Healthcare industry

Moody's Investors Service has upgraded HealthPartners Inc.'s rating one level to A2 in recognition of its improved operating performance.

Standard & Poor's has raised its rating by one notch on Riverside Health System to A-plus due to its leading market position and improved balance sheet.

Maine's sales of hundreds of millions of dollars of bonds have been delayed while the Republican governor and Democrat-controlled legislature debate how to raise $484 million owed to the state's hospitals.

University of Texas regents approved $334.5 million of university revenue bonds to fund a medical school in Austin.

Moody's Investors Service lowered Ascension Health Alliance's rating one level to Aa2 ahead of the nation's largest not-for-profit healthcare system's upcoming sale of $980 billion of refunding bonds.

The Louisiana Senate has sent a bill to the House authorizing $252 million of off-the-book lease revenue bonds for the community college system.

Fitch Ratings last week affirmed its AA-minus on $1.8 billion of debt held by Catholic Health Partners, Ohio's largest health care system.

Fitch Ratings and Moody's Investors Service recently revised their outlooks on Methodist Medical Center of Illinois' rating to positive from stable in recognition of its improved operating performance.

Beacon Health expects strong investor response when it comes to market Wednesday with $157 million of AA-minus rated hospital bonds that marks the first borrowing for the newly created credit.

Highmark Inc., which closed on a $604 million deal to take over teetering West Penn Allegheny Health System, is now under rating agency glare.

Six months after announcing a proposed merger, Trinity Health and Catholic Health East said Thursday they've closed the deal, which will create the second-largest health care provider in the country.

Moody's Investors Service upgraded the bond rating of West Penn Allegheny Health System to Caa2 from Ca after Highmark closed on its $604 million takeover.

New York State legislators will meet Thursday with officials of SUNY Downstate Medical Center to discuss a sustainability plan for a Brooklyn hospital that had been slated to close.

A tax overhaul in Minnesota -- with infrastructure funding for the Mayo Clinic's plan to makeover its home city and a likely income tax increase to erase a deficit and generate more funding for schools -- is headed to a conference committee.

Highmark wasted no time taking over West Penn Allegheny Health System after regulators approved a $604 million deal that ended 18 months of turmoil and offered bondholders 87.5 cents on the dollar.

Arkansas will use federal Medicaid funds to purchase health insurance for an additional 250,000 low-income residents under a new pilot program.

A small health care district in Northern California, the Mendocino Coast Health Care District, is still slogging its way through Chapter 9 bankruptcy and hopes to exit this summer without impairing bondholders.

Moody's Investors Service issued a report on Wednesday that examined the local governments and school districts that rely on federal employment, procurement, Medicare reimbursement and education grants that would be most affected by sequestration.

Ratings agencies are awaiting details on the debt structure of the combined St. Luke's Episcopal Health System of Texas and Colorado-based Catholic Health Initiatives before issuing an opinion on the $2 billion deal.

New York City has issued an RFP for a new health care contract, with deputy mayor Cas Holloway calling labor contracts and benefit packages pressing challenges.