Understanding the healthcare needs of residents of senior housing communities and nursing homes is imperative to best serve the population. In order to garner a better understanding of these healthcare needs and associated spending, NORC at the University of Chicago on behalf of NIC conducted a landmark study. Many residents use high-cost healthcare services including emergency rooms, acute inpatient hospitalization, and post-acute care, and across nearly every dimension analyzed, the data indicates frail and high healthcare cost residents. These factors all highlight an opportunity for value-based care organizations to partner with senior housing and skilled nursing operators.

The study cohort of Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries includes more than 250,000 senior housing residents and more than 325,000 nursing home residents. The study’s findings indicate that residents of senior housing and nursing homes average over a dozen chronic conditions and that behavioral health conditions are common.

Senior housing residents have annual healthcare spending between ~$20,000 and $30,000, with between $3,000 and $4,000 out-of-pocket resident spending. Inpatient hospital and other institutional spending account for between 62% and 76% of a resident’s healthcare spend. By comparison, the average U.S. Medicare beneficiary incurs about $16,000 in annual healthcare costs. As such, reducing avoidable high-cost services is often a key focus of Medicare Advantage (MA) plans and other risk-bearing organizations.

Spending on inpatient hospital care, including long-term care and rehabilitation, also suggests an opportunity for operators to build programs aimed at reducing hospitalizations.

Additionally, senior housing residents have considerable hospice and home health spending. Home health services are predominantly for restorative therapy but may also involve skilled nursing and medication management. Medicare spending for both physician-administered and self-administered drugs also presents an opportunity to focus on medication therapy management and polypharmacy.

The methodology for the study utilizes an academically-designed data linkage approach which links property information from the NIC MAP® Data Service, powered by NIC MAP Vision, with Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS) data and comprehensive administrative and claims data. With few data sources available to analyze the health needs of senior housing residents, this nationally representative survey allows senior housing and care stakeholders to better understand the health conditions that are most prevalent among their residents. With this understanding, proactive healthcare delivery strategies can be designed for the residents of senior housing communities and nursing homes.

To view the complete slide deck of findings, including methodology, inclusion criteria, age distribution, and service usage, download the slides below

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A Conversation with Paychex Executives

Amid a workforce shortage, companies are looking for effective strategies to recruit and retain the best workers. Solutions start with the recognition that the workforce itself is changing.

NIC COO Chuck Harry recently talked with two executives at Paychex about how senior living providers can address staffing challenges based on an understanding of what today’s workers want and expect. Here is a recap of his conversation with Paychex’s Kate Risa, strategic accounts consultant, and Brittany Riese, HR business partner.

Harry: For those who may not be familiar with Paychex, please share with us an overview of the company and your offerings for stakeholders in senior living.

Risa: Paychex is a huge organization. We pay one in every 12 private sector employees. We are also well integrated into the small and medium business arena. We have a dedicated senior living team that’s been around for 10 years, working exclusively with the industry. We work with more than 1,200 owner operators, management groups and developers across the country on a variety of HR functions and processes. We are more than a payroll company. We can manage HR functions to allow managers to devote more time to their staff and their residents. Some of our services include employee onboarding, industry compliance, salary analysis, brand building, employee motivation and engagement strategies, and other HR functions. Our team knows the industry. They understand what AL means. They understand what it means when regulators walk through the door. Our senior living HR team is integrated into the operations of the community. For example, we might help the executive director with an employee issue, or work with the regional team or CEO to analyze worker data to spot new trends.

Harry: Considering the prevalence of the current workforce challenges, what do you identify as some of the biggest hurdles for workers and employers?

Riese: It’s helpful to first look at the data. The U.S. Census Bureau says that the number of seniors, those 65 and older, is projected to double by 2030. The challenge for senior living providers will be to keep up with the demand. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated a few years ago that the demand for caregivers would increase 36% in a 10-year span, which equates to 7.8 million new jobs. Those are huge numbers. How can senior living providers recruit and retain good workers? Wages are an issue. Companies like Amazon and Walmart have raised their minimum wage to $15 an hour, but the minimum senior living wage sits below that figure. That makes senior living a hard sell. Continuing to think you can be competitive and thrive in this environment without making any changes will hold your organization back. We need to shift our thinking and listen to what employees want.

Risa: A new workforce has arrived. The days when people stayed at the same company for 30 years are gone. Gen Z and millennials move from job to job. Just as quickly as they come to work for you for another dollar, they’ll leave for a dollar more somewhere else. We have to think outside our comfort zone. In the past, a pay raise might have been enough to keep workers. But the new healthcare worker values experiences. They want to be engaged and entertained. We have to figure out how to incorporate those elements into the culture at our communities.

