Is home health a threat to seniors housing, an opportunity for growth or something else entirely?
Home health helps
By Pilar Carvajal
Founder & CEO
Innovation Senior Living
My entire career has been dedicated to serving low- and middle-income seniors in a home-like, communal setting to help avoid premature institutionalization.
The expansion of home health will allow more people to benefit from a non-institutional setting. But home health has its limitations as a person needs more care and supervision.
We plan to expand in home health to offer more options to our low- and middle-income residents.
Find the opportunities
By Charles Turner
CEO
Kare
I believe it is both an opportunity and a threat.
It is a threat in that it will allow seniors to stay in their homes longer, even if that is not in their best interest.
But it is also an opportunity because seniors housing can benefit from an additional payor to help pay for the care that seniors are getting in seniors housing. The operators who understand this and align with the third-party payors are the ones who will win.
Now who is going to staff either of them?
Forge partnerships
By Valerie Whitman
VP of Sales, Healthcare
LeadingResponse
For nearly 20 years I’ve partnered with both home care and senior living. They each offer a valuable service for different stages of senior care. I don’t believe home care is a threat to senior living. It can be an excellent growth opportunity when a partnership exists.
A senior’s average length of home care utilization is 11 months, according to the Home Care Association of America. Senior living becomes the natural next step in many cases as the number of hours needed and hourly costs become more expensive than seniors housing.
Long-time collaborators
By John Hartmayer
Chief Operations Officer & Executive Vice President
Benchmark Senior Living
The assisted living and home health industries have always been close collaborators in serving seniors, just in different ways. Now, more than ever, Americans are trying to think creatively when it comes to aging and what’s most important to them. That may mean staying at home longer before turning to assisted living.
In terms of opportunity, improving the relationships between assisted living and home health could benefit both industries. That said, assisted living will always provide families the greatest depth and breadth of services — including socialization and emotional support — for their acute, long-term needs.