Scranton, Pennsylvania — Workers at four Embassy Healthcare nursing homes in Northeastern Pennsylvania gathered outside their facilities Thursday to protest repeated lapses in their health insurance coverage, marking the second disruption in just four months despite premiums continuing to be deducted from their paychecks.
Licensed practical nurse Karen Marx, a 20-year veteran at Embassy of Scranton, said the latest lapse left colleagues unable to fill prescriptions, forced one to postpone surgery, and left another facing uncertainty over medical bills for a sick child.
“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. For the second time in just four months, we had to deal with problems with our healthcare coverage because required payments were not made.”
The affected facilities include Embassy of Scranton, Embassy of East Mountain in Wilkes-Barre, Embassy of Wyoming Valley in Wilkes-Barre, and Embassy of Tunkhannock. According to SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania, which represents the workers, the company made its September premium payment Wednesday after the union raised alarms, but not before employees had already faced disruptions.
The Human Cost of Late Payments
Certified nursing assistant Neil Christiano, who has worked at Embassy of Scranton for nearly three years and has a rare form of diabetes, said the situation has taken an emotional toll on staff who already face demanding work caring for bedridden residents.
“These girls are like my sisters and these guys are like my brothers — they are family,” Christiano said. “When they suffer, I suffer, and to have them come in and stress out that they do not have insurance and cannot go to the doctor or get their medicine, that is ridiculous.”
Florence “Toby” Kibbler, a certified nursing assistant at Embassy of East Mountain, put it simply: “Our health insurance contributions came out of our paychecks. Embassy needs to pay our premiums on time, every time.”
A Pattern of Problems
The union says Embassy is recent management transition has made it difficult for workers to know who is responsible for resolving benefit issues. SEIU Healthcare PA is now calling for stronger state safeguards when nursing home ownership or management changes hands, arguing that workers should not have to fight for coverage they have already paid for.
The timing has drawn particular attention from labor advocates. Pennsylvania nursing homes recently received an estimated \$800 million in new state funding over the next two years, yet Embassy has repeatedly missed benefit payments while workers contributions continued to be deducted.
FOX56 News contacted Embassy Healthcare for comment but had not received a response as of publication.
The situation highlights ongoing tensions in the skilled nursing sector, where workforce retention remains a critical challenge and employee benefits play a key role in keeping experienced caregivers on the job.
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