Healthcare industry

Two rating agencies changed their outlooks for St. Anthony’s Medical Center in conjunction with their release of updated credit reviews.

Voters in Hot Spring County and Chicot County last week approved increases in local sales taxes to help finance operations at hospitals in Malvern and Lake Village, respectively.

CHICAGO - William Beaumont Hospital plans to enter the market this week with $584 million of new-money and refunding revenue bonds, the first of three issues over the next several months.

ATLANTA - Hospital systems throughout the country are trying to unload their auction-rate securities, and next week the Cape Fear Valley Health Center in North Carolina will join them.

CHICAGO - More than $1.7 billion of borrowing is planned in the coming months by health care providers under a series of financings advanced this week by the Illinois Finance Authority board.

CHICAGO - Provena Health by the end of the month will petition the Illinois Supreme Court to review an appellate court opinion stripping one of the Mokena, Ill.-based system's hospitals of its property tax exemption.

CHICAGO - The Illinois Finance Authority board yesterday approved the University of Chicago Medical Center's plan to restructure $185 million of insured variable-rate debt in a unanimous vote, which came after several protestors voiced complaints charging that the hospital discriminates against the area's poor African-Americans.

CHICAGO - CoxHealth of Springfield, Mo., enters the market today with the first piece of a new-money and refunding transaction for $265 million that will finance a series of expansion projects and restructure outstanding insured floating-rate bonds hit with higher rates due to insurer downgrades.

CHICAGO - The Cleveland Clinic Health System today enters the market with $375 million in fixed-rate revenue bonds, the first in a series of issues totaling $1.1 billion over the next few weeks.

CHICAGO - Investors holding $38 million of bonds issued on behalf of a Michigan hospital will likely end up receiving just $3.2 million under a deal announced last week allowing the cash-strapped facility to enter bankruptcy before being purchased by a for-profit group of physicians.

CHICAGO - The University of Chicago Medical Center said yesterday it was "proud" of its charitable care record after receiving a questionnaire on its practices from the U.S. Senate's leading proponent of heightened congressional oversight of nonprofit hospitals and whether they warrant the perks of their tax-exempt status.

The Internal Revenue Service has closed its audit of $40 million of 2002 revenue bonds issued by the Illinois Health Facilities Authority, now part of the Illinois Finance Authority, without changing the tax-exempt status of the debt, the IFA disclosed Thursday.

CHICAGO -Capital spending is expected to remain heavy across the nonprofit health care sector amid mounting financial pressures and the fallout from the collapsed auction-rate securities market, according to a pair of reports released this week by Moody's Investors Service and Standard & Poor's.

Voters in northern San Diego County this week rejected a bond measure to rebuild the Tri-City Healthcare District’s hospital to meet state-mandated earthquake safety standards for a third time.

CHICAGO - Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings have cut their ratings on William Beaumont Hospital as the Michigan-based system prepares to enter the market soon with more than $700 million of revenue bonds. Standard & Poor'swarned it is considering a downgrade as well

CHICAGO - Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich last week signed into law a new five-year hospital assessment program aimed at leveraging about $4 billion in additional federal matching Medicaid funds for the state's not-for-profit hospitals, especially those considered "safety-net" hospitals with high Medicaid volumes.

Santa Clara County voters will decide in November whether they want to pay more property taxes to rebuild their public hospital and a higher sales tax to take the Bay Area Rapid Transit system to San Jose.

Moody’s Investors Service last week upgraded to Aa2 from Aa3 the long-term rating on debt issued for the Medical Center of Central Georgia Inc.

CHICAGO - Credit quality is beginning to deteriorate across the not-for-profit health care sector as providers grapple with an array of financial pressures, said Standard & Poor's in a pair of reports on the sector released yesterday.

DALLAS - A $747 million bond proposal to rebuild Dallas' crowded Parkland Hospital will share the November ballot with candidates for state and federal office in what some expect to be a record turnout.