Healthcare industry

CHICAGO - Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle and legislative leaders yesterday announced measures to trim about $700 million from the state's $5.7 billion, three-year budget deficit through spending cuts, a hospital assessment program that leverages more federal funds, and other maneuvers.

CHICAGO - A pair of recent surveys show that nearly half of nonprofit hospitals have postponed or significantly cut back on their capital budgets in light of economic woes, including increased difficulty in accessing the bond market.

BRADENTON, Fla. - Facing a deficit that could run $1 billion or more, Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen Monday night told lawmakers he would delay submitting his budget until Congress passes an economic stimulus bill that's projected to bring the state more than $3 billion.

The University of Chicago Medical Center this week announced 450 layoffs of non-physician positions as part of a restructuring aimed at trimming $100 million in costs.

CHICAGO - A flood of refundings by Midwestern issuers looking to shed auction-rate securities and variable-rate bonds backed by downgraded insurers in the second quarter of 2008 couldn't compensate for a steep fourth-quarter drop-off in borrowing amid the economic and market turmoil of last fall.

Michigan’s hospitals are on the “brink of fiscal crisis,” a new report by the Michigan Health and Hospital Association says.

CHICAGO - Chicago-based BMO Capital Markets, the investment banking arm of the Bank of Montreal, has hired veteran Chicago-based banker Brian McGough to launch a public finance health care business.

The Montana Facility Finance Authority is appealing an Internal Revenue Service proposed adverse determination that concluded the interest earned from $14.15 million of variable-rate demand revenue bonds it issued to finance an expansion of a nursing home would be taxable.

Standard & Poor’s downgraded Sherman Health’s credit two notches to BBB from A-minus due to greater-than-expected operating losses in fiscal 2008 and fiscal 2009.

Standard & Poor’s last week revised its outlook on Ministry Health Care Inc.’s A-plus credit to negative from stable due to weak debt coverage levels, in a review prompted by the provider’s $120 million new issue.

The Rhode Island House is expected to vote today to require legislative oversight on a Medicaid waiver that went into effect last month.

As New York's 2009 legislative session kicks into high gear the state's largest issuers are looking for support for their annual wish lists.

Fitch Ratings last week upgraded about $64.4 million of outstanding Delaware Health Facilities Authority revenue bonds sold for the Beebe Medical Center project to A-minus from BBB-plus.

AUSTIN - Texas could issue the first bonds from a $3 billion cancer research program by the end of the year if the Legislature approves debt service appropriations in the current session, Lieut. Gov. David Dewhurst said yesterday.

CHICAGO - The tough times plaguing U.S. not-for-profit health care borrowers are likely to continue through 2010, Fitch Ratings warned in a report on the sector issued yesterday.

SAN FRANCISCO - California officials say the state has done enough to fix health care at its prisons and a federal court should dismiss a receiver who has ordered the state to spend $8 billion to build and renovate prison hospitals.

CHICAGO - As Evansville, Ind.-based Deaconess Health System prepares to issue roughly $100 million in fixed- and variable-rate bonds, finance officials say they are hoping to take advantage of the growing appetite for tax-exempt health care debt among retail buyers.

CHICAGO - Minneapolis-based Allina Hospitals and Clinics expressed surprise late last week at the Minnesota attorney general's decision to file a lawsuit against the system over the credit-card like interest rates it charges on medical debts, saying it had already decided to lower those rates.

CHICAGO - The Illinois Finance Authority expects OSF Healthcare System and Rush University Medical Center to soon join in on the slow trickle of struggling health care borrowers testing market interest in their sector's debt so far this year.

CHICAGO - While the market has strengthened for many issuers over the last month, nonprofit health care providers continue to struggle to sell bonds at attractive prices - a problem that is likely to persist throughout 2009, Standard & Poor's predicted in a grim report on the sector issued yesterday.