Moody's Investors Service affirmed its "Baa2" rating on two members of the Westchester Medical Center Health Care Corp. network — Valhalla, N.Y.-based Westchester Medical Center and Suffern, N.Y.-based Charity Health System. The actions affect a combined $772 million of debt.
The affirmation is based on the system's strong market position and expected operating improvement in fiscal year 2018. Moody's acknowledged several challenges, including the system's high balance sheet, unfavorable leverage, modest liquidity and upcoming period of elevated capital spending due to construction and an IT system rollout.
The outlook is negative, reflecting the risks the system will achieve budgeted operating improvement because of its sizable budget miss in fiscal year 2018.