Healthcare industry

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.

CHICAGO - Denver-based investment banking firm George K. Baum & Co. has hired prominent Midwest health care banker Tom Laird to open a Minneapolis office and launch a new national health care business.

Catholic Health East Wednesday will convert $171.8 million of variable-rate bonds based on the London Interbank Offered Rate into fixed-rate mode in a multi-state transaction, but $74 million of similar bonds issued through a New Jersey conduit are absent from the offering.

DALLAS - The eight states of the Southwest region have already put their $30 billion share of the federal stimulus in motion, launching transportation projects, patching holes in their budgets, and restoring programs that would otherwise go begging.

The Dormitory Authority of the State of New York gave final approval for $375 million of tax-exempt bonds for Cornell University and preliminary approval for up to $30 million of tax-exempt bonds for a children’s hospital.

CHICAGO - Peoria, Ill.-based Caterpillar Inc.'s recent decision to trim 20% of its global workforce of 110,000 will put added strain and pressure on the budgets and credits of its hometown city and other nearby governmental units, Moody's Investors Service writes in a new commentary.

The West Virginia Hospital Finance Authority is expected to sell $68 million of variable-rate revenue bonds tomorrow on behalf of the West Virginia United Health System Obligated Group.

The WakeMed health care system is expected to sell $75 million in variable-rate bonds today in the second part of a $175 million debt sale started in January.

Gov. Mike Beebe last week signed a bill increasing in Arkansas’ cigarette tax that will generate $86 million a year for health care, including a statewide trauma system for emergency rooms and an expansion of health insurance for children.

The University of Pennsylvania and the University of Pittsburgh will sell long-term bonds over the next two weeks to refinance variable-rate debt and fund various projects.

DALLAS - Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius signed a budget-balancing bill Tuesday, avoiding a shutdown of state government over a dispute with Republican leaders in the Legislature.

The Saint Raphael Obligated Group has defaulted on certain covenants attached to $59.9 million of tax-exempt bonds issued in 2004 on its behalf by the Connecticut Health and Educational Facilities Authority, according to a material event notice.