Nutshell Associates’ President Liz Sweeney recently published a 3-part series on nonprofit U.S. hospitals and how their role in the front lines of pandemic response impacts financial performance, credit quality and capital market reception. The series is in collaboration with SwissThink, Nutshell’s global credit training and professional development partner.
In the intro video, Liz and SwissThink’s President Blaise Ganguin discuss the 3-part series and key findings.
Part 1. Healthcare Providers Are Essential. Do Capital Markets Agree? The pandemic helped Americans understand just how essential our hospitals are. The federal government agreed, stepping up with substantial operating and liquidity support to shore them up. In the language of credit ratings, high essentiality plus likelihood of external support usually equals higher ratings and lower cost of capital. Is that what's happening?
Part 2. Do U.S. Hospitals Have a Case of Long-Haul COVID? In this post, we discuss why many hospitals are losing money despite being full to the brim, why credit ratings are under stress, and how hospitals have adapted operations as the pandemic progressed.
Part 3. U.S. Hospitals Emerging into A Changed World. We wrap up the series discussing the future - how the pandemic is accelerating certain pre-pandemic industry trends, the changing nature of competition, and what consumers want from healthcare providers now more than ever.