After a multiyear turnaround marked by major divestitures and restructuring, Toledo, Ohio-based ProMedica has regained investment-grade credit ratings from both Moody’s and S&P Global in 2025.
The system was twice upgraded by Moody’s — most recently on Dec. 16 — and now has a “Baa3” rating and positive outlook with the agency. S&P upped ProMedica’s rating two notches to “BBB-” on Dec. 22.
ProMedica President and CEO Arturo Polizzi said the upgrades are a validation of the hard work his team has put in over the past several years. When he took over as CEO in 2022, the system devised the turnaround plan, underwent corporate restructuring and divested from several noncore business lines.
“We really wanted to return to our core, what we really do best, which is delivering high-quality, high-acuity medical care,” Mr. Polizzi told Becker’s.
The first major move came in late 2022 when the system completed the divestiture of 147 skilled nursing facilities. Mr. Polizzi said that post-COVID, it was a very tough business to run and was not within the system’s scope of expertise. That business line alone was responsible for a more than $200 million operating loss in 2022. By exiting that volatile market, the system removed a major source of financial drag and started to stabilize.
In 2023, ProMedica also sold its national hospice business through a competitive bidding process, using the proceeds to pay down more than $400 million in debt and strengthen liquidity.
The following year, it sold its insurance business to Cleveland-based Medical Mutual of Ohio. Mr. Polizzi said the sale simplified ProMedica’s operating model and sharpened its focus on provider operations while maintaining strong payer relationships.
More recently, ProMedica spun off 47 assisted living facilities into a separate organization, relieving the system of more than $350 million in lease obligations.
Mr. Polizzi said the system had other smaller divestitures, but those big four moves “are really what put us in a good position to get lean and mean and profitable.”
Getting to investment grade also helps the system fight headwinds, he said.
“We can weather storms. But also, when you’re talking to your insurance companies, it helps to keep your insurance costs down. When you’re negotiating vendor contracts, the rates we can get with some of our suppliers are better because our credit is good. Things like that from an operating perspective really do help keep you more efficient. We used to joke when we were in a little bit more trouble than we are now that it’s expensive to be broke. People put fees on you and you have to do some things that you otherwise don’t have to do financially when you have good credit. It relieves a lot of those burdens when you’re credit-worthy.”
Heading into 2026, Mr. Polizzi’s focus is on “maintaining excellence.”
“We now have shown we can operate at a high level, keeping our costs down while providing really high-quality and high-acuity care,” he said. “It’s almost more difficult to sustain excellence than it is to get there. So for me, it’s continuing to create the right culture and environment going forward. Healthcare is incredibly complicated, and the phrase I use with our folks all the time is ‘best teams in healthcare are going to win,’ because you really need a strong team dynamic to get through all the complexity in our industry.”
