Abramson Senior Care is considering a merger with Jewish Family & Children’s Service

Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Greater Philadelphia and Abramson Senior Care, two health and social service agencies founded in the mid-1800s, announced Thursday that they are exploring a merger.

The deal between the two Jewish nonprofits would bring Abramson’s care management services for seniors into Jewish Family and Children’s Service (JFCS), which has a senior services division that has some overlap with Abramson. JFCS offers a wider range of services, including mental health treatment, for people throughout life. JFCS of Southern New Jersey would remain its own entity.

At the same time, JFCS announced that Abramson’s executive director, Robin Brandies, will succeed Paula Goldstein as its CEO after Goldstein’s retirement Aug. 31.

Both boards voted Wednesday to begin negotiations for a final agreement. That is expected to take a few months. After that, nonprofit regulators will have to approve the deal. If Brandies moves to JFCS before the Abramson deal is done, Abramson will appoint an interim director.

Among the issues to be worked out is what happens with Abramson’s roughly $30 million endowment. It could go to JFCS or remain independent, with Abramson possibly becoming a grant-making foundation. JFCS has a $17 million endowment, according to its audited financial statement for the year that ended last August. JFCS’s total revenue was $14 million that year. Abramson’s revenue last year was $1.27 million.

Sheree Bloch, chair of JFCS’s board, said combining the two organizations will allow them to provide a more robust spectrum of care. “It’s completely in the best interest of the elderly people in the Philadelphia community,” she said.

JFCS and Abramson frequently work together, most recently on a study with Federation Housing designed to map out where Jewish seniors live in Philadelphia, Bloch said. Federation Housing is a Philadelphia nonprofit that develops housing for low- and moderate-income seniors.

JFCS traces its roots to the 1855 founding of the Jewish Foster Home philanthropist and Jewish educator Rebecca Gratz. Abramson started in 1866 as the Home for Aged and Infirm Israelites of the Jewish Hospital Association in West Philadelphia and has evolved through multiple iterations since then.

The JFCS-Abramson merger talks started last June with conversations between Brandies and Goldstein. Then, Goldstein announced her retirement in August.

Brandies decided to pursue the position. “I’m intrigued by all the work that JFCS does, and I love their mission. It made sense for me to apply,” Brandies said. JCFS is based in Bala Cynwyd. Abramson’s offices are in Jenkintown.

But the merger talks and the hiring process moved on different tracks, handled by two separate JFCS board committees, Bloch said. “We needed the strongest, most capable CEO for our organization, and Robin clearly emerged as that candidate,” she said.

After selling its highly regarded but money-losing Horsham nursing home in October 2020, Abramson embarked on a plan to expand the services it offered in the community, including home care and hospice. But those businesses struggled because of higher costs and difficulty hiring staff. Abramson sold them in the spring of 2023.

Abramson’s focus turned to helping poor and lower-income seniors living at home navigate healthcare and other services that help them remain independent. Those services remain at the organization’s core, Brandies said.

In the last couple years, Brandies has added two Medicare programs.

One is a pilot sponsored by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that Brandies described as a “heightened form of care management that is specifically geared toward seniors struggling with cognitive decline and their family caregivers.” That program, in partnership with a primary care practice called Suburban Geriatrics, started last July and has enrolled 40 people.

Also under Medicare, Abramson provided chronic care management for people with at least two chronic conditions, Brandies said. The number of people served in that program topped 1,000 this year, she said.

Abramson also has a private-pay care management program “for people who need our help but can afford to pay for it,” Brandies said.

“We have really honed in on exactly what we want to do and how we do it and who we’re doing it for,” Brandies said. But at the same time, she’s concerned about government funding for social services.

“Organizations have to always be looking for opportunities to partner for the benefit of the people that they serve,” she said.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated with the correct name of Abramson Senior Care.