Healthcare industry

Park Nicollet Health Services saw the outlook on its A credit revised last week to negative from stable by Standard & Poor’s to reflect soft patient numbers and concerns over its financial performance of late.

Fitch Ratings last week upgraded Aurora Health Care Inc. to A from A-minus in recognition of its strong credit profile and establishment as a fully integrated health care delivery system.

CHICAGO - Under pressure to justify their tax-exemption benefits, nonprofit hospitals in Illinois provided more than $4 billion in charitable care and other community benefits in 2006 and agreed to new pricing caps and discounts for the poor and uninsured, the Illinois Hospital Association asserts in a new report.

DALLAS - The Dallas County Hospital District is seeking a November vote on $747 million of general obligation and revenue bonds that would partially finance a $1.27 billion effort to replace Parkland Hospital, Dallas County's charity hospital.

DALLAS - New Mexico lawmakers will return to Santa Fe Aug. 15 for a special session to deal with issues high on Gov. Bill Richardson's agenda that got short shrift in last spring's regular session.

The New Jersey Health Care Facilities Financing Authority today will price nearly $250 million of state contract bonds to help support Catholic Health East's buyout of three Newark hospitals, a move that will help eliminate the area's number of vacant hospital beds.

WASHINGTON - Marking the 10th anniversary of Allegheny Health, Education, and Research Foundation's historic bankruptcy filing and payment default, Moody's Investors Service issued a report yesterday on the lessons learned from that debacle and the challenges still facing nonprofit hospitals.

Standard & Poor’s Wednesday dropped the underlying rating on Antelope Valley Healthcare District revenue bonds to speculative grade.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved an $887 million general obligation bond measure that would pay to rebuild the San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center if approved by voters in November.

CHICAGO - New York City-based Cain Brothers & Co. is extending its Midwestern reach with the opening of a new St. Louis office that will house former Wachovia Securities LLC health care bankers Joseph Mulligan and Sara Kisner.

CHICAGO - The Wisconsin Health and Educational Facilities Authority yesterday approved three transactions tied to borrowers' efforts to exit the auction-rate market. They include a $152 million deal from Children's Hospital and Health System of Wisconsin Inc. that will mark the second use in the tax-exempt market of a floating-rate structure promoted by Goldman, Sachs & Co.

DALLAS - The Texas Public Finance Authority will give investors a chance to grab some of its general obligation debt this week as the agency issues $225 million of bonds for refunding and new money.

New York issuers will dominate the new-issue activity this week as both the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority and the New York City Municipal Water Finance Authority come to the primary market amid an anticipated slate of $7.5 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.

CHICAGO - Flint, Mich.-based McLaren Health Care Corp. will enter the market tomorrow with $204 million of fixed-rate revenue bonds in the first of two series that together will refinance all the system's so-called indexed put bonds as well as a portion of debt taken on with a pair of recent acquisitions.

ATLANTA - North Carolina lawmakers have approved a roughly $22 billion budget for the 2008-09 fiscal year, which includes almost $900 million of borrowing.

CHICAGO - A gaming expansion bill - one of three funding sources for a $34 billion capital budget - failed during a special session of the Illinois House yesterday, one day after Gov. Rod Blagojevich sought to pressure lawmakers to pass the plan by vetoing $1.4 billion in spending from the fiscal 2009 operating budget.

CHICAGO -Fitch Ratings this week revised to negative its outlook on the U.S. health insurance and managed care sector.

CHICAGO - The University of Toledo will enter the market today with roughly $35 million of fixed-rate general receipts bonds in the first of two series that will refund recent notes used to take out all the system's insured variable-rate demand bonds.

The South Carolina Jobs-Economic Development Authority is readying a $19 million deal for the Kershaw County Medical Center.

The Adventist Health System-Sunbelt Obligated Group on Monday won a trio of rating upgrades from Moody’s Investors Service in conjunction with the conversion or addition of letters of credit from SunTrust Bank on three series of bonds.