100 WVIA Way
Pittston, PA 18640

Phone: 570-826-6144
Fax: 570-655-1180

Copyright © 2025 WVIA, all rights reserved. WVIA is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

'We don't have much time': Elected leaders concerned about fate of CHS hospitals in NEPA

Three Commonwealth Health owned hospitals were involved in a failed sale to Woodbridge Healthcare Inc., including Wilkes-Barre General Hospital.
Aimee Dilger
/
WVIA News
Three Commonwealth Health owned hospitals were involved in a failed sale to Woodbridge Healthcare Inc., including Wilkes-Barre General Hospital.

It's a tale of two cities, three hospitals, and an uncertain future.

Community Health Systems' failure to sell off its Commonwealth Health facilities in Scranton and Wilkes-Barre has elected leaders working furiously to ensure the for-profit company doesn't opt to close the hospitals instead.

In Luzerne County, state Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski believes CHS' ownership and operation of Wilkes-Barre General Hospital is expected to continue.

In Lackawanna County, however, state Rep. Bridget Kosierowski is racing to find a buyer for Moses Taylor Hospital and Regional Hospital of Scranton amid fears that CHS will simply shut the doors.

That is, after all, what officials with the for-profit company previously admitted could happen if they were unable to unload the money-losing facilities.

“It's urgent, and we don't have much time,” Kosierowski (D-Waverly) said.

SEIU Healthcare Union representatives, Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals (PASNAP) representatives, along with Kosierowski and fellow Reps. Kyle Donahue and Kyle Mullins, will host a public town hall next week on the state of the hospitals.

The event is set for 4 p.m. Monday, Dec. 16 at 4 p.m. regarding It will be at the Scranton Hilton, 100 Adams Ave.

SCRANTON HOSPITAL MEETING
WHAT: Public town hall meeting on the future of CHS' Scranton hospitals
WHEN: 4 p.m. Monday, Dec. 16
WHERE: Scranton Hilton, 100 Adams Ave.

'We are exploring options'

Kosierowski has been facilitating talks between Tennessee-based CHS, and potential buyers for the two hospitals in Scranton's Hill Section, but declined to identify any parties.

“A hospital system that's a nonprofit, that would be my top priority,” Kosierowski said. “When you have a company like CHS, a for-profit group in healthcare, there's no place for them, because it's so clear that the patients do not come first.”

CHS responded to questions about the Scranton hospitals’ future with an emailed statement.

“We are exploring options for the future of Commonwealth Health and have engaged in conversations with state and local leaders to ensure all possible options are fully considered,” a spokesperson wrote.

CHS did not immediately respond to a separate email asking about the future of Wilkes-Barre General Hospital.

Rep. Bridget Kosierowski and Sen. Katie Muth listen to testimony from healthcare providers and policymakers.
Courtesy of Jim Stanton/House Democratic Policy Committee
Rep. Bridget Kosierowski (left) and Sen. Katie Muth (right) listen to testimony from healthcare providers and policymakers. Kosierowski is heavily involved in the new negotiations between CHS and potential stakeholders.

Financial struggles, failed deal

Tennessee-based CHS, operating locally as for-profit Commonwealth Health, announced late last month that a $120 million deal to sell the three hospitals to a nonprofit group had fallen through after the proposed buyer could not secure financing.

All three hospitals lost substantial amounts of money in fiscal year 2023, according to the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council 2023 fiscal year report.

Expenses outpaced revenues by 24.1% at Moses Taylor, 15.7% at Wilkes-Barre General and 9.5% at Regional, according to the council's report.

State records show Wilkes-Barre General is the largest of the three, with 369 beds. Regional Hospital and Moses Taylor have a combined 308 beds (186 beds at Regional and 122 at Moses Taylor).

CHS consolidated the emergency rooms at the Scranton facilities into one last year, effectively closing Moses Taylor’s ER operations at the end of March.

WoodBridge Healthcare Inc., a Bucks County-based nonprofit previously described as a "hospital turnaround firm," was the proposed buyer announced in July of this year.

