By Melanie Evans |
March 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription Early rumblings of the 2008 credit crisis pushed healthcare borrowers into a torrent of debt refinancing that year. Now, hospitals and health systems are bracing for another crush of deals, as a raft of bank guarantees on bonds sold during the crisis expire next year. FULL STORY »
By Melanie Evans |
March 09, 2010
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Basic Web Registration The American Hospital Association and state health finance authorities urged House and Senate finance committee leaders to make permanent two temporary stimulus-law incentives that encourage banks to give tax-exempt loans. FULL STORY »
By Vince Galloro |
March 08, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription HCA and LifePoint Hospitals are getting while the getting is good for investor-owned hospital chains, and in credit markets generally, according to one investment banker. FULL STORY »
By Melanie Evans |
March 08, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription Credit and equity market gains in recent months may have restored healthcare borrower finances, but the sector's outlook remains shaky. FULL STORY »
By Melanie Evans |
March 03, 2010
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Basic Web Registration Moody’s Investors Service will adopt new measures of not-for-profit borrowers’ readily accessible cash. FULL STORY »
By Vince Galloro |
March 02, 2010
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Basic Web Registration Two investor-owned hospital chains announced steps to lengthen their debt maturities. FULL STORY »
By Melanie Evans |
February 25, 2010
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Basic Web Registration The Mayo Clinic finished 2009 with its strongest operating margin in five years after breaking even the prior year. Nearly flat expenses helped the Rochester, Minn.-based system swing its operating income to $333.2 million for the year that ended in December from nothing in 2008. FULL STORY »
By Vince Galloro |
February 24, 2010
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Basic Web Registration Ardent Health Services, Nashville, appears poised to become the fourth privately held investor-owned hospital company to make a distribution to its stockholders this year, according to Standard & Poor’s. FULL STORY »
By Melanie Evans |
February 24, 2010
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Basic Web Registration The Senate approved jobs legislation that extends Build America Bonds past a scheduled end in December for a limited number of education and economic development bonds, though it did not expand the financing option to private not-for-profits. President Barack Obama had proposed such an expansion in... FULL STORY »
By Vince Galloro |
February 23, 2010
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Basic Web Registration Health Management Associates, Naples, Fla., said volume growth, especially in outpatient settings, enabled the company to overcome higher uncompensated-care costs in the fourth quarter. FULL STORY »
By Melanie Evans |
February 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription A proposal by President Barack Obama to subsidize lending costs for not-for-profit hospitals may help larger hospitals but not smaller ones, say healthcare finance insiders. FULL STORY »
By Vince Galloro |
February 05, 2010
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Basic Web Registration Aetna, Hartford, Conn., said its fourth-quarter profits were 15% lower than in 2008, as the weak economy continued to hammer its results. Aetna said net income was $165.9 million in the quarter, down 14.8% from the year-ago quarter. Revenue increased 9% to $8.7 billion. For the full year, Aetna... FULL STORY »
By Joe Carlson |
February 03, 2010
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Basic Web Registration A federal bankruptcy judge has approved a reorganization plan that will allow 289-bed St. Mary's Hospital in Passaic, N.J., to reorganize its debts and continue to operate without selling all its assets to another party. FULL STORY »
By Joe Carlson |
February 01, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription If the shortage of nurses and physicians is projected to grow by several hundred thousand vacant jobs 15 years from now, should it really be called a “shortage” at all? FULL STORY »
By Vince Galloro |
January 29, 2010
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Basic Web Registration Vanguard Health Systems, Nashville, said it has completed its sale of $950 million in eight-year senior notes with an interest rate of 8%. FULL STORY »
By Rebecca Vesely |
January 27, 2010
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Basic Web Registration WellPoint boosted profits in the fourth quarter of 2009 but continued to see enrollment losses with lower revenue partially offset by premium rate increases. FULL STORY »
By Vince Galloro |
January 21, 2010
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Basic Web Registration Integrated Healthcare Holdings, Santa Ana, Calif., said an affiliate of its largest shareholder has reached an agreement with a court-appointed receiver to purchase loans made to Integrated by Medical Capital Corp., Tustin, Calif. FULL STORY »