Riese: We’re accustomed to candidates with the education and skills to jump right into the job. But providers may have to cast a wider recruiting net. Look at your hiring criteria. If you’re only including those with prior senior living experience, you could be missing out on good candidates. Also, things are changing quickly. It’s important to give your workers the tools and training they need to succeed.

Harry: Given the attention on corporate culture and employee engagement, why is creating the right employee experience so important for today’s employees?

Riese: We’re accustomed to a worker who wants to do their job, get paid, and go home. But we’re seeing a generational shift. The average job tenure for a millennial is four years. Gen Z stays about 3 years. If they aren’t getting the experience they want and engagement, they are moving somewhere else.

Risa: When you think about the employee experience, it’s really about how they feel. In times of crisis like we’ve just been through with COVID it’s even more important to be engaged and in tune with employees. Maybe they’re struggling at home with day care issues or struggling to pay their bills. We need to understand those issues because they spill over into the workplace. We need to be able to serve the residents in the way they deserve and also help the employees. An employee engagement program is critical. We need to help our senior living managers understand what it means to be present with employees.

Harry: What do senior living leaders need to do to create a good employee experience?

Riese: How do we create an experience where employees are excited to come to work every day? It’s about company culture. Not just what’s written in your handbook. But how you include your team members in that mission every day while keeping in mind these new workers want to feel their work is meaningful. We have to listen to them and include them to engage them. They want transparent communication. They want to play an active role in decision making. They want to be heard on new processes, services, products. Companies might consider conducting employee interviews or pulse surveys. We have to give them the opportunity to have a voice. We also need to value their contributions. We can’t wait for annual appreciation events. It has to be real time, intentional and built into everyday interactions. Celebrating anniversaries and birthdays is not a new concept but there’s a way to do it well. Being intentional can make a big difference.

Risa: The new generation of healthcare worker is not going to be the burnout generation. They don’t want to work overtime. They want flexibility and work-life balance.

Riese: Consider the physical environment. We focus on resident space. But healthcare workers have a high stress job. Do we have an adequate break room, a place to unwind and take time out? This is especially important if the worker is dealing with a resident with dementia, who may be combative. An employee needs time after an interaction like that to decompress. Then the employee can go back to work and provide the next resident with a positive experience.

Harry: From your perspective, how has the nature of work evolved within senior living?

Risa: There’s been a shift in the labor market. Employers that require employees to be at work 8-10 hours a day, 5-6 days a week will not be able to hire and retain their pick of employees. Senior living has been a traditional industry. But that has created a situation where we’ve been left behind and we’re out of touch with what today’s healthcare worker needs and wants. These employees want a career path. And they may want a variety of assignments to have different experiences every day.

Harry: What is the difference with respect to the future of work versus how we work today?

Risa: The future of work must be more creative. We’re still here to care for residents and give them a positive experience. We need a workforce that has the passion and heart for senior living.

Riese: We need to focus on what makes an individual an individual. What are their hobbies and interests? Maybe an employee is a great violin player. Why not integrate that into their work and give them the opportunity to play for residents. One community I work with had an employee talent show and lip sync contest. Employees were so engaged. The residents loved it. That’s the kind of things we need to do to make it fun for everyone.

Harry: What are your thoughts on how technology shapes the way we create the workplace?

Risa: Technology can help take away some of the transactional duties from workers so they can focus on the important work of building relationships with each other and the residents. Technology can also help build experiences that create a fun place to work which translates into a vibrant community with a great resident experience.

Riese: Technology needs to empower employees, support them in how they do their work and keep them connected in the organization. We cannot hide behind technology. It’s not a magic answer. Also, the younger generations are tech savvy. As they come into the workforce, they expect technology to be in place to support their work. They can be turned off if they see antiquated processes. Senior living providers need digital charting, scheduling technology, and online programs for onboarding and training. Regular online communications are another way to keep them engaged.

During four consecutive quarters of increasing occupancy, from 78.0% in the second quarter of 2021 to 81.4% in the second quarter of 2022, the NIC MAP^® Primary Markets recovered about 37% of the senior housing occupancy lost during the pandemic, equivalent to 3.4 percentage points (pps) overall.

