BJC HealthCare and Saint Luke's Health System signed a letter of intent to form an integrated not-for-profit Missouri-based health system.

The bipartisan legislation offers hopes for other municipal bond industry priorities.

The Treasury Department's Bureau of Fiscal Service has suspended the sales of State and Local Government Series securities in efforts to avoid defaulting on the debt limit.

Several Midwest hospital mergers that are in the works will contribute to the 2023 numbers while one announced in 2022 just closed.

The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2023.

The acquisition closed Friday and all nine employees, who provide municipal and healthcare advisory services and treasury consulting services, joined PFM.

Each would preserve their individual brands with a new organization functioning as the parent company with the aim of cutting administrative costs.

The state's benchmark debt ratio for debt service to revenue is at 3.78% — well below a 6% target and 7% limit.

Advocate Aurora Health and Atrium Health finalized their merger Friday.

The Missouri-based firms say they will boost client relationships and expand capabilities with the pending merger, which will retain the L.J. Hart & Co. brand.

Upon integration, the Lumesis DIVER product suite will provide additional municipal asset class workflow, analytics related to price transparency, and regulatory-related solutions to SOLVE'S Market Data Platform.

The financial advisory firm is adding to its fold a specialty firm that focuses on aiding the hospital sector on clinical documentation, revenue cycle, hospital operations, and technology.

Baker Tilly will fold specialty consulting firm Management Partners into its public sector practice next month.

A Reason Foundation study found K-12 debt steadily rising since 2014.

While the number of deals slipped, the amount of revenues involved in announced transaction hit a peak.

Karl K. Klessig provided a fraudulent loan document and forged a signature in an application last year to acquire control of Golden Pacific Bancorp, according to the Federal Reserve.

The acquisition of Cancer Treatment Centers of America in February was cited for the downgrade along with City of Hope's financial weakness over the past two years.

If the deal closes, the two systems say they will evaluate existing debt structures and combine credits where possible and beneficial.

Raymond James has agreed to acquire SumRidge Partners, a fixed income market maker dealing in investment-grade and high-yield municipal bonds.

The two Michigan-based systems completed their merger amid stepped-up federal anti-trust scrutiny but have not yet announced any changes to their existing debt portfolios.