begin to release their 2008 audits, preliminary numbers show a weakening across all significant ratios and all rating categories, Moody's Investors Service said in a new report out this week.

The Cook County Board of Commissioners last week hired a new chief executive officer to oversee the system’s massive and financially troubled public health bureau.

The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston would be restored to its pre-Hurricane Ike capacity of 550 patient beds under a $713 million recovery plan approved last week by UT regents.

CHICAGO - Ohio's University Hospitals Health System plans to enter the market today with $110 million of fixed-rate bonds to finance a series of major projects intended to keep the system competitive in the Cleveland area.

CHICAGO - The Illinois Finance Authority signed off on $650 million of borrowing planned by a handful of nonprofit hospitals and a college, including Northwestern Memorial Hospital, which plans to sell up to $475 million of fixed-rate bonds later this month.

CHICAGO - Des Moines-based Iowa Health System enters the market today with nearly $250 million of variable-rate debt in five series with three letter of credit providers to raise $43 million for new projects and to refund $201 million of outstanding floating-rate debt insured by Ambac Assurance Corp.

WASHINGTON - More than a year after the auction-rate securities market collapsed, some $78 billion of illiquid municipal ARS remain outstanding, but a growing number of bond attorneys are pushing to use a new type of taxable bond program recently authorized by Congress to refund some of those securities.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn last week signed a measure that allows the state to borrow $500 million from two state funds to kick-start its hospital assessment tax program, which was enacted to leverage additional federal Medicaid dollars and expedite payments to hospitals.