By Vince Galloro |
January 19, 2010
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Basic Web Registration Vanguard Health Systems, Nashville, said in a securities filing that it will write down the value of its two Chicago-area hospitals by $43.1 million in a noncash charge to earnings for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2009, its fiscal 2010 second quarter. The charge was revealed in a filing detailing the... FULL STORY »
By Melanie Evans |
January 18, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription Gundersen Lutheran, based in La Crosse, Wis., owns a solo hospital, nearly two dozen clinics and a health plan. FULL STORY »
By Melanie Evans |
January 14, 2010
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Basic Web Registration Lower Bucks Hospital, Bristol, Pa., filed for bankruptcy protection after failing to pay lenders in December. FULL STORY »
By Joe Carlson |
January 02, 2010
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Basic Web Registration Baptist Health South Florida, a five-hospital not-for-profit system that recorded a $71 million net loss in fiscal 2008, posted a $131 million gain for the year ended Sept. 30. FULL STORY »
By Shawn Rhea |
December 18, 2009
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Basic Web Registration Moody's Investors Service has upgraded its industry-sector outlook for the U.S. medical products and device industry to stable from negative. According to analysts, key areas of the sector have stabilized and growth should be sustainable over the next year. FULL STORY »
By Joe Carlson |
December 16, 2009
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Basic Web Registration In its initial public offering, hospital staffing outsourcer Team Health Holdings, Knoxville, Tenn., received a cool welcome to the market. FULL STORY »
By Melanie Evans |
December 14, 2009
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Basic Web Registration Bond markets that nearly one year ago shut out not-for-profit hospitals and health systems are entering the final weeks of 2009 with a string of deals to take advantage of low borrowing costs or take on new debt. FULL STORY »
By Melanie Evans |
December 11, 2009
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Basic Web Registration Municipal bond advisers and analysts would face new regulation under the far-reaching financial overhaul bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. FULL STORY »
By Joe Carlson |
December 07, 2009
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Basic Web Registration The spike in uncompensated care that was expected last year as a result of the recession failed to materialize, according to new data. FULL STORY »
By Shawn Rhea |
December 05, 2009
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Basic Web Registration Partners HealthCare System, Boston, posted a $45 million gain for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2009, after experiencing $18 million in overall losses during the first three quarters of the year. FULL STORY »
By Shawn Rhea |
December 03, 2009
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Basic Web Registration Team Health Holdings, a Knoxville, Tenn.-based provider of outsourced healthcare staffing services to hospitals, will make an initial public offering of 20 million shares of common stock at a price of $14 to $16 per share, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. FULL STORY »
By Melanie Evans |
December 02, 2009
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Basic Web Registration High unemployment rates are expected to strain U.S. for-profit hospitals and drugmakers in the coming year, according to analysts with Fitch Ratings. FULL STORY »
By Melanie Evans |
December 02, 2009
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Basic Web Registration Investment losses and expenses that grew faster than revenue left the Healthcare Financial Management Association, Westchester, Ill., with a roughly $510,000 loss for the year that ended May 31, according to the professional association's annual tax filing. FULL STORY »
By New York Times |
March 19, 2010
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Free Access When the Mayans envisioned the world coming to an end in 2012 — at least in the Hollywood telling — they didn't count junk bonds among the perils that would lead to worldwide disaster. Maybe they should have. FULL STORY »
By Indianapolis Star |
March 15, 2010
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Free Access A down economy and some federal stimulus funds mean significant savings in the cost of building the $754 million new Wishard hospital complex, according to hospital officials. FULL STORY »
By BusinessWeek |
March 11, 2010
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Free Access Investors in search of better returns poured $7.8 billion into high-yield municipal bond funds last year, pushing assets to a two-year high. They may start experiencing losses as early as this year as default risks grow. FULL STORY »
By Riverside (Calif.) Press-Enterprise |
March 09, 2010
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Free Access Prime Healthcare Services Inc. today is expected to move toward foreclosure against Parkview Community Hospital Medical Center which has been trying for months to secure a loan to pay off its debt. FULL STORY »
