A group of banks led by Bank of America has agreed to amend the $1.3 billion loan package of local hospital operator Iasis Healthcare. The Franklin-based company will now pay a maximum margin of 3.25 percent on its LIBOR-linked loans — 50 basis points lower than before — and 2.25 percent for revolving base-rate loans, which is down from 2.75 percent. Iasis joins a number of other local players — including fellow local hospital operators LifePoint and Acadia — that have moved recently to lower their interest rates or simplify their financial structures.

SEE ALSO: Iasis' recent Q4 numbers

Iasis Healthcare executives say they have pegged their 2013 capital spending budget at between $140 million and $150 million. (Search here for "140.") If the company does end up spending that much in the coming year — plans can change, you know — it will be an increase of about 30 percent from the $112 million it devoted to cap ex in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. The anticipated jump is due almost entirely to greater investments in replacement or maintenance projects. In the two fiscal years before the most recent one, Franklin-based Iasis spent $81 million and $98 million, respectively, on plant and equipment.

Iasis Healthcare has expanded and extended a six-month “test” contract with a Texas company, an agreement that provides patients with  high–speed data networking service in two of the Franklin-based hospital owner's facilities.

The service is designed to improve care by giving patients expanded communication and entertainment options.

Terms of the contract were not disclosed.

The contract between Lewisville, Texas-based CareView Communications, Inc. and Iasis was initiated in November 2011. The cable– provided communication is now available to only a certain number of “select beds” within Iasis’ larger system of 20 hospitals, entities containing a collective total of approximately 4,400 licensed beds.

"After achieving such demonstrable results, IASIS intends to use CareView’s full suite of services including nursing modules, that facilitate and monitor rounding,“ Tedd Adair, Iasis’ vice president of clinical operations, said in a company statement.

Leaders of the Louisiana State University Health System have begun talks with various private hospitals about ways the latter could help the public network absorb more than $150 million in funding cuts that will result in almost 1,500 layoffs come January. The Bayou State's health and hospitals secretary says all discussions have been with local companies, but depending on how you interpret that statement, that could mean facilities run by companies headquartered in Middle Tennessee. So we wondered which local companies might be interested in adding to their networks in Louisiana.

Not surprisingly, industry giant HCA Holdings is the biggest locally based owner there with more than a half dozen hospitals and surgery centers. Close behind is LifePoint Hospitals with five. Community Health Systems and Iasis Healthcare run three and one medical centers, respectively. Time will tell if any of them manage to add to those numbers via LSU's network.