All Featured Insights

Upgrades and downgrades reflect the realities of what ratings are intended to do, which is to reflect the rating agency’s best assessment of an organization’s performance for investors. Upgrades must be earned and downgrades may happen quickly, but affirmations are most typical.

Watch an engaging discussion with Moody’s, Fitch and S&P on their latest industry outlooks, rating activity through early 2024 and what this means for the sector.

Watch higher education sector leaders from Fitch Ratings, Moody’s Investors Service, and S&P Global Ratings for an in-depth conversation on trends affecting rating actions in higher education today.

There was a general improvement in operating margins over the course of 2023, and it is possible that we have reached a point of stability. But with margins still well below pre-pandemic levels, will that level of stability provide sustainability?

At the 2023 Kaufman Hall Healthcare Leadership Conference, a panel of investors shared their insights on current market conditions, disclosure considerations, the impact of credit ratings on investment decisions, and ESG and the political environment.

Watch Kaufman Hall’s Performance Improvement practice discuss insights from our 2023 State of Healthcare Performance Improvement report. The webinar features expert commentary on issues affecting the workforce, the revenue cycle, care transitions, supplies and purchased services, the physician enterprise, and the balance sheet.

A changing interest rate environment has reopened the opportunity to consider terminating an organization’s swap position. Organizations should take a measured approach in determining whether this is an opportunity they wish to pursue.

Responses to Kaufman Hall’s 2023 “State of Healthcare Performance Improvement” report indicate ongoing concern regarding covenant challenges in 2024. Organizations need to understand the causes of covenant misses and near misses and build a durable financial plan for the future.

Hospitals and health systems are seeing some signs of stabilization in 2023 following an extremely difficult year in 2022. Workforce-related challenges persist, however, keeping costs high and contributing to issues with patient access to care.

Balance sheet strength has buffered consumers and businesses from some of the restrictive shock of higher rates. With a relatively brittle revenue model in healthcare, the focus becomes whether, when, and how to restructure operations as balance sheets are spent down.

After years of monetary tingle, a more restrictive stance from the Federal Reserve is creating a chill. A sustained higher interest rate environment may require finance teams to rethink external capital formation strategies.

Fitch Ratings recently downgraded the United States’ long-term rating. Healthcare confronts a different manifestation of the same pressures confronting the U.S., and the lesson for leaders is that governance and planning systems matter.