{"id":289689,"date":"2026-09-19T14:16:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T14:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/289689\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T14:16:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T14:16:22","slug":"nursing-home-workers-demand-transparency-amid-alleged-healthcare-coverage-lapses-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/289689\/","title":{"rendered":"Nursing home workers demand transparency amid alleged healthcare coverage lapses"},"content":{"rendered":"

SCRANTON \u2014 Nursing home employees gathered outside four Embassy Healthcare-owned facilities Thursday afternoon to voice their concerns regarding two recent lapses in medical benefits coverage.<\/p>\n

Licensed practical nurse Karen Marx of Covington Twp. \u2014 an employee of the Embassy of Scranton on Adams Avenue for more than 20 years \u2014 called on ownership to make all the necessary payments.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe come to work every day to take care of our residents,\u201d Marx said. \u201cWe depend on our paycheck and our benefits to take care of ourselves and our family. But for the second time in just four months, we had to deal with problems with our healthcare coverage because required payments were not made. What makes this even more frustrating is that we continue to have money deducted from our paychecks for these benefits.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are doing our part; we expect our employer to do their part. Healthcare workers should not have to fight just to have healthcare for ourselves and our families, and we should not have to spend our time trying to figure out which owner, management company or other company is responsible for paying the bills. We deserve stability, accountability and the benefits we have earned.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some co-workers were unable to fill prescriptions, another postponed a surgery, and one faced the uncertainty of paying the bills for a sick child, Marx said.<\/p>\n

\"Certified<\/p>\n

Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) Neil Christiano speaks during a demonstration outside of the Embassy of Scranton in Scranton Thursday, September 17, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)\n<\/p>\n

\"Signs<\/p>\n

Signs were available for union workers during the demonstration outside of the Embassy of Scranton in Scranton Thursday, September 17, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)\n<\/p>\n

\"Licensed<\/p>\n

Licensed practical nurse Karen Marx, right, of Covington Twp., an employee of the Embassy of Scranton for more than 20 years, provides remarks about continued lapses in healthcare coverage from Embassy Healthcare for workers at the facility during a demonstration Thursday afternoon along Adams Avenue in the city. (ROBERT TOMKAVAGE\/STAFF PHOTO)\n<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 3<\/p>\n

Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) Neil Christiano speaks during a demonstration outside of the Embassy of Scranton in Scranton Thursday, September 17, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)\n<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

Officials from SEIU Healthcare PA \u2014 a union of nurses and healthcare workers, uniting more than 25,000 professional and technical employees, direct care workers, and service employees in hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, home- and community-based services, and state facilities across the commonwealth \u2014 said in a news release that an estimated $800 million in new funding was recently made available to nursing home operators over the next two years as Embassy continually misses payments.<\/p>\n

In addition to the Scranton facility, employees also held demonstrations outside the Embassy of East Mountain, 101 E. Mountain Blvd., Plains Twp.; the Embassy of Tunkhannock, 30 Virginia Drive, Tunkhannock Twp.; and the Embassy of Wyoming Valley, 50 N. Pennsylvania Ave., Wilkes-Barre<\/p>\n

Embassy recently transferred management, making it difficult for workers to know who they should communicate with to ensure coverage, SEIU officials said.<\/p>\n

Certified nursing assistant Neil Christiano \u2014 an employee of the facility for nearly three years who has a rare form of diabetes \u2014 said he feels for each of his colleagues negatively impacted by Embassy\u2019s lapses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese girls are like my sisters and these guys are like my brothers \u2014 they\u2019re family,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen they suffer, I suffer, and to have them come in and stress out that they don\u2019t have insurance and can\u2019t go to the doctor or get their medicine, that\u2019s ridiculous. We shouldn\u2019t have to worry about that. There are so many other things we have to worry about like taking care of people who are bedridden and making sure people get their meals on time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attempts to reach Embassy Healthcare officials Thursday were unsuccessful.<\/p>\n

Andrea Leach, a member organizer with SEIU Healthcare PA, stated Embassy must fulfill its requirements regarding the employees\u2019 health coverage.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to find a way to hold the employer accountable,\u201d she said. \u201cThe employees are getting their health insurance taken out of their paychecks and when they go to use the insurance, it\u2019s not there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SCRANTON \u2014 Nursing home employees gathered outside four Embassy Healthcare-owned facilities Thursday afternoon to voice their concerns regarding…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[201,182,803,139,28,178,180,179,50547,4962,2685,2943],"class_list":["post-289689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-luzerne-county","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-top-stories-wgn","tag-tunkhannock","tag-wilkes-barre","tag-wyoming-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}