While senior housing occupancy still has room to make up with a gap of 5.8pps from the pre-pandemic level (87.2%), occupancy growth over the past four quarters has been notable and suggests that the market’s recovery remains well anchored in the short and long term. In fact, according to August 2022 intra-quarterly NIC MAP data, powered by NIC MAP Vision, senior housing occupancy is on track for the fifth quarter of gain as it recorded its largest monthly gain in July 2022 since October 2021 and continued to improve through the month of August 2022.

Many factors continue to influence occupancy recovery for senior housing. This analysis will focus on a trifecta of factors – demand recovery (as measured by the change in occupied stock), inventory growth during the pandemic, and the construction pipeline (as measured by second quarter 2022 construction as percent of inventory) — and how these idiosyncratic factors are shaping the senior housing occupancy growth and recovery across NIC MAP Primary Markets, resulting in a slower recovery in some markets and faster in others. The exhibit below provides a zoomed-in view of these measures for senior housing across select NIC MAP Primary Markets since the pandemic began to influence the sector in first quarter 2020. 

Demand Recovery. Within the NIC MAP Primary Markets, 78% of senior housing units vacated during the pandemic have been re-occupied as of the second quarter of 2022, equivalent to over 35,500 units absorbed on a net basis over the period from first quarter 2021 to second quarter 2022. However, 28% of units lost during the pandemic (equivalent to about 10,000 units) still need to be reabsorbed for occupied stock to fully recover and return to first quarter 2020 level. Said differently, second quarter 2022 occupied stock remained 1.8% below first quarter 2020 level.  

Inventory Growth. Over the period from first quarter 2020 to second quarter 2022, the inventory of senior housing properties for the Primary Markets grew by about 34,700 units or 5.3%, although the pace of senior housing inventory growth since first quarter 2020 has remained slow compared with pre-pandemic levels.  

Construction Pipeline. Within the Primary Markets, there were over 35,000 senior housing units under construction in the second quarter of 2022. As a share of inventory, this amounted to 5.1%. Supply dynamics, including inventory growth during the pandemic and units under construction as a share of inventory, varied across markets.  

Senior housing occupancy up from pandemic low in all Primary Markets, but the occupancy recovery is taking a lot longer for some markets than others and has been influenced by both supply and demand dynamics. 

The Lowest Occupancy Rates in Second Quarter 2022. Atlanta and Cleveland experienced the fastest recoveries in terms of units vacated during the pandemic that have been re-occupied. Notably, these two markets saw the largest demand improvements and exceeded pre-pandemic first quarter 2020 occupied stock by 5.2% and 2.3%, respectively. However, due to their respective relatively large increases in inventory during the pandemic, Atlanta (77.8%) and Cleveland (78.2%) occupancy rates remained below pre-pandemic levels and ranked the lowest among the 31 Primary Markets. These two markets illustrate the impact of supply offsetting demand and putting downward pressure on a market’s average occupancy and thereby slowing down its recovery. 

Markets Near Full Occupancy Recovery. San Antonio (81.8%) and Dallas (82.4%) occupancy rates have been recovering fast. From their pandemic lows, San Antonio recovered 5.9pps and is now 1.5pps below its pre-pandemic level, and Dallas recovered 6.1pps and is now 1.4pps below its pre-pandemic level. Interestingly, the occupancy rankings for both markets among the 31 Primary Markets saw notable improvements—San Antonio went from being ranked twenty-eighth in first quarter 2020 to fourteenth in second quarter 2022, and Dallas improved from twenty-fourth in first quarter 2020 to tenth in second quarter 2022. These notable improvements in occupancy rates and rankings are the result of a fast recovery in occupied stock but also importantly a balanced new supply. 

Markets with the Highest Rates of Construction. Looking ahead, markets with the largest number of units under construction as a share of existing inventory, such as Miami, may experience a slowdown in occupancy growth as new units enter the market. This is also the case for Portland where demand recovery has been slow but due to relatively weaker inventory growth during the pandemic, the market maintained a relatively high occupancy rate in the second quarter of 2022 at 85.0%. However, second quarter 2022 units under construction of about 2,100 units and accounting for 9.8% of existing inventory may impact the market’s occupancy growth in the next two years if its pace of demand remains slow. 

This analysis showed that the senior housing industry has been on a steady recovery path from the pandemic since the middle of 2021, and the second quarter of 2022 was no exception. Recovery, while consistent nationally, has nevertheless varied by metro.

To learn more about NIC MAP Vision data, and about accessing the analysis for all NIC MAP Primary Markets, schedule a meeting with a product expert today.

