Capital Finance

The American Hospital Association is encouraging Congress to extend several tax provisions necessary to hospital capital financing.

Officials broke ground Monday on the new $534 million Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood, Texas.

Overall U.S. healthcare prices increased slightly from October to November, rising 0.2 percent, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Healthcare Trust of America, Inc., a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based self-managed, non-traded real estate investment trust, has closed on a $275 million unsecured revolving credit facility.

Tenet Healthcare has rejected an unsolicited $3.3 billion dollar stock and cash buyout offer from Community Health Systems, saying the offer was opportunistic, undervalued the Dallas-based healthcare network and didn't adequately reflect the company's prospect for future growth.

Barely a month after buying the Massachusetts-based six-hospital Caritas Christi Health Care system for $895 million, Steward Health Care System LLC has agreed to buy two more hospitals - 124-bed Merrimack Valley Hospital in Haverhill and 57-bed Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer.

Underwriting discipline and an improved cost structure have led to an increased credit rating for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska.

IPC The Hospitalist Company, a national hospitalist physician group practice, has acquired Senior Care of Colorado, headquartered in Aurora, Colo.

Because he thinks in stories, Atul Gawande - surgeon, author, professor - started a recent lecture about the costs and failures of the country's healthcare system with a story about a middle-aged car mechanic in Alabama.

Laura Winner, Director, Lean Sigma Program, Center for Innovation in Quality Patient Care, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore, Md.