After a federal law to curb surprise medical bills in the U.S. triggered a handful of the year’s biggest bankruptcies, investors are eyeing corporate-debt piles for potential pain ahead, Bloomberg News reported. KKR & Co.-backed ambulance company Global Medical Response is in talks to push out some $4 billion of maturing debt in 2025, Bloomberg reported last month. Blackstone Inc.-backed staffing firm TeamHealth Inc., meanwhile, could face as much as $2.5 billion of debt due next year, and Radiology Partners Inc. has roughly $2 billion due over the next two years. Those are hefty sums given investors’ concern that revenues may take a hit from the rollout of the No Surprises Act — a law that last year banned companies from unexpectedly billing insured patients for care from out-of-network providers at in-network facilities. Credit-rating assessors have been warning about a drag from the new rules, which stand to magnify other risks, like elevated interest rates and labor costs. TeamHealth, for one, was cut deeper into junk territory earlier this month by S&P Global Ratings as its upcoming maturities spotlight uncertainty. “The No Surprises Act certainly puts pressure on health-care companies that have that exposure,” said Clare Moylan, a co-founder of Gibbins Advisors, which consults health-care firms. “If you’re tight on margin already, and you lose that margin, then you have to find it elsewhere.” Read more.
Moylan will be the moderator of a special abiLIVE webinar on Dec. 11 titled "Predicting Distress and Opportunities in the Health Care Sector." Click here to register for free!
