Healthcare Providers are Essential. Do Capital Markets Agree?

In this three part series, Liz Sweeney, SwissThink’s Senior US Public Finance Consultant, analyzes U.S. hospitals, capital markets, and the credit impact of the coronavirus. In Part 1, she discusses the essentiality of healthcare, and analyzes capital markets’ response through the prism of credit spreads and ratings from S&P Global, Moody’s and Fitch.

In Part 2  — Do U.S. Hospitals Have a Case of Long-Haul COVID? we’ll 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.

In Part 3 — U.S. Hospitals Emerging into A Changed World, we’ll look at 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.

Liz Sweeney is Senior Consultant, U.S. Public Finance at SwissThink, which offers learning solutions and consulting for credit markets. She is also a board member of University of Maryland Medical System and a debt advisor to nonprofits and municipalities. The views expressed here are her own.