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John W. Mitchell, Senior Correspondent | May 18, 2015
From the May 2015 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
HBCN: More and more of your members who have focused on housing for the elderly are now incorporating health service into their operations. What explains this trend?
Under the new model of the Affordable Care Act (Value-based Purchasing and Population Health Management) housing agencies want the same thing as hospitals and doctors - to keep older adults healthy, out of the hospital, and living at home as long as possible. LeadingAge members now proactively design everything from primary care clinics to population health management into their operations to make residents happier and save state programs money on health care costs. It’s common now for state health agencies to help fund senior housing communities with programs to control such chronic conditions as diabetes and falls in order to reduce visits to the ER. This results in fewer hospital admissions, which makes boomers happier and helps control health care costs.
HBCN: What advice do you have for hospitals and doctors about baby boomers?
Fall out of love with the way you do things now and fall in love with change. Get to know the housing and public health groups in your market, they can help meet your goals of population health management. The huge fly in the ointment is going to be dementia and Alzheimer’s.
It is the most dreaded of conditions and right now affects half of all elders over the age of 85. The way things stand right now, without treatment, every person, family, housing agency and hospital must have an Alzheimer’s plan as the baby boomers move through the system. Think of baby boomers as customers and remember that customers eventually get what they want in the marketplace.
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