This week, NIC released a white paper on the active adult rental property type to give potential investors valuable information about this emerging segment’s characteristics and potential residents.

The paper establishes a definition for the active adult rental property segment which is needed to help bring common understanding to and insights on the growing opportunity. Defining the property type offers basic guideposts around what the segment is—and is not.

What are active adult rental properties? NIC defines the active adult segment as follows.

Active adult rental properties are age-eligible, market rate, multifamily properties that are lifestyle focused; general operations do not provide meals.

These properties aim to provide independence coupled with opportunities for social engagement that reflect the active lifestyle of their tenants. Clearly defining the segment will enable better data collection on the growth and performance of the sector, which supports the transparency investors need and ultimately provides greater access and choice for older adults.

In creating the definition, NIC considered several criteria to support clarifying this segment:

• Age-eligible: The property must restrict residents based on age. This typically means at least one resident in the household must be 55+, 62+, or 65+, depending on the local governing jurisdiction.
• Majority market rate: NIC excludes low-income housing tax credit properties from the definition.
• Multifamily: Single-family, home-only communities (SFH) are excluded. Similar to the housing data collection, it would, however, include data on attached or detached SFHs within communities with majority multifamily dwellings.
• Rental properties: The definition excludes for-sale properties.
• Meals not included through property operations or base rent: The definition does not include properties that provide lunch or dinner or allowances/credits for meals. Active adult rental properties may, however, offer meals such as continental breakfasts or happy hours.
• Not a static definition: This property type, and NIC’s definition of it, is expected to evolve as the segment matures.

Millions of baby boomers who will soon need to consider their housing options, and a growing number of people with lower acuity health needs prefer an active, community-based lifestyle lived alongside generational peers. If the senior housing community is to adequately provide access and choice for these seniors, better data to enable more transparency is desperately needed.

This white paper, “Active Adult Rental Properties: Defining the Emerging Property Type,” represents an initial step forward. Data collection is still in its nascent stages. With our new definition, however, NIC MAP Vision is collecting segment-specific data allowing potential investors and other market stakeholder to access data on the characteristics and financial performance of more than 200 active adult properties across the country. NIC MAP Vision is expected to provide more robust data, including operational performance and additional property coverage, by early 2023.

The Active Adult white paper on this emerging property type is available for download on our site.

Reframing Health and Healthcare

NIC Co-Founder and Strategic Advisor Robert Kramer has identified “Six Key Drivers” that will shape the senior living industry over the next 10 years. Kramer is also Founder & Fellow at Nexus Insights, a think tank advancing the well-being of older adults through innovative models of housing, community and healthcare. NIC Notes is publishing a bi-weekly series detailing each key driver. View the first three installments of the “Six Key Drivers” blog series. What follows is an analysis of the fourth key driver: Reframing Health and Healthcare.

Our new customers, as discussed in Key Driver #3, have a different take on longevity. They are not content to just live longer, they want to live better. They want their lifespan to as nearly as possible to match their “healthspan” or “wellspan.”

But what does that mean? And how do we help them accomplish that?

My fourth key driver shaping the future of senior living is the reframing of health and healthcare. Senior living providers must shift their thinking about what constitutes health, what drives health, and ultimately what drives well-being.

This shift in the understanding of what drives health, and where and how healthcare is delivered presents enormous opportunities that had not previously existed for senior living providers. We have the opportunity not only to develop new and valuable partnerships, but also, and more importantly, to deliver a better product and experience for residents, and potentially even for those who live outside the walls of our communities.

The old model of how our U.S. health system is structured and healthcare is delivered is one of sick care. If you get sick, you go to the doctor. Treatments are tailored to the individual’s illness or condition, assuming you even have access to care. The model is curative, reactive and passive. If you fall, for example, you are treated for your injuries. There is no focus on how to prevent the fall in the first place.

The sick care system is a fee-for-service model. Healthcare providers are paid to treat illnesses and injuries. As the older population grows and lives longer, federal and state governments are seeing healthcare expenses explode.

Medicare benefit payments in 2021 totaled $689 billion, up from just under $200 billion in 2000. Medicaid spending grew 9.2% in 2020. Federal and state governments have to reign in healthcare costs.

Driven by the government’s priority to control costs, a new and more nuanced model of healthcare has gradually been emerging over the last decade. Sick care is being replaced by well care or value-based care.

In stark contrast to the sick care model, the wellness model is preventative, predictive and participatory. Residents are empowered to participate in their own healthcare. They can help to control their own health outcomes by their behavior. Data can be used to predict who is at risk for certain conditions or ailments. And interventions can be designed to prevent bad outcomes.

