A significant number of senior living companies have implemented diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging programs in the past year, indicating that more owners and operators are “leaning in” to those initiatives to meet strategic goals, according to new industry research.

But the authors of the report about the results of the 2023 Senior Living DEIB Survey, which was released Wednesday, say it’s time for operators to focus on actions aimed at improving retention in addition to recruiting.

“Organizations should establish a holistic vision for what they are trying to achieve through their DEIB efforts,” they wrote. “It is time to move beyond the focus of just recruiting diverse talent. Companies must foster inclusive work environments that provide a sense of belonging, so that they can retain the talent that they work hard to attract.”

The survey, which continued to track the industry’s progression addressing DEIB initiatives, was conducted by Ferguson Partners and sponsored by the Senior Living DEIB Coalition, a two-year-old partnership among Argentum, the American Seniors Housing Association and the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care.

Although more work lies ahead, Argentum President and CEO James Balda said that it is important to acknowledge the progress to date.

“It is exciting to note that this year’s survey showed an increase in the percentage of companies with formal DEIB programs, from 27% to 40%, which indicates a growing recognition within the industry of the importance and positive impact of promoting diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging among employees and residents,” Balda said in a statement. “A formal DEIB program is an important step to foster a culture of diversity, equity, including and belonging, which also bolsters employee engagement.”

Recommendations

The survey, however, also revealed that well more than 80% of executive positions are held by white employees, presenting a “huge opportunity” for racial/ethnic parity at the executive level with employees of color. More work also is needed at the mid-management level, with women of color leaving at twice the rate of their promotion, according to the report. 

“Senior living is about creating communities where everyone feels welcome and valued,” NIC President and CEO Ray Braun said. “The results of this survey provide us with a roadmap for furthering our DEIB initiatives and creating an industry that is truly inclusive for all.”

DEIB trends

The results also provide a market overview of how the senior living industry is addressing DEIB, according to ASHA President and CEO David Schless. 

“The data collected provides valuable insights into current industry trends, best practices and areas of improvement for those looking to further their DEIB efforts,” he said.

Survey participation increased 36% — from 44 to 60 companies — from 2022. 

According to the results, 40% of respondents have a formal DEIB program in place — up from 27% in 2022 — and 37% have implemented some DEIB initiatives or policies. In addition, 93% of respondents said they are taking steps to recruit potential employees from underrepresented groups, and 95% said they are taking steps to increase retention and promotion rates of members of underrepresented groups.

Other findings:

• The majority of organizations focus on gender (91%), race/ethnicity (98%), sexual orientation (89%) and age (83%) as dimensions of diversity.
• 73% of senior living professionals are women.
• 50% of employees are white, and 46% are people of color.
• 14% of executive management is people of color, and women make up 50% of executives.

In most cases (57%), DEIB initiatives originate in the C-suite (57%), although some initiatives are developed by the human resources department (17%) or by a dedicated DEIB committee (13%).

An executive summary of the survey results is available on Argentum’s website.

The US Senate Special Committee on Aging is launching a review of the assisted living industry following recent articles in the Washington Post, which reported on the deaths of residents who wandered from communities, as well as the New York Times and KFF, which scrutinized an industry pricing structure that adds fees on top of basic charges to cover additional services, as well as rate increases and the for-profit status of most providers.

Committee Chairman Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), who has scheduled a hearing for Jan. 25, sent letters dated Monday to the leaders of Brookdale Senior Living, Atria Senior Living and Sunrise Senior Living, asking them to address his “significant concerns” about costs, staffing levels and resident safety.

“Despite these high costs, residents in assisted living facilities have been put in harm’s way, leading to avoidable injuries and death,” Casey wrote in his letter to the large providers, detailing points made in the November Times/KFF articles and December Post articles. 

Assisted living communities primarily are regulated at the state level, but the committee frequently has used its authority to “examine private companies when concerns arise about potential health and safety, as well as financial risks posted to older adults,” the senator said.

“The Senate Special Committee on Aging has jurisdiction over the problems older adults face, including matters of maintaining older adults’ health, their ability to secure proper housing, and their ability to obtain care or assistance when needed,” Casey wrote. “As chairman, I have an interest in ensuring that older adults and people with disabilities are receiving high quality care, have access to proper housing and receive good value for their hard-earned dollars.”

