Healthcare industry

New Jersey officials yesterday approved a $169 million bond deal for Solaris Health System that will benefit from the state's appropriation pledge as the transaction falls under New Jersey's Hospital Asset Transformation Program.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom proposed a local economic stimulus plan this week and said his staff is preparing budget cuts to keep the general fund balanced as the economy slows.

CHICAGO - States already struggling to meet Medicaid payments face spending increases next year that could outstrip their general fund growth by up to four times, according to a new report on the program released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The New Jersey Educational Facilities Authority yesterday approved up to $800 million of refinancing debt, including $575 million for the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

With cash-strapped Illinois facing a backlog of Medicaid bills, Comptroller Dan Hynes this week called on federal authorities to increase Medicaid funding to Illinois and other states to ensure payments keep flowing to struggling service providers.

CHICAGO - The Wisconsin Health and Educational Facilities Authority yesterday advanced the borrowing plans of four major health care systems totaling about $800 million in new-money and refunding debt, including $450 million from Froedtert & Community Health Inc.

CHICAGO - Unable to access the frozen credit market to refund $60 million of bonds that were about to convert to auction-rate mode, a Kalamazoo, Mich.-based hospital last week turned to its parent company to purchase $40 million of the debt and used an emergency bridge loan to buy the remaining $20 million.

New Orleans has made an unspecified offer in another attempt to buy the hurricane-damaged Methodist Hospital in the eastern part of the city. The purchase would be financed from a $411 million pool of federal recovery money dedicated to projects in New Orleans.

CHICAGO - The Michigan State Hospital Finance Authority this week signed off on roughly $1.5 billion in bond sales even as the hospitals seeking debt indicated the timing of their transactions is uncertain amid the current market turmoil.

CHICAGO - General Motors Corp. today will make a presentation to the Detroit Police and Fire Retirement System to try to persuade the pension board to loan the ailing automaker up to $500 million by investing in GM's prominent downtown Detroit headquarters.

The Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors on Nov. 4 will ask voters to approve issuing $27.5 million of general obligation bonds. Proceeds would be used to make improvements to the Oktibbeha County Hospital.

SAN FRANCISCO - California officials appear to have received at least a temporary reprieve from the full scope of a federal court motion demanding $8 billion to implement a state prison hospital construction program.

WASHINGTON - Investors who bought $55.5 million of bonds to help construct the Glebe, an upscale continuing-care retirement community near Roanoke, Va., face major uncertainties with their investments after the facility defaulted on a $15 million bond payment in July because its revenues came in lower than anticipated.

Massachusetts’ landmark health care program will receive an additional $21.2 billion of federal reimbursement over the next three years, a $4.3 billion boost in federal funding.

LAS VEGAS - What is clear: the landscape for nonprofit health care financing has changed. What is not so clear: what that landscape will look like after the current credit crisis wanes, according to participants last week at The Bond Buyer's Nonprofit Hospital Finance Conference here.

LAS VEGAS - The ongoing crisis in the markets was evident yesterday in the hallways and at the podium of The Bond Buyer's annual Nonprofit Hospital Finance Conference here.

CHICAGO - ThedaCare Inc. and Marquette University - two Wisconsin-based tax-exempt borrowers that sought first-time ratings - joined the list of issuers with deals on hold this week due to the rise in long-term interest rates, although Marquette did move forward with its floating-rate tranches due to its cash needs.

CHICAGO - Indiana-based Sisters of St. Francis Health Services Inc. hopes to try again soon to get a long-postponed new-money deal sold, possibly by next week.

DALLAS — Baylor Health Care System recently unveiled plans to build a $350 million cancer hospital and cancer outpatient center at its main campus in downtown Dallas.

New Jersey received $7.4 billion of good news this week as an outside actuarial report now pegs the state's unfunded other post-employment benefit liability at $50.65 billion, down from the previous years' shortfall of $58.59 billion.