Healthcare industry

The 2010 issuance of $165 million of Build America Bonds by Indianapolis' public hospital has thwarted a long-planned merger with another major Indiana system.

Three Detroit hospitals reached a final agreement to merge into a new $3.8 billion system that will be the largest in southeast Michigan.

Moody's Investors Service has downgraded to Ba3 from Baa3 the rating assigned to Good Shepherd Medical Center, Texas's (GSMC) $93.7 million of outstanding bonds issued by the Gregg County Health Facilities Development Corporation and the Harrison County Health Facilities Development Corporation.

The American Hospital Association has provided the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service with recommendations about updating tax-exempt bond rules to accommodate incentives of President Obama's health care reform law.

Two Chicago-based health systems — Alexian Brothers Health System and Adventist Midwest Health — intend to join forces to create a joint operating company with a combined nine hospitals.

Moody's Investors Service has placed the University Medical Center Corp.'s Baa1 rating on review for downgrade after the Tucson nonprofit posted a large operating loss in the first nine months of its fiscal year.

Moody's Investors Service has revised its outlook to positive from stable on Avera Health, one of South Dakota's largest health care providers, as the system comes to market this week with $59 million of bonds.

The Internal Revenue Service has determined in an audit that general obligation bonds issued in 2007 and 2009 by the Sierra Kings Health Care District in California are private-activity bonds and not tax-exempt governmental bonds.

Moody's Investors Service has downgraded Illinois-based Presence Health's rating one level to Baa2 due to ongoing operating pressures.

Health-care cost savings in contracts between New York City and its municipal labor unions should be recurring and "bend the cost curve" by making the system operate more efficiently, said Carol Kellermann, president of the Citizens Budget Commission watchdog organization.

Macomb County, which is adjacent to Detroit, is considering issue $270 million of long term bonds to cover its retiree health care benefit liability.

Moody's downgraded Wayne Memorial Hospital's issuer rating to Baa1 from A3 due to the North Carolina hospital's "recent weak operating performance and low revenue growth."

King's Daughters Medical Center will pay $40.9 million to settle allegations of federal health care fraud, a penalty that is among the largest of its kind in Kentucky.

Fitch placed $34.3 million of Bridgeport Hospital bonds on rating watch positive, citing its pending transaction with Yale New Haven Health System.

A New York issuer has applied for relief under the Internal Revenue Service's voluntary closing agreement program so that tax-law violations relating to bonds issued for New York Medical College in 1998 can be settled.

Houston's Memorial Hermann Health System is preparing to issue more than $290 million of bonds to finance expansion projects.

Fitch Ratings revised its outlook to negative from stable on $130 million of Covenant Health System revenue bonds in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

The Good Shepherd Medical Center serving East Texas is on the verge of losing its Moody's Investors Service investment-grade rating of Baa3, analysts said.

The State University of New York is starting to shut down its money-losing Long Island College Hospital.

The boards of two Illinois-based systems — Cadence Health and Northwestern Memorial HealthCare — on Thursday agreed to join forces.