Saber Healthcare takes over operations of Suburban Woods, nine other Pa. nursing homes

Saber Healthcare Group, of Cleveland, has taken over as the operator of 10 Pennsylvania nursing homes from the nonprofit Oak Health & Rehabilitation Centers Inc., including five in the Philadelphia area, representatives of the facilities said Tuesday.

Oak, headed by Bala Cynwyd lawyer Howard Jaffe and created in 2014 to take over 22 former Extendicare facilities, was put into receivership by its landlords in September after it failed to make at least three rent payments totaling $10.5 million and missing financial targets.

The landlords, affiliates of Formation Capital, disclosed the transfer of the operations in a receivership filing Monday in Montgomery County Court. Terms were not disclosed. Receivership is a state-court method of resolving an insolvency that has few protections for creditors.

However, the filing said a deal had been struck with three major unsecured creditors owed $4.5 million, including Healthcare Services Group Inc., of Bensalem, to end their bid to put an Oak facility in Delaware into involuntary bankruptcy. Those creditors now have a seat at the table as the receivership unfolds.

The Philadelphia-area facilities taken over by Saber, with senior-care giant Formation remaining as landlord, have a total of 589 beds. They are Dresher Hill in Dresher; Elkins Crest in Abington Township; Langhorne Gardens in Langhorne Manor; Statesman in Middletown, Bucks County; and Suburban Woods in East Norriton.

The partners behind Saber, which took over the facilities between Feb. 12 and April 1, are George Repchick and William Weisberg, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

Saber officials in Cleveland did not respond to a request for comment, but receptionists at the 10 facilities confirmed the change in operators. Brian T. Feeney, a lawyer with Greenberg Traurig representing the landlords, said he could not comment.

Before taking over the 10 Oak facilities, Saber had 111 facilities with 10,002 beds in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, Virginia, Indiana, and North Carolina, according to its website. Saber, which was founded in 2001, already had four sites in the Philadelphia region: Ambler Extended Care Center, Broomall Manor, Bryn Mawr Extended Care Center, and Twin Pines Health Care Center in West Grove.

The five other Pennsylvania facilities now run by Saber are Mountain City in Hazleton, Spruce Manor in West Reading, Broad Mountain in Frackville, Stonebridge in Duncannon, and Tremont in Tremont. At the facilities in Hazleton and West Reading, Saber recognized SEIU Healthcare of Pennsylvania as a union representing nursing assistants, but not the current collective bargaining agreement, imposing 40 new terms.

A former Oak facility, Valley Manor Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, which has 180 beds and straddles Bucks and Lehigh Counties in Coopersburg, was taken over by Akiko Ike, Leibel Gutman, and Brian Kohn on Feb. 1, the Health Department said.

The remaining 11 Oak nursing homes remain in receivership, under the management of a receiver named David Lawlor.