Healthcare industry

Edward Hospital & Health Services and Elmhurst Memorial Healthcare formally decided to merge to create one system with more than $1 billion in annual revenues.

The Mississippi Legislature is nearing agreement on a $5.7 billion general fund budget for 2014, though questions remain over Medicaid expansion.

Fitch Ratings revised the outlook on the Georgia DeKalb County Hospital Authority to negative from stable citing a decline in operating cash flow below expectations.

Minnesota Attorney General will hold hearings beginning next week to probe South Dakota-based Sanford Health's possible acquisition of Minnesota-based Fairview Health Services.

A private foundation linked to the $3 billion bond-funded Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas may have improperly changed its name and procedures in the wake of several investigations of alleged insider deals, according to Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott.

NABL is urging Treasury and the IRS to provide guidance ensuring that tax-exempt private-activity bonds don’t become taxable if the issuing governments and nonprofit hospitals take steps to implement President Obama’s health care reform law.

Arkansas will save almost $700 million through a private insurance option in an expansion of the Medicaid program, a report said.

The California Health Facilities Financing Authority approved on Thursday issuing $450 million in tax-exempt revenue bonds for Sutter Health System to construct a hospital in Santa Rosa and medical clinics in Sunnyvale and San Carlos.

The Internal Revenue Service is auditing two separate series of hospital revenue bonds totaling $142.2 million that were issued by the Highlands County, Fla., Health Facilities Authority in 2005 and 2007 and then redeemed.

Most non-profit hospitals are expected to find the 2% Medicare reimbursements cuts that take effect Monday manageable, Fitch Ratings says in a new report.

With its ratings intact, CoxHealth in Missouri next week enters the market with a mostly new-money sale for about $200 million to help finance a major expansion at its main healthcare campus.

Moody's Investors Service last week confirmed its Baa3 rating on Memorial Healthcare and removed the rating from under review. The outlook is positive, Moody's said.

The Detroit Medical Center has dropped plans to build a $50 million outpatient facility in the Detroit suburb of Royal Oak.

Michigan will likely have a federal health insurance exchange instead of a joint state-federal partnership after the state Senate last week recessed for spring break without meeting a federal deadline.

Moody's Investors Service called an Illinois judge's dismissal of litigation challenging the state's retiree healthcare reforms a credit positive for the state.

Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl is challenging the nonprofit status of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pennsylvania's largest employer.

Moody's Investors Service downgraded the rating on bonds sold for Wake Forest Baptist, N.C., to A1 from Aa3 on Wednesday citing an unexpected decline in financial performance. The action affects $597.2 million of outstanding bonds.

Moody's Investors Service last week downgraded to A3 from A2 its rating on Adena Health System, Ohio and revised the outlook to negative from stable.

Standard & Poor's has raised Rush University Medical Center Obligated Group's rating by one notch to A in recognition of the system's new patient tower and good operating performance.

Medicaid and Medicare funding cuts under the new federal health care law could force states to choose whether to compensate hospitals with their own dollars or let hospitals' credit quality decline, Moody's said.