SCRANTON — A team from the nonprofit Tenor Health Foundation visited the city and met with local stakeholders this week as they continue to explore a potential acquisition of Commonwealth Health’s Regional Hospital of Scranton and its Moses Taylor Hospital campus.
Those recent conversations and ongoing dialogues come as elected and other officials continue working to facilitate a sale of the financially challenged health care facilities to a new buyer after a prior sale to the nonprofit WoodBridge Healthcare collapsed late last year. WoodBridge announced in July 2024 its intent to purchase the Scranton hospitals, Wilkes-Barre General Hospital and other Commonwealth Health assets from subsidiaries of for-profit Community Health Systems Inc. — Commonwealth’s Tennessee-based parent company — but was unable to secure bond financing to complete the transaction.
A collection of local foundations and nonprofits have provided invaluable financial support in recent months to keep services running and staff paid at Regional and Moses Taylor, separate facilities that operate under one license following a 2022 merger, but that arrangement was always meant to be temporary and concern remains that the Scranton hospitals could close absent acquisition by another buyer.
Commonwealth Health’s Regional Hospital of Scranton on Jefferson Ave. in Scranton on Wednesday, June 18, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRPAHER)
State Rep. Bridget Kosierowski, D-114, Waverly Twp., said last month that Tenor, Geisinger and a tandem of the Wright Center and Allied Services were exploring such an acquisition. And while discussions have to this point not produced a deal, Tenor officials confirmed their interest remains, articulating a goal of achieving a “vibrant community hospital” and being part of the community long term.
Whether such an acquisition ultimately happens remains to be seen, but Tenor officials described a potential nonprofit model for the Scranton facilities that would be similar to that of the Sharon Regional Medical Center in Mercer County. Tenor recently took over as the operator there after the hospital closed in early January, its former for-profit owner Steward Health Systems having filed for bankruptcy in 2024. The state Department of Health subsequently approved Sharon Regional’s reopening with Tenor Health Foundation Sharon LLC operating the facility under Steward Health’s license while “pursuing a change in ownership to transfer licensure at a later date,” Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration announced in March.
Tenor leadership held several separate meetings in Scranton this week with community stakeholders and elected officials, including Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti and a group of Lackawanna County officials that included Commissioners Bill Gaughan and Chris Chermak. They also met via Zoom with leaders of the Wright Center and Allied.
In an interview, the Tenor team reiterated the important roles Regional and Moses Taylor play, particularly in terms of health care access and jobs. Those are two areas local officials, union health care workers and others have pointed to in emphasizing the need to keep the facilities open.
“You need these two hospitals, I mean that became evident today in these conversations more than I think anybody realized,” Tenor’s Sharon Regional Health System Chief Clinical Officer Val Hennessy said.
Other players
Reached for updates as conversations continue about the future of Regional and Moses Taylor, the Wright Center, Allied and Geisinger all sent statements.
“The Wright Centers for Community Health and Graduate Medical Education remain absolutely committed to fostering hopeful dialogue, inspiring unprecedented collaboration, and advancing community solutions as we explore a preferred future for our community with robust and sustainable access to critically needed whole-person health care services and health care careers,” Vice President of Academic Affairs Brian Ebersole said.
FILE PHOTOMoses Taylor Hospital in Scranton.
Allied said it “remains involved, in partnership with The Wright Center and our local community foundations, in exploring all possible solutions to preserve the critical medical services provided through these hospitals for our patients, residents and for our entire community.”
And Geisinger said it’s “working with the state and community leaders to explore all options to preserve access to high-quality health care services for the people of Scranton and Lackawanna County.”
Foundations
With that goal of preserving health care access in mind, a collection of local foundations and nonprofits have provided millions of dollars since the spring to help ensure operations continue at Regional and Moses and staff there continue to be paid as work to find a new buyer continues. The collective includes five local foundations — the Scranton Area Community Foundation, the AllOne Foundation, the Luzerne Foundation, the Moses Taylor Foundation and the NEPA Health Care Foundation — as well as the Wright Center, Allied and the Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce.
Officials called their support “substantial,” but did not disclose exactly how much money those entities have collectively provided or when the payments might end.
Charlie Lyons, a spokesperson for the foundations, said the financial support was always meant to be temporary and was intended as a stopgap. The goal was to allow more time for negotiations with potential buyers interested in acquiring Regional and Moses Taylor, he said, noting the arrangement arose out of discussions between the Shapiro administration, legislators and other community stakeholders.
“There’s no doubt that the services that those hospitals are providing are critical,” said Lyons, who also acknowledged the large number of “qualified and committed professionals” working at the facilities. “We want to protect the workforce, but obviously first and foremost the services that are being provided, and the ripple effects of a closure will go throughout the community.”
The contributing foundations and nonprofits “felt it important to try to buy some time to come up with a long-term solution, and that’s what they’re hoping for,” he said.
Kosierowski called them “real heroes” last month, praise Mayor Cognetti echoed earlier this week when discussing the prospect of a potential sale.
“I would be supportive of any entity that comes in and takes over the hospitals so that we can keep the services going,” Cognetti said. “These services are so critical to the well-being of our residents and residents of the whole region. It’s also a huge piece of our economy with many hundreds of jobs and livelihoods at risk, so that is so important that we continue to work at this.”
“And I can’t say enough about the community foundations coming together over these past few months and making sure that the hospital has stayed open by helping to fund some of the cost,” she said.