Research

The Impact of Coronavirus on Hospitals, Credit Quality, and Capital Markets

Nutshell Associates’ President Liz Sweeney recently published a 3-part series on nonprofit U.S. hospitals and how their role in the front...

Arizona Charter Schools Boosted by Paycheck Protection Program

A surprisingly large percentage of Arizona charter schools used the Paycheck Protection Program, bolstering operating performance and...

How did Maryland's Hospital Rate Setting System Work During COVID?

Last year at this time, U.S. hospitals were grappling with the double whammy of higher expenses for equipment and staffing and lower...

Governance Oversight in Challenging Times: Sustaining Healthcare Board Education Remains Imperative

In recent years, the U.S. healthcare system has experienced unprecedented challenges, an increasing pace of change, and ever-growing...

Healthcare Boards Are Responsible for the "G" in ESG

According to S&P Global Ratings, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors now cause about a third of all rating changes for...

Will Maryland Hospitals Weather The COVID-19 Crisis Better Than Any Other State?

U.S. acute care hospitals are facing the perfect storm of fiscal pressure due to the coronavirus pandemic: sharply lower revenues due to...

For Charter School Borrowers, Effective Investor Communication Has Never Been More Critical

With the municipal debt market reacting violently to the COVID-19 pandemic, high-yield municipal issuers such as charter schools face...

The Importance of Investor Relations for Municipal Debt Issuers

You’re a finance director of a tax-exempt debt issuer. You worked for months, maybe years, to bring your bonds to market. It was a...

For Public Finance Debt Issuers, Better Rating Agency Relations Are Just a Few Steps Away

Much is at stake for public finance debt issuers who request credit ratings from Wall Street’s big credit rating agencies (CRAs),...