Nursing home workers demand transparency amid alleged healthcare coverage lapses

SCRANTON — Nursing home employees gathered outside four Embassy Healthcare-owned facilities Thursday afternoon to voice their concerns regarding two recent lapses in medical benefits coverage.

Licensed practical nurse Karen Marx of Covington Twp. — an employee of the Embassy of Scranton on Adams Avenue for more than 20 years — called on ownership to make all the necessary payments.

"We come to work every day to take care of our residents," Marx said. "We 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.

"We 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."

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.

Officials from SEIU Healthcare PA — 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 — 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.

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

Embassy recently transferred management, making it difficult for workers to know who they should communicate with to ensure coverage, SEIU officials said.

Certified nursing assistant Neil Christiano — an employee of the facility for nearly three years who has a rare form of diabetes — said he feels for each of his colleagues negatively impacted by Embassy's lapses.

"These girls are like my sisters and these guys are like my brothers — they're family," he said. "When they suffer, I suffer, and to have them come in and stress out that they don't have insurance and can't go to the doctor or get their medicine, that's ridiculous. We shouldn't 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."

Attempts to reach Embassy Healthcare officials Thursday were unsuccessful.

Andrea Leach, a member organizer with SEIU Healthcare PA, stated Embassy must fulfill its requirements regarding the employees' health coverage.

"We have to find a way to hold the employer accountable," she said. "The employees are getting their health insurance taken out of their paychecks and when they go to use the insurance, it's not there."

Distributed by Newsbank, inc.