Covering the landmark deal for Wilkes-Barre General Hospital, the closure of Keystone Mission, and changes to area Rite Aids, this is our review of the most impactful healthcare and human service stories of 2025
Tenor Health purchases Commonwealth
Tenor Health Foundation signed an agreement in October to acquire Commonwealth Health’s hospitals in Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, as well as associated clinics and outpatient centers.
The acquisition includes Regional Hospital of Scranton, Moses Taylor Hospital and Wilkes-Barre General Hospital.
“We are delighted to announce the execution of the definitive agreement to bring the three Commonwealth Health hospitals into the Tenor Health Foundation family,” Radha A. Savitala, Tenor’s chief executive officer, said in a statement. “This acquisition exemplifies our organization’s commitment to preserve valuable healthcare resources — specifically in the most vulnerable communities. We are grateful to community leaders for engaging with us as well as the medical staff and hospital staff who continue to provide the much-needed services for these hospitals. We look forward to continuing to engage with all key stakeholders to ensure a seamless acquisition and transition.”
Tenor, a nonprofit based in California, signed a letter of intent to acquire the hospitals in August after their sale to another nonprofit — WoodBridge Healthcare — fell through last year. Tenor plans to borrow up to $47 million in tax-exempt bonds and $25 million in taxable bonds, according to a resolution approved by Luzerne County Council in November.
Tenor did not seek financing to buy Regional Hospital of Scranton and Moses Taylor Hospital, both in Lackawanna County, because Community Health is essentially giving them away and is divesting from unprofitable operations, officials explained.
Tenor agreed to pay Luzerne County $850,000 in lieu of taxes annually from 2026 through 2029.
At the Nov. 10 meeting, council members expressed concerns about losing property tax revenue because Tenor is a nonprofit organization that would not pay property taxes.
Luzerne County, the City of Wilkes-Barre and the Wilkes-Barre Area School District could lose a combined total of $1.9 million year if a nonprofit owns the Commonwealth Health properties. The county share is around $328,000.
Geisinger nurses get new deal
Registered nurses at Geisinger Health System’s Luzerne County campuses have agreed to a new, three-year deal in April.
Roughly 800 nurses from Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center in Plains Twp., Geisinger South Wilkes-Barre and Geisinger Healthplex CenterPoint in Pittston Twp. “voted overwhelmingly to ratify” the union contract Friday night, their union — Service Employees International Union Healthcare Pennsylvania — said in a news release.
The labor agreement provides pay raises of 13% to 26% over three years, with average wage increases of 18%, the union said. Their last union agreement expired Jan. 31.
Union members went on strike for five days in February and raised concerns about inadequate staffing, non-competitive wages and rising healthcare costs. The new contract provides “major improvements in wages, benefits and safety, which will retain and recruit staff for quality patient care,” the union said.
SNAP benefits delayed
Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program benefits were paused in November due to the federal government shutdown. The pause caused confusion, panic and frustration among the more than 1.93 eligible Pennsylvanians.
The USDA directed states not to issue November benefits due to the shutdown. States sued the federal government in an effort to restore the funding.
One the shutdown ended, the state Department of Human Services announced the full resumption of the SNAP program in mid November.
In Lackawanna, Luzerne, Schuylkill and Carbon counties, 146,644 residents were eligible for SNAP as of September.
Keystone Mission closes
Two of Keystone Mission’s three homeless shelters in Wilkes-Barre and Scranton closed their doors in the summer and 75% of the staff was laid off.
Increasing costs and decreases in donations and volunteers led the board of directors to make the difficult decision, Justin Behrens, former CEO and executive director of the nonprofit, said.
“I came back … to the mission as the interim executive director (around February), and my goal was to get it back on track and try to keep things afloat. It came about a month ago that I realized that the board needed to start making a decision of what’s the direction of the mission, to keep it sustainable,” Behrens said. “The board, after debating, making decisions among themselves, came to the conclusion that we are going to sell the Scranton building and close down the East Union Street building, and we are going to keep open the Sherman Hills building for operation.”
Behrens said Keystone Mission will reduce staff from 21 employees to six.
Keystone had been operating a day shelter with programming for individuals experiencing homelessness, located at 12 W. Olive St. in Scranton, and The Innovation Center for Homelessness and Poverty, since 2007. The nonprofit opened a facility of the same name in leased space at the former Thomas C. Thomas Building at 90 E. Union St. in Wilkes-Barre in October 2023, and that facility doubles as an overnight shelter for up to about 50 homeless individuals.
Keystone’s 15-bed Transformation Center for males, located in a building at 290 Parkview Circle within the Sherman Hills apartment complex in Wilkes-Barre that was donated anonymously to Keystone in 2008, remains operating.
Rite Aid closes
Almost a dozen Rite Aid stores in Luzerne County closed this year after the pharmacy filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May.
The company was weighed down by billions of dollars in debt, declining sales and more than 1,000 federal, state and local lawsuits claiming it filled thousands of illegal prescriptions for painkillers, according to a New York Times report. Rite Aid was looking to sell more than 1,200 locations as part of the filing.
Rite Aid’s demise had been in the works for several years as the company first filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October 2023 when it operated more than 2,300 locations. At that time, Rite Aid announced plans to close more than 150 stores.
The company sold its pharmacy prescriptions to other pharmacy retailers at more than 1,000 locations across the country.
Rite Aid’s history traces to Scranton, when city native Alex Grass opened the first Thrif-D Discount Center on Lackawanna Avenue in September 1962. The company expanded to five states by 1965 and went public as Rite Aid in 1968.
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