Moody's downgrades EMHS's bond rating

Moody’s Investor Services downgraded the credit rating of Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems to Ba1 with a negative outlook.

Brewer-based EMHS, an integrated health delivery system with a workforce of more than 12,000 and nine hospitals throughout the state, including Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor and numerous smaller rural hospitals, issued the following statement Wednesday about the downgrade:

“Moody’s informed EMHS earlier this year that a downgrade from Baa3 was being considered. Last month, EMHS senior leadership met with representatives of Moody’s in New York and discussed the system’s improved financial performance while also revealing a solid plan for continued improvement.

“These are challenging times for healthcare providers, both in Maine and throughout our nation. EMHS’ proactive five-year strategy is both innovative and forward-thinking. EMHS is building an enterprise-wide electronic medical records system, organizing our more than a thousand employed providers into a single medical group, and continuing to advance our successful population health strategy. EMHS also continues to optimize the performance of our newest member hospitals, which were brought into the system experiencing multiple years of financial distress. Time and hard decisions have led to improved operations and we expect that trend will continue. EMHS believes that these initiatives are essential to the future of a high-performing healthcare organization serving the state of Maine. EMHS leadership remains confident in our ability to deliver increasingly positive outcomes in the months and years ahead.

“While EMHS is disappointed with Moody’s decision, it will not affect care delivery, business operations, or our ongoing focus on performance improvement. Additionally, while EMHS has no plans to enter the bond market for any additional debt for the foreseeable future, we look forward to revisiting our rating with Moody’s next year.”