Industry consultant Anne Tumlinson defines value-based care as a system of care delivery where the primary financial reward is tied to improving patient outcomes, measured against the cost of care. Government payers also want insurers and/or care providers to take on the dollar risk for the health of seniors because the current trajectory of spending is unsustainable.

It’s important to note that many healthcare providers have not yet adopted value-based care—a key point as senior living providers consider various healthcare partners in the years ahead. Many providers remain in the fee-for-service model of care.

What Determines Health

As the value-based healthcare system continues to evolve so too has the definition of health.

The mapping of the human genome provided insights into the influence of heredity on health, which experts say accounts for about 30 percent of an individual’s outcomes. Medical care is only about 10 percent of the equation. The remaining 60 percent is now understood to be shaped by personal behavior and the social determinants of health.

This is critical to senior living owners and operators. The social determinants of health are defined as the conditions in the environments where people are born, live, work, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks.

Where do you live? What kind of housing do you have? Is transportation readily accessible? Do you live in a food desert? What kind of social interactions do you have? Are you lonely? Social isolation can drive depression which drives a host of physical ailments as well as the obvious mental and emotional issues.

Notably, the pandemic brought mental and behavioral health out of the shadows, and it will not recede again. (See Key Driver #1). We have come to recognize the key role mental health plays in overall well-being.

Our behavior has an enormous impact on health, particularly in regard to the management of chronic diseases. Do you smoke? Do drugs? Or drink? We know from studies that a healthy lifestyle consisting of a good diet, regular exercise and mental stimulation can add as many as seven years to the average person’s life.

A New Paradigm of Wellness

How will this new understanding of health and healthcare impact senior living providers in the decade ahead? For years, we didn’t want to say our buildings were involved in healthcare. We essentially built a moat around our buildings. There was no need for federal regulators to take an interest in our industry.

The pandemic changed that thinking almost overnight as senior living became the front line of defense in a national healthcare crisis. It signals a radical shift from a moat around our buildings to a moat around the hospital. What does this mean?

Any entity holding the healthcare dollar risk for that older adult is interested in partnering with us. Under value-based care, providers are incentivized to keep people out of the expensive acute care system. So, we are part of the solution by addressing the needs of our residents to reduce hospitalizations and emergency room visits.

Insurance companies and other payers play a big role. Medicare Advantage (MA) plans are growing quickly in popularity. It’s estimated that already 46 percent or more of Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled in MA plans, a number only expected to grow. The companies that underwrite the plans are incentivized to help people better manage their own health and thus minimize their need for costly crisis care.

In particular, MA plans tend to focus on those who are at greatest risk—the top 20 percent in terms of healthcare spend—in an effort to help the break the cycle of hospitalization, discharge and rehospitalization. This vicious cycle is expensive. And each time the older person enters the acute care system, he or she usually has a poorer quality of life afterwards.

Why does this matter to senior living providers? They are in a unique position to partner with healthcare providers to help manage the chronic diseases common among their resident population. How?

We know our residents. The housekeeper or dining server notices when Mrs. Jones is having an “off” day. Senior living providers can be the eyes and ears of the healthcare team to coordinate appropriate interventions. In other words, we are part of the solution.

Several years ago, I was talking to a United Healthcare executive who said he’d give anything to have eyes on his plan members 24/7. What he meant was that he had no control over the social determinants of health, or his members’ personal behavior such as healthy eating, exercise, and socialization. It was hard to keep them healthy. My response: “I’d love to introduce you to a whole host of senior living providers who have their eyes on your plan members 24/7. We should chat.”

How Senior Living Providers Can Benefit

So, where and how should healthcare be delivered to residents?

The pandemic highlighted this question of where and how to deliver healthcare. Residents could not be sent to doctors’ offices because they were closed at the start of the pandemic. The hospitals were overwhelmed.

Now, the “where” of healthcare means delivering services to the home to the greatest extent possible. In our case, that means delivering healthcare on site to residents, a trend only likely to accelerate.

The “how” of healthcare delivery now means the use of technologies such as telehealth and remote patient monitoring. Healthcare professionals will make house calls to our residents and coordinate care with geriatric specialists.

This change in the “where” and “how” of healthcare delivery creates enormous opportunities for senior living providers in the future. But it also raises a lot of questions.