Specifically, Casey asked the companies to provide information and documents no later than Feb. 5 detailing how they communicate the cost of services to residents and their families, rates they charge in each state, and their schedules of services and costs. Additionally, he asked them to provide information on average revenue per occupied unit for the past seven years, figures on the number of residents who have eloped or sustained injuries due to being left unattended, information about the accessibility of information about complaints and citations received by their communities, their policies and procedures for informing residents and families about accidents, applicable staffing requirements, and job titles and associated pay rates at their companies. 

“We look forward to reviewing and responding to Sen. Casey’s letter on the assisted living industry with candor and transparency,” Sunrise Senior Manager of External Communications Heather Hunter told McKnight’s Senior Living. 

Atria Senior Living provided a similar response.

“Our top priority is our residents’ well-being and safety,” an Atria spokesperson told McKnight’s Senior Living. “We look forward to providing information in response to Sen. Casey’s letter.”

Brookdale said it is aware of the letter from Casey.

“Brookdale values the relationships we have created with our hundreds of thousands of residents at communities across the country over the last decade, and we are committed to providing high quality care,” a spokesperson said. “We take seriously our mission of enriching the lives of those we serve with compassion, respect, excellence and integrity.”

Atria, Brookdale and Sunrise are some of the largest senior living operators in the country. On the 2023 ASHA 50 list issued by the American Seniors Housing Association, Brookdale topped the list of operators, and Atria came in at No. 2. Sunrise was No. 3. On Argentum’s 2023 list of largest providers, Brookdale was No. 1, Atria was No. 2 and Sunrise was No. 5.

This isn’t the first time that senators have called for an investigation related to assisted living. In one of the most recent actions, a bipartisan group of US senators, all members of the Aging Committee, in 2015 asked the Government Accountability Office to report on Medicaid oversight and quality of care in assisted living communities. Their request resulted in a 2018 GAO report.

That report contained a to-do list for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services related to state reporting of deficiencies in care and services provided to Medicaid beneficiaries in assisted living communities. Some federal lawmakers and consumer advocates, however, said that they would push for changes in assisted living because of the report’s findings.

‘Isolated incidents’

Senior living industry groups have called the number of deaths reported in The Post’s story a small fraction of the total number of assisted living and memory care residents, most of whom report high satisfaction with their communities.

“The Washington Post’s reporting featured isolated incidents that assisted living communities take very seriously,” Argentum President and CEO James Balda told McKnight’s Senior Living, adding that the elopement-related fatalities highlighted in the Washington Post stories are “exceedingly rare,” occurring with 0.0015% of more than 6.2 million residents served during the timeframe of the reports.

“Our communities look forward to demonstrating to the committee that as the nation grapples to care for our aging population, assisted living provides independence and dignity for seniors,” he said.

Argentum, Balda added, “strongly supports” state regulations already in place to investigate incidents and punish any wrongdoing, and he said that any fatality is “devastating for our staff, our residents and their families.”

Calling elopements rare while acknowledging that any resident injury is “truly tragic,” National Center for Assisted Living Executive Director LaShuan Bethea said she welcomes the opportunity to engage with the committee to “further their understanding of the assisted living profession, its oversight and our deep commitment to providing quality care.”

“The assisted living profession is committed to continuing to learn all that we can about dementia and the disease process to meet the ever-changing needs of our residents,” Bethea told McKnight’s Senior Living. “Policymakers, providers and other stakeholders should come together to find ways to advance memory care while honoring why seniors and their families love assisted living — by supporting their independence and autonomy in a home-like environment.”

Assisted living will continue to evolve with the nation’s changing needs, and regulations, staffing and training requirements must evolve with them, LeadingAge President and CEO Katie Smith Sloan told McKnight’s Senior Living.

“Our elected officials and other stakeholders must prioritize policies to support older adults and the professionals working in aging services to ensure equitable access to high-quality care in assisted living, as well as other care settings,” she said.

In a response to the original package of Washington Post stories, American Seniors Housing Association President and CEO David Schless said the stories “inaccurately” suggest that elopements in assisted living or memory care settings would not occur if there were federal oversight of the setting. He also said that the articles failed to recognize the contributions of the vast majority of frontline caregivers and other senior living professionals.

Schless called assisted living “highly regulated” by states that impose strict requirements, including licensure, and cover a broad range of provisions such as those Casey asked about in his letter to providers. Schless added that states are actively involved in updating and modifying regulations and statutes on an ongoing basis.

“The states are far more responsive than the federal government in addressing the needs of residents and their families to ensure innovative services and programs are available to meet their needs and those of a rapidly aging population, including those with