By Bond Buyer |
March 08, 2010
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Free Access St. Louis-based Ascension Health on Wednesday launches the first piece of its $1.34 billion new-money and restructuring deal that will raise funds for projects across its network, while also allowing the system to further reduce risk exposure and lower its maximum annual debt service. FULL STORY »
By KWCH-TV |
March 05, 2010
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Free Access Improvements will be coming to two western Kansas hospitals, after two special elections Tuesday. FULL STORY »
By BusinessWeek |
March 04, 2010
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Free Access Catholic Health East, the largest U.S. provider of home health-care services by visits, plans to sell $400 million of bonds in the biggest tax-exempt offering this week. FULL STORY »
By (Fort Myers, Fla.) News Press |
February 23, 2010
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Free Access Worried about the future of SunTrust Bank, Lee Memorial Health System is hoping federal stimulus money will help it get rid of $41 million in debt now backed by the bank. FULL STORY »
By Lodi (Calif.) News |
February 18, 2010
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Free Access Voters may be asked if they are willing to tax themselves to help finance operations at San Joaquin General Hospital. The Board of Supervisors directed county administrators to offer options for placing a bond measure on the ballot. The amount of the tax proposal has not been determined. FULL STORY »
By BusinessWeek |
February 17, 2010
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Free Access The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pennsylvania’s largest health-care system, is selling about $720 million of fixed-rate, tax-exempt bonds, leading nonprofit hospital borrowers this week. FULL STORY »
By Business Journal of the Triad area |
February 16, 2010
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Free Access The nation’s two main investment-rating agencies have both reaffirmed their ratings of N.C. Baptist Hospital. FULL STORY »
By (Columbus, Miss.) Dispatch |
February 11, 2010
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Free Access After some heated discussion Thursday, the Oktibbeha County (Miss.) Board of Supervisors took a step toward increasing the county’s bonding capacity. The county is allowed to borrow up to 15 percent of its total assessed value. With an assessed value of $307 million, the county can borrow... FULL STORY »
By NJ.com |
February 05, 2010
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Free Access A New Jersey state report released yesterday predicts that the financially ailing Hoboken University Medical Center "will close in the next few months," but hospital officials are confident HUMC will survive. FULL STORY »
By Bond Buyer |
February 04, 2010
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Free Access The Indianapolis Local Public Improvement Bond Bank will enter the market today with about $200 million of bonds, in the first of two borrowings that will finance construction of a new, $754 million safety-net hospital for Marion County. FULL STORY »
By Bloomberg via BusinessWeek |
February 03, 2010
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Free Access Failure to pass the health-care overhaul may accelerate a push by Community Health Systems Inc., Health Management Associates Inc. and LifePoint Hospitals Inc. to acquire facilities weakened by the recession. FULL STORY »
By San Diego Union-Tribune |
February 02, 2010
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Free Access Scripps Health, which operates five hospitals in the county, is wrapping up a round of borrowing that will help fund the first part of a previously announced $1.5 billion building program. FULL STORY »
By Indianapolis Business Journal |
February 01, 2010
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Free Access Economic factors have forced Indianapolis-area hospitals to stop battling one another with big guns—the inpatient hospital expansions that thudded into place around the city the past decade. Local observers expect no additional inpatient facilities for at least five years—maybe longer. FULL STORY »
By McCook (Neb.) Daily Gazette |
January 29, 2010
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Free Access Community Hospital's construction project is coming in on time and nearly 10% under budget at a cost that is now slightly under $30 million. FULL STORY »
By (Honolulu) Star Bulletin |
January 28, 2010
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Free Access Although Hawaii Medical Center's bankruptcy case may now be one step closer to reorganization, there's much contention and confusion over collateral for its former owner. FULL STORY »
January 27, 2010
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Free Access A leading credit-rating agency lowered the debt rating on Boston Medical Center as the financially troubled hospital posted an operating loss of $24.5 million for the 12 months ended Sept. 30, 2009, its first in five years. FULL STORY »
