Healing garden part of project

November 03, 2009 08:25 am

— WILLIAMSPORT — Susquehanna Health was featured as part of the cover story in the Oct. 19 issue of Modern Healthcare magazine. The title of the article was “Either a borrower or lender be” and focused on select hospitals that have pushed forward on capital projects because of the financial market’s recent positive direction.
The article notes, however, that “caution still rules.”
Charles Santangelo, chief financial officer for Susquehanna Health, gave details about Susquehanna Health’s $172 million bond and said that when the credit crisis began, it disrupted the hospitals’ facility projects from the outset. However, as the markets began to rebound, Susquehanna Health moved to secure bond insurance from one insurer who wasn’t handicapped by exposure to risky mortgages.
The bond offering took place in July with a projected interest of about 7.5 percent. Instead, the bonds rated A1 from Fitch and BBB+ from Standard & Poor’s priced the week of Oct. 12 at 5.9 percent. This difference is expected to save Susquehanna Health about $2.6 million a year.