state Department of Health approved the ownership change last week<\/a>.<\/p>\nCHS said in a press release that certain of its subsidiaries \u201ccompleted the divestiture\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cPatients can be reassured that there will be no interruption in care and quality and compassionate care will be our focus,\u201d a separate Commonwealth press release notes. \u201cAll 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
The done deal also returns the health system to nonprofit ownership, \u201creinforcing a mission-driven commitment to community-based care,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
The state\u2019s 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\u2019s attempt to acquire the three hospitals collapsed in late 2024.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s change-of-ownership review continued into 2026 before it approved the transition last week.<\/p>\n
Commonwealth\u2019s press release describes Tenor as an organization \u201cdedicated to stabilizing and strengthening financially challenged rural and suburban hospitals.\u201d It focuses on \u201clong-term sustainability through efficient operations, service line growth, and reinvestment in patient care,\u201d all things cautiously optimistic stakeholders hope to see locally.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis allows us to focus squarely on what matters most \u2014 our patients and the communities we serve,\u201d Tenor CEO Radha Savitala said in the release. \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Commonwealth deal follows Tenor\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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 \u201cshould feel confident that nothing about their care changes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are here, we are open, and we remain fully focused on providing safe, compassionate, high-quality care to the communities we serve,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u2018A different path\u2019<\/p>\n
A group of five local foundations \u2014 AllOne Foundation & Charities, the Luzerne Foundation, the Moses Taylor Foundation, the NEPA Health Care Foundation and the Scranton Area Community Foundation \u2014 also reacted to Monday\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur 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,\u201d they said in a joint statement. \u201cWe look forward to hearing more about Tenor Health\u2019s immediate and long-term plans for sustaining the quality services and maintaining the current workforce at the hospitals.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 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,\u201d the statement continued. \u201cThe community\u2019s most vulnerable \u2014 the poor, people with chronic diseases and conditions, and those with limited access to specialized care \u2014 would have been the hardest hit had any of the hospitals closed. So it is extremely good news that a closure has been averted.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s relieved to see CHS exit Pennsylvania and hopeful Tenor \u201cwill take a different path \u2014 one that restores and preserves critical healthcare services for the people\u201d of the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cTenor 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,\u201d PASNAP said. \u201cWe will be watching closely and engaging actively to ensure this transition prioritizes patient care, workforce stability, and transparency.\u201d<\/p>\n
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 \u201cexpect Tenor to work hard and invest resources, and we will work hard to take care of our patients and make our hospital successful.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe 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,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The nonprofit Tenor Health Foundation completed its acquisition of Commonwealth Health and its hospitals in Scranton and Wilkes-Barre,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448213,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253,28421,983,68247,3,3234,24933,28420,13809],"class_list":["post-448212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-luzerne-county","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-top-stories-stt","tag-wilkes-barre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}