CA hospitals allowed to restructure debt

A group of six California hospitals and health systems won much-needed approval to restructure or refinance outstanding debt turned into a ticking time bomb by the bond crisis. The move follows similar steps by Massachusetts bond authorities, who also are dealing with their share of hospital bond crises.

At an emergency meeting of the California Health Facilities Financing Authority, the board took steps to make refinancing easier for tax-exempt hospitals and systems ready to jump out of the gyrating bond market. One big winner was San Francisco-Catholic Healthcare West, a 39-hospital system that was able to refund up to $2.2 billion to restructure auction- or variable-rate debt. The board also approved refinancing for 417-bed Hoag Memorial Hospital of Newport Beach, $69 million for 264-bed Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital of Palo Alto, $314 million for four-hospital Scripps Health of San Diego, $665 million for 466-bed Stanford Hospitals and Clinics, and $625 million for 22-hospital system Sutter Health.

To learn more about the hospitals' refinancing:
- read this Modern Healthcare piece (reg. req.)

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