Abramson Senior Care is reinventing itself again after selling its nursing home and other businesses

In 1866, a Jewish charity opened a residential home in West Philadelphia dedicated to providing essential services for the elderly.

Then called the Home for Aged and Infirm Israelites, the operation eventually owned two nursing homes. By the early 2000s, what is now known as Abramson Senior Care had expanded ambitiously into community-based home care, hospice, and private-duty nurses.

An aging population will need all those services and more. But after selling its highly regarded but money-losing Horsham nursing home in October 2020, the organization is reinventing itself for the third time in 157 years to continue serving the elderly.

Abramson is trying to build a model designed to help poor and lower-income seniors living at home navigate health care and other services that help them remain independent.

The service combines care managers and nurse practitioners to help seniors and their families assess the safety of living at home, understand their options, create care plans, and access resources.

Abramson had to retrench coming out of the pandemic, when its community-based businesses struggled financially, due to higher costs and trouble hiring staff. This spring, it sold them. Abramson had already closed its other nursing home, the Birnhak Transitional Care Center at Lankenau Medical Center, last October.

“It’s OK as a nonprofit to lose a little bit of money, if you’re also fundraising and serving your mission, but we were losing more than we were comfortable with,” said Robin Brandies, who became Abramson’s executive director in April.

The organization’s new focus is bolstered by a $30 million endowment, which it hopes to preserve by drastically scaling back its former scope.

“We’re really excited. We’re debt-free, and we know we’re providing a service that others aren’t,” Brandies said.

Larisa Kotlyar found her way to Abramson through a health and wellness class at nearby KleinLife, a large community center in Northeast Philadelphia.

At 70, she is the main caregiver for her 82-year-old husband George, who has Parkinson’s disease and can’t be left alone for long. The couple emigrated from Russia three decades ago and live in Northeast Philadelphia.

The Kotlyars have too much money to qualify for Medicaid, the government’s health program for low-income families, but not enough to easily afford help caring for George.

Larisa worked in retail, including as a manager at Ross. George, who was a computer programmer in Moscow before coming to the United States, spent much of his working life in the U.S. at TV Guide.

“We’re not eligible for any program for any couple hours per week,” said Larisa, who pays someone $20 to $25 an hour to check on George when she goes to synagogue, so she can “relax and pray without any stress.”

Abramson is trying to assist Larisa. Through its services, she now has free access to a nurse practitioner, Leah Sorokorensky, who always has answers to her questions, Larisa said.

“It’s not easy to not qualify for certain things and it’s very hard to acquire those resources,” Sorokorensky said.

“This was like gift from the heaven,” Larisa said.

In 2020, Abramson had about $70 million in revenue, but the Abramson Center for Jewish Life, its Horsham nursing home, was losing $4 million a year, its former CEO said at the time.

For a time, the organization filled the hole with surpluses from other businesses. Then it sold what had long been its marquee facility.

Abramson employed 750 people when it owned two nursing homes, plus the home care and hospice businesses. Moving forward, it expects to have 8 to 10 employees, Brandies said.

Abramson’s business decision disappointed many families with loved ones in the Horsham nursing home. It had a five-star rating under Medicare when it was sold; under the new owners, it has a one-star rating.

After deciding to sell its home care and hospital businesses, Abramson considered becoming a grant-making organization, as the former Ralston Center did this year. Ralston, founded in 1817, closed its home care and other services after struggling during the pandemic and recast itself as a $50 million foundation devoted to serving older adults.

“The board really believed that the new Abramson would be filling a need,” Brandies said.

Abramson’s new business plan calls for it to rely on $1.5 million in endowment income and donations. Additionally, it will collect revenue from customers, such as two orders of nuns that have hired Abramson for care management. Currently, that additional revenue totals a bit more than $200,000, Brandies said, excluding income from the Abramson Senior Care Foundation, and $300,000 in grants for specific purposes.

At the Medical Mission Sisters in Fox Chase, Abramson helps oversee the care of 14 sisters who are in local long-term care facilities, according to Sister Suzanne Maschek, who is part of the order’s leadership.

The Abramson care manager is the first person called when something happens with one of those sisters, who worked in the medical field.

“We are trying to see how we can give good quality care to our sisters, because they are the ones who gave good quality care to the many that they served when they were in the workforce as sisters, as doctors, pharmacists,” Maschek said.

Given Abramson’s skeletal staff, it plans to function through partnerships. For example, Suburban Geriatrics will provide the medical backbone for the care management program.

“Somehow we have to invent a way to help the elderly at home,” said Robert Pearlstein, a geriatrician and owner of Suburban Geriatrics, based in Plymouth Meeting with 75 practitioners.

Pearlstein feels personally connected to Abramson’s mission, having completed a training fellowship at Philadelphia Geriatric Center, an earlier Abramson incarnation.

Both Pearlstein and another collaborator, Andre Krug, CEO of KleinLife, said the model for care management may attract Medicare Advantage insurance plans.

KleinLife provides an education and fitness component for Abramson’s care management services, such as fitness classes that aim to protect seniors against falls, one of their biggest health risks.

“If a person falls, they can go from being completely independent to completely dependent in 15 seconds,” Krug said.

“If you run classes for people in fall prevention or balance or basic core training, those basic things they are going to have a huge impact on the cost of care for those people,” he said.