Fitch Ratings predicted Prisma Health-Upstate's annual investment in strategic initiatives — including an ASC — will fall between $250 million and $305 million over the next five years, according to The Greenville News, part of the USA Today network.
Three highlights:
1. The national credit rating agency said Columbia, S.C.-based Prisma Health plans to create an ASC in South Carolina's Midlands region; build a regional cancer center; demolish and replace Greenville, S.C.-based Marshall I. Pickens Hospital; expand its heart hospital; and expand three emergency rooms.
2. The projects will be primarily financed through cash flow and equity, but Prisma Health-Upstate will borrow an estimated $57 million for the ambulatory care centers in fiscal year 2019, Fitch reported. It is expected to borrow an additional $200 million in fiscal year 2021 for the other initiatives.
3. In an annual report to the Greenville Health Authority, Prisma Health-Upstate said it added or expanded more than a dozen practice locations, including Seneca, S.C.-based Blue Ridge Orthopaedics, in 2018. Prisma Health-Upstate also brought 70 specialists on board, for a total of 815.
Prisma Health-Upstate declined to discuss its capital budget and future plans for physician practices with The Greenville News.