Embassy nursing home workers frustrated by repeated health coverage lapses

Sep. 17—WILKES-BARRE — Nursing home workers at four Embassy-owned homes are sounding the alarm over continued lapses in healthcare coverage.

Workers claim that for the second time in four months, Embassy failed to make required benefit payments on time for four Northeastern Pennsylvania nursing homes, even though workers' contributions continued to be deducted from their paychecks.

The four Embassy nursing homes are Embassy of East Mountain, Embassy of Wyoming Valley, Embassy of Scranton, and Embassy of Tunkhannock. Workers spoke outside of each of these four properties Thursday to talk about the uncertainty caused by losing health insurance twice in four months due to missed premium payments by their employer.

A small group of workers gathered outside of Embassy Wyoming Valley, located at 50 N. Pennsylvania Ave., Wilkes-Barre, to vent their frustrations over the interruptions in medical coverage.

Efforts to reach Embassy management regarding these claims were not immediately successful Thursday.

"One of the hardest parts of what has been happening is not only losing access to our health benefits, but also trying to understand who is responsible for the problem," said Embassy worker Karen Kollar, who read from a prepared statement.

Kollar is a 46-year-old worker at Embassy Wyoming Valley and said uncertainty over whether or not she'll have healthcare coverage has been "very stressful."

"We're so unsure each month... is it going to happen again?" Kollar said.

Kollar, who has leukemia, said she often has thousands of dollars worth of medical bills that she's unable to pay out of pocket.

"And it's a lot of work that the oncologist has to go through [with] their workers to find me a pharmacy that has a lower payment," she explained.

According to the workers, Embassy recently came under new management, and that transition has made it confusing for workers to know who to go to with their concerns.

"Workers should not have to navigate a complicated web of owners and management companies just to find who is supposed to pay our health insurance," Kollar said.

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