The Wyoming Medical Center hopes to buy out a $27,595,000 bond series, said chief financial officer Nancy Brandt.

"As you know, the bond market has been very volatile," Brandt said. "We've been keeping the trustees and the commissioners informed throughout since really last November when the bond market started doing this."

Recently, the insurer on the Series 2005 bonds, Ambac Financial Group, Inc., was downgraded. At the time, Brandt said, the hospital was been looking into liquidity agreements, but the liquidity provider backed out when Ambac-related bonds shifted to higher risk.

"So we called a meeting, and we looked at all the different things that we needed to look at to be good fiscal agents in holding those bonds and representing the hospital," Brandt said.

Several options, including finding a different liquidity provider, re-issuing bonds at a fixed rate or issuing new bonds at a variable rate, were rejected because of the continuing volatility of the bond market, she said.

"Based on what the bond market is looking at right now, it doesn't look like we're looking at a fast recovery or, for some insurers, any recovery at all," she said. "So that means we couldn't really sell our bonds, which brought us to today."

Brandt said that through meetings with consultants like RBC Dain Rauscher and bond officer Barbara Bonds, the hospital decided that completely redeeming the bonds would be the best idea for the company, which is the lone investor in the bond series.

The hospital bought the bonds back from any other holders in February of this year.

"We are the sole owner of the bonds because the bond market was so erratic [that] we had no way to predict on a day-to-day basis what our interest rates would be," Brandt explained. "We are the only holder of our own bonds."

The bonds were set to mature in September 2024 but - pending the commission's approval - will instead be redeemed prior to maturity on July 30 of this year.

By redeeming the bonds now, the hospital is essentially paying off its bond debt. Brandt said the money will come from the hospital's cash on hand, which should take about three years to return.

Another hospital bond debt, for $4 million, is a fixed-rate bond, and so is not affected by the market. The hospital is "not concerned about that [debt] at all," Brandt said.

"I think it's a tremendous idea to pay off these bonds," Commissioner Terry Wingerter commented. "Get out of debt in these economic times - that seems like the wisest thing."

The commission will officially vote to approve or deny the bond redemption documents during its next regular meeting on Monday at the County Annex building in Casper.

Contact reporter Megan Lee at (307) 266-0589 or megan.lee@trib.com