HCA Inc. is seeking to raise $300 million in a bond offering to repay bank debt and to amend terms of some of its loans. The sale would be HCA's first since its November 2006 buyout, when the Nashville-based company raised $5.7 billion in what was then the biggest high-yield offering in 17 years. Ed Fishbough, an HCA spokesman, said that the company was pleased with response to the offering. "This is a step we're taking as part of a prudent and conservative plan to pay down some of our debt that begins maturing in three-and-a-half years," he said.
Fulton County, GA, needs to increase payments to Grady Memorial Hospital by nearly half, by about $36 million a year, if the county is going to meet its obligations in covering the hospital's losses on indigent Fulton residents, according to Grady officials. Grady representatives delivered that message in a series of documents, numbers and files presented to county officials as the two sides spar over how much taxpayers should contribute for indigent care. Fulton officials vowed to pore over the files and see if they can verify the numbers.
Once vilified for its stingy health benefits, Wal-Mart has become an unlikely leader in the effort to provide affordable care without bankrupting employers, their workers, or taxpayers in the process. At a time when other firms are scaling back or eliminating health coverage, Wal-Mart has made a serious dent in the problem of the uninsured. New figures show that 5.5% of its employees now lack health insurance, compared with a nationwide rate of 18%.
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's investment portfolio took a $3 million hit last quarter, but it remains on target to exceed a $500 million cash flow income this fiscal year, health system officials said. Chief Financial Officer Robert DeMichiei said UMPC had $103 million in operating income for the first half of the current fiscal year—up $3 million from the same period a year ago. That money will be used to fund capital expenditures and create new programs in addition to keeping the health system running, he said.
Despite insistence from Louisiana State University System officials that they have made a final decision to build a new academic medical complex New Orleans, opponents of the plan continue to lobby for an audience with Gov. Bobby Jindal and Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary Alan Levine. Their hope is to convince the governor and Levine that gutting and rebuilding Charity Hospital from within represents a better option for taxpayers, future medical students, and patients.
Brownsville Tri-County Hospital, a long-troubled 40-bed facility in Fayette County, PA, has finally closed. The board of directors surrendered the hospital's operating license to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, which helped transfer the remaining 15 patients to other facilities. The 93-year-old hospital, which had closed once before, has been in tangled bankruptcy proceedings for four years and indicated earlier this month that it couldn't pay its 150 employees.