Also included in the deal would have been Commonwealth Health’s ambulatory surgery centers, emergency departments, imaging centers, laboratories, outpatient rehabilitation, sleep care centers, walk-in clinics, wound care centers and physician network.

On Nov. 26 the parties announced that the deal was dead after Woodbridge could not secure financing.

US Senator Bob Casey speaks at a re-election campaign rally Oct. 30, 2024 at PNC Field in Moosic.
Aimee Dilger
/
WVIA News
US Senator Bob Casey speaks at a re-election campaign rally Oct. 30, 2024 at PNC Field in Moosic. He started worrying about potential hospital closures in Scranton this summer.

Scranton closure fears

Details released this summer in a letter from U.S. Sen. Bob Casey to CHS leadership left Kosierowski and others fearing that the company’s next step would be closing the Scranton hospitals’ doors.

Casey’s letter said his staff attended a meeting during the summer between CHS leadership, community stakeholders, and elected officials regarding CHS’ plans for Regional Hospital and Moses Taylor Hospital.

“At this meeting, CHS leadership expressed that both facilities had been experiencing negative cash flow and that CHS was looking to sell both hospitals. The company executives shared plans to close one or both hospitals if they are unable to find a buyer in the next few months,” he wrote.

Kosierowski is taking them at their word.

“CHS has made it very clear that they want to sell and they do not want to deliver care here any longer,” she said. “It's pretty clear, because they've done nothing to support the hospital in the last three years there. They've done nothing to invest or recruit, retain or make the facility itself better.”

Moses Taylor Hospital in Scranton is one of three Commonwealth Health System hospitals in Northeast Pennsylvania which parent company Community Health Systems unsuccessfully tried to sell to nonprofit group WoodBridge Health.
Jackson Breslin
/
WVIA News
Moses Taylor Hospital in Scranton is one of three Commonwealth Health System hospitals in Northeast Pennsylvania which parent company Community Health Systems unsuccessfully tried to sell to nonprofit group WoodBridge Health.

Past precedent in the region underscores her concerns.

Other hospitals in the region closed under CHS’ ownership, including Tyler Memorial Hospital in Tunkhannock, which was the only hospital in Wyoming County when the company shut its doors in 2022.

That closure turned Wyoming County into a medical desert, with the nearest hospitals being in Wilkes-Barre and Scranton, both more than 20 miles and 30 minutes away.

The same year, CHS closed First Hospital in Kingston with only 30 days notice. Luzerne County’s only inpatient mental health hospital reopened in 2023 under new ownership as Wyoming Valley Behavioral Health Hospital.

Pashinski (D-Wilkes-Barre) worked to return inpatient behavioral health services to the area after First Hospital’s closure, and he said that effort prepared him for working on negotiations about the future of CHS’ three NEPA hospitals.

He proposed legislation — which he intends to reintroduce in the new year — that would require healthcare providers to give more advanced notice for closing a healthcare facility. While the legislation is not yet law, he believes CHS knows not to make any drastic decisions without community input after the backlash they received from closing First Hospital.

“There would be severe penalties, in my opinion, if they did it in the haphazard, inhumane way,” he said.

Kosierowski worries that if CHS closed the Scranton hospitals that could put a strain on other facilities in the region.

“The emergency rooms at CHS Between Scranton and Wilkes Barre see 35,000 visits a year, and we know that Geisinger and Lehigh Valley Dickson city cannot absorb that patient population,” she said.

“Geisinger is constantly evaluating clinical program expansion in Lackawanna County and all of the communities we serve based on the demonstrated needs of those communities,” a Geisinger spokesperson wrote in response to questions about its ability to absorb more patients if the CHS hospitals in Scranton closed. “We will share growth plans as they are approved and moving forward.”

Pashinski hinted at other healthcare providers’ potential expansion in the region to fill in gaps left by CHS.

“There's also an effort to see what other facilities may want to assume certain medical roles in Northeastern Pennsylvania. That is also being discussed,” he said.

