South Shore Hospital gets 'negative' outlook amid financial strains

Standard & Poor's has revised its outlook for South Shore Hospital in Weymouth to "negative" from "stable" due to a weak financial profile that is likely to worsen with the implementation of new state regulations as well as the Affordable Care Act, also known as ObamaCare. "While South Shore's overall business and financial profiles have remained largely unchanged in recent years, we believe incremental pressures have culminated in increased credit risk," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Jennifer Soule. "South Shore reports volume softness and only breakeven financial operating performance, excluding nonrecurring revenues, for fiscal 2012, increased debt, and a debt profile that has been restructured to carry a significant amount of bank acceleration risk."