The nonprofit Tenor Health Foundation completed its acquisition of Commonwealth Health and its hospitals in Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, finalizing the deal many see as a lifeline for the financially struggling Scranton facilities in particular.
It makes Tenor the new owner of Commonwealth’s Regional Hospital of Scranton, its nearby Moses Taylor Hospital campus in the city and Wilkes-Barre General Hospital in Luzerne County, as well as related physician clinic operations, ambulatory surgical centers and outpatient services. Commonwealth and its now former parent company, for-profit Community Health Systems Inc., announced the completion of the acquisition Monday after the state Department of Health approved the ownership change last week.
CHS said in a press release that certain of its subsidiaries “completed the divestiture” of Regional, Moses Taylor, Wilkes-Barre General and related businesses to affiliates of Tenor for $33 million in cash and a $15 million promissory note from the buyer. The closing of the transaction was effective Sunday.
“Patients can be reassured that there will be no interruption in care and quality and compassionate care will be our focus,” a separate Commonwealth press release notes. “All hospitals, clinics, and services will remain open and fully operational, and employees, physicians, and providers will remain in place, ensuring continuity of care with the teams patients know and trust.”
The done deal also returns the health system to nonprofit ownership, “reinforcing a mission-driven commitment to community-based care,” it said.
The state’s recent approval of the ownership transition and its subsequent completion come as a major relief to union hospital workers and others who feared Regional and Moses Taylor would close if the deal fell through. It followed more than a year of concerted efforts by stakeholders working on multiple fronts to facilitate a new deal after the nonprofit WoodBridge Healthcare’s attempt to acquire the three hospitals collapsed in late 2024.
Tenor emerged amid that process, with the nonprofit and CHS announcing in October a definitive agreement for the then-pending transaction. Officials had originally hoped to complete the deal in late 2025, but the state’s change-of-ownership review continued into 2026 before it approved the transition last week.
Commonwealth’s press release describes Tenor as an organization “dedicated to stabilizing and strengthening financially challenged rural and suburban hospitals.” It focuses on “long-term sustainability through efficient operations, service line growth, and reinvestment in patient care,” all things cautiously optimistic stakeholders hope to see locally.
“This allows us to focus squarely on what matters most — our patients and the communities we serve,” Tenor CEO Radha Savitala said in the release. “We are grateful for the strong support of the community, including U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan and Pennsylvania State Rep. Bridget Kosierowski. As a nonprofit organization, Tenor Health Foundation remains committed to keeping high-quality care locally available and ensuring these hospitals remain strong, accessible, and responsive to community needs. We lookforward to working collaboratively with all stakeholders to improve access to and the quality of healthcare.”
The Commonwealth deal follows Tenor’s acquisition of the Sharon Regional Medical Center in Mercer County, which the nonprofit reopened last year. That hospital had closed in early January 2025 after its former for-profit owner Steward Health Systems filed for bankruptcy in 2024.
Patrick D. Conaboy, M.D., vice president of clinical services and quality for Regional, Moses Taylor and Wilkes-Barre General hospitals, said in the Commonwealth release that patients “should feel confident that nothing about their care changes.”
“We are here, we are open, and we remain fully focused on providing safe, compassionate, high-quality care to the communities we serve,” he said.
‘A different path’
A group of five local foundations — AllOne Foundation & Charities, the Luzerne Foundation, the Moses Taylor Foundation, the NEPA Health Care Foundation and the Scranton Area Community Foundation — also reacted to Monday’s news of the completed Tenor deal. The foundations and other nonprofit partners collectively provided millions of dollars in crucial stopgap funding last year to keep services running and staff paid at Regional and Moses Taylor amid the search for a new owner.
“Our five local foundations are very pleased that Tenor Health has reached agreement with CHS to purchase the local hospitals to forestall any closures and continue the essential health care services at those facilities,” they said in a joint statement. “We look forward to hearing more about Tenor Health’s immediate and long-term plans for sustaining the quality services and maintaining the current workforce at the hospitals.”
“The impacts of a potential hospital facility closure would have been devastating for the Northeastern Pennsylvania community, putting lives at risk, costing more than a thousand jobs, and eroding the local economy,” the statement continued. “The community’s most vulnerable — the poor, people with chronic diseases and conditions, and those with limited access to specialized care — would have been the hardest hit had any of the hospitals closed. So it is extremely good news that a closure has been averted.”
Local elected officials expressed similar sentiments last week, when union health care workers at Regional, Moses Taylor and Wilkes-Barre General noted their relief at the state greenlighting the deal.
The Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals union, which represents more than 250 nurses and certified registered nurse anesthetists at Wilkes-Barre General, said in a statement Thursday that it’s relieved to see CHS exit Pennsylvania and hopeful Tenor “will take a different path — one that restores and preserves critical healthcare services for the people” of the region.
“Tenor has an opportunity to do the right thing: to invest in safe staffing, stabilize services, and work in good faith with the nurses and healthcare workers who have kept these hospitals running through uncertainty and upheaval,” PASNAP said. “We will be watching closely and engaging actively to ensure this transition prioritizes patient care, workforce stability, and transparency.”
Corinne Cianfichi, a longtime occupational therapist and chapter president of the SEIU Healthcare PA union representing about 800 Regional and Moses Taylor workers, said in a statement Wednesday that she and her colleagues “expect Tenor to work hard and invest resources, and we will work hard to take care of our patients and make our hospital successful.”
“We look forward to working with Tenor to preserve and expand a full range of services and good, family-sustaining jobs, so we can provide the quality healthcare our community deserves,” she said.