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MaineHealth Earns Strong Credit Rating Heading Into Maine Medical Center Expansion

The nonprofit healthcare organization MaineHealth has earned and maintained a strong credit rating as it prepares to borrow $300 million in bonds for an expansion project at Maine Medical Center.

The credit agency Moody’s assigned an A1 rating, and the agency Standard and Poor's assigned an A+ rating.

“This means that MaineHealth today has one of the fourth highest bond rating of all healthcare systems in New England,” says MaineHealth President and CEO Bill Caron. Caron says the achievement comes as other health systems in the US are getting downgraded due to financial struggles.

"Not only did we maintain our rating with $300 million of additional borrowing, but we're going in a direction that's different from most other health systems that are being rated.”

Moody's cited MaineHealth's plan to consolidate its eight hospitals under one board as a factor in its rating.

“They believe that those are more effective and efficient governance models,” Caron says. “Those allow organizations to be more nimble in their decision making. It allows organizations to transfer resources.”

The MaineHealth board consolidation will take effect in January of 2019.