Kosierowski also said closing the Scranton hospitals would mean the end of Moses Taylor’s NICU, or neonatal intensive care unit. For many patients, the next closest NICU would at Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center in Plains Township, Luzerne County.

She is hopeful that any new buyer would retain and expand the NICU and OB/GYN services in Scranton.

Pashinski shares Kosierowski’s concern for neonatal care.

“We're all trying to find that right formula to make sure that the people in Northeastern Pennsylvania have quality health care, especially in the neonatal area,” he said. “It appears that pregnant moms are having [to] travel quite a distance, and that leads to a potentially dangerous issue, so there's still work to be done.”

The situation in Wilkes-Barre

Wilkes-Barre Mayor George C. Brown
Courtesy City of Wilkes-Barre
Wilkes-Barre Mayor George C. Brown wants to see a new buyer for the CHS facilities soon to ensure quality healthcare is returned to the region.
Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski has been working the Wilkes-Barre side of the CHS hospital deal. He believes CHS is stable enough at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital to retain ownership.
Submitted by Eddie Day Pashinski's Office
Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski has been working the Wilkes-Barre side of the CHS hospital deal. He believes CHS is stable enough at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital to retain ownership.

Pashinski called Kosierowski the “point person” for negotiations regarding all three hospitals, but said he has been working on the Wilkes-Barre front. Pashinski believes Wilkes-Barre General is stable enough for CHS to keep the facility, at least for the time being.

“From a financial [and] management standpoint, [it] is sustainable and that's why I believe they're going to stay here, because I think financially, they're okay,” Pashinski said.

Still, Wilkes-Barre Mayor George Brown said the fear in his community is about continued downsizing at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital.

CHS terminated inpatient childbirth services at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital in 2023. While services were supposed to end on July 31, 2023, they ended abruptly on July 11, with CHS citing insufficient staffing as the reason services could not extend to the end of the month.

According to CHS, Wilkes-Barre General’s Level II trauma certification expired in October 2021, “due to declines in ER volume and replication of this service at other area hospitals.”

“Are they [CHS] going to continue to eliminate more services that are being provided at this time by General Hospital?” Brown said.

The mayor wants any potential deal to bring back services that have been cut under CHS’s ownership. However, he has yet to be included in conversations about the hospital’s future.

“My first concern is making sure that there's adequate healthcare for the residents and visitors of the city of Wilkes Barre,” Brown said.

Pashinski said if CHS remains in charge, there would be pressure on the company to bring back some of those lost services.

“They've got to provide the services necessary to take care of the citizens,” he said.

Gov. Josh Shapiro speaks at a Biden event in Scranton in April.
Sarah Hofius Hall
/
WVIA News
Gov. Josh Shapiro speaks at a Biden event in Scranton in April. His office is working with local leaders to ensure the Scranton CHS facilities do not close.

‘A lot of moving pieces’

Although disappointed in their management of the local facilities, Kosierowski said CHS has been cooperative with elected leaders working to find new ownership.

“There's a lot of moving pieces,” Kosierowski said. “It's very fluid right now, but I will say that [it's] all-hands-on-deck kind of situation here with both state and local representatives that are working tirelessly in communications with who and how are we going to get this place to stay open.”

That includes talks with representatives from the Pennsylvania Department of Health and Gov. Josh Shapiro’s office.

“Senior leadership from the Shapiro Administration are actively engaged in discussions to preserve access to quality healthcare in the region and safeguard employees’ jobs,” Shapiro’s Office wrote in an emailed statement to WVIA. “Our goal has been and will remain ensuring that these hospitals do not close and can continue serving the people of Northeast Pennsylvania.”

Kosierowski hopes a deal will be settled by the New Year. She thinks the initial deal falling through will motivate potential stakeholders to invest in the region. Although the failed sale was disappointing and has propelled leaders like herself into crisis control, she hopes it will highlight the urgency of the situation.

“We are at the crisis moment. And you know, that's what it takes sometimes to get these things to be fixed,” she said.

Related Stories