What kind of healthcare partnership makes the most sense? What kind of technology and data base do I need to enter into any type of partnership let alone make the partnership work? If you don’t have good data, you are not even a candidate to be a partner. What kind of doctors should I be looking for? What kind of value-based care program or payment model should I engage with? How do I deal with different payers and payment models? These are the kinds of questions senior living providers are asking or should be asking.

The answers will depend on the senior living provider and the local healthcare and payer market. Some senior living providers are partnering with physician practices that specialize in geriatrics. The team, which often includes nurse practitioners, can visit residents on site and/or be available 24/7 via telehealth. A quick call to the healthcare team can avoid a trip to the emergency room.

Here are three programs that serve as differing examples of how to integrate the new approach to healthcare into a senior living setting. Each model also provides the opportunity to bring services to seniors who live outside the walls of the senior living community.

At Juniper Communities, the Connect4Life program integrates clinical providers, their services, and communication protocols to provide individualized, coordinated care to residents. A medical concierge has the responsibility to make sure communication happens between clinical providers, the Juniper team, the family, and resident.

In the Twin Cities, Lifespark offers a proactive, whole person approach to address how seniors really want to live—a richer, fuller, healthier life. The Lifespark Complete program offers seniors a life plan featuring a life management advisor to guide the senior who works alongside a specially trained geriatric medical team, all of whom are supported by a technology platform that allows for the real time exchange of information and the predictive analytics to promote well-being.

Another example: senior living provider Generations has recently partnered with Blue Zones, an organization owned by the Adventist Health system. Blue Zones or longevity hot spots were first identified by Dan Buettner. He categorized the lifestyle habits of Blue Zone residents—the healthiest and longest-lived people in the world.

Generations already had a partnership with the Adventist Health system, co-developing three senior living campuses together. Residents at Generations’ communities will now have access to the Blue Zone program which emphasizes wellness. The Blue Zones brand also has wide recognition which will help attract new residents interested in a healthy lifestyle.

These three examples suggest features that will be essential to any successful integration of healthcare and senior living:

• An individual (advisor, concierge, life manager, etc.) who has a trusted ongoing relationship with the older adult and ensures good, timely communication between the resident, their family, healthcare providers, and the senior living staff.
•  A specially trained geriatric medical team that begins with a focus on what matters most to the older adult, not on his or her latest health incident, chronic disease, or setting. (This concept will be explored in more detail in Key Driver #6: Moving from siloed to seamless as fragmented healthcare solutions migrate to integrated, consumer-centric care systems that are setting, disease and payer agnostic.)
• A database that allows real time transfer of essential information among all those involved in the care of the older adult and the ability to deploy predictive analytics.

As an alternative to these partnership models, some senior living providers are even starting their own insurance groups to actually take on the healthcare dollar risk for the residents in their buildings.

Whatever the approach, the benefits of a strategic healthcare partnership focused on wellness are potentially enormous. Healthier residents can translate into a longer length of stay. The average assisted living resident stays from 18 to at most 30 months. Extending the length of stay for each resident by just a month can have a huge impact on ROI.

Senior living providers can also leverage their focus on wellness and prevention to keep their residents out of the emergency room and the hospital. We can show a proven track record to residents, families, healthcare providers and those holding the healthcare dollar risk. But remember, not all providers are on board with value-based care. You have to be discerning in your partnerships. Many physician practices don’t get this, and many health systems don’t get it yet either.

If our policy consists of a van to take our residents to their doctor and on weekends we call the paramedics, that approach will eventually put you out of business. As the focus continues to shift from sick care to well care and value-based care in the decade ahead, senior living providers can be an integral part of a solution that benefits us all. Ultimately, healthier residents enjoy a higher quality of life which should be the common goal of residents, families, healthcare providers, insurers and payers, and senior living providers. Everyone’s interests can be aligned.

This leads to a need for partnerships. It’s a very rare senior living provider that can do it all in this world of well care and value-based care.

When senior living providers look for healthcare partnerships, data and analytics will play a key role along with providing a seamless integrated experience for the resident. (We will explore these concepts in our next two posts on the key drivers, publishing in the coming weeks.)

The value we will have to provide to future residents is to demonstrate that we enable not just a longer life, but a life span that as nearly as possible matches their “healthspan” or “wellspan.” That is our challenge.

Next up: Key Driver #5: The Increasing Importance of Data and Analytics. Market data by itself has limited value. In the future, Market data will be coupled with personalized health, genomic, social determinants of health (SDOH), lifestyle and psychographic data, and aggregated by local markets. The applications for the future use of this kind of data will be transformative for the industry.