ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Financial assistance to help ensure dignity.
That’s how U.S. Sen. Bob Casey on Friday defined the $525,000 in federal funding he secured for the Cedarbrook Senior Care & Rehabilitation expansion project.
- Cedarbrook Senior Care & Rehabilitation received a $525,000 federal grant secured by Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA).
- Cedarbrook's $67 million expansion project at its Allentown facility will add 240 beds.
- The expansion project is slated for completion in 2024.
Casey, D-Pa., made the official announcement of the funding at the Cedarbrook-Allentown facility, at the site of the $67 million expansion project.
Cedarbrook now is a 473-bed facility. But overcrowding has become an untenable issue that negatively impacts the residents, officials said.
Each room has three or four residents, with a communal bathroom and shower. For example, a unit with 40 residents must share one bathroom and shower.
The expansion project will have no more than two residents per room, with each room having a shower and bathroom.
The 145,000-square-foot, four-story, 240-bed E-Wing will replace all of the nursing home resident rooms in the 1920s-era resident care B and C wings, and also a small part of the D-Wing.
The E-wing will be constructed in an L-shape to allow for nursing and medical management to be located in a central hub on each floor that serves two neighborhoods of 30 beds on each floor.
The addition also will have modern common spaces and upgraded living amenities.
“It’s great to see this (expansion project) beginning because you can affirm the dignity of people who are going to live here."U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA)
The expansion project, slated for completion by summer 2024, replaces the most dated units of Cedarbrook.
“It’s great to see this [expansion project] beginning because you can affirm the dignity of people who are going to live here,” Casey said in a brief news conference outside the facility and overlooking the expansion site.
“They should have not just quality care, but they should have the dignity of having the kind of room that" Lehigh County Director of General Services Rick Molchany was describing, Casey said.
"To have a room that meets the expectations of that individual, for whom we should care and support, but also the expectations of their families.”
Casey secured the funding for Cedarbrook by making a proposal to the Appropriations Committee, which reviewed the proposal and approved it.
“This is not an easy project to embark on. But it’s the right project to embark on.”Jason Cumello, Cedarbrook administrator/director
Jason Cumello, administrator/director at Cedarbrook, and members of the Lehigh County administration contacted Casey last year to inquire about funding for the expansion project.
“We’re very, very lucky to have the support of the county and Senator Casey to ensure this expansion project finds more funding,” Cumello said. “This funding shows that the federal government cares.
“This is not an easy project to embark on. But it’s the right project to embark on.”
Lehigh County Executive Phil Armstrong thanked Casey for the financial support that he said will make life more livable for Cedarbrook residents.
“We reached out to him, and he listened,” Armstrong said. “This will make our most vulnerable residents more content in their vulnerable years.”
Molchany said the help that comes with the funding secured by Casey comes down to numbers.
“The numbers 670 and 67 are important to me,” Molchany said. “The 670 is the amount of Medicare and Medicaid residents in beds in Cedarbrook and Fountain Hill. The 67 is the millions of dollars invested in this project at Cedarbrook-Allentown. Cedarbrook is the place for our most dependent population.”
Nearly 90% of Cedarbrook residents at the Allentown and Fountain Hill locations are insured through Medicaid, Cumello said.
“Obviously, this [funding] goes to help people who are on Medicare and Medicaid, which is why it's important to be able to give the people here this opportunity to have this expansion.
Casey had strong words for his colleagues in Congress who have spoken for years about cutting into Medicare and Medicaid.
“The Medicaid part hasn’t gotten a lot of attention, but it’s been in Republican budget proposals, especially in the House,” he said. “There have been proposals over the last five years by Republicans in the House to cut Medicaid by $100 billion over 10 years … cuts to a program that to institutions that have trouble making ends meet to serve seniors.
“So, this is it for me: In terms of cuts to Medicaid, I’m in a no-compromise area. I’m not going to sit down and hold hands with them and try to work with them.
"I’m going to stop them with every effort I can undertake. If they’re going to try to cut Medicaid, I want to do everything I can to stop them in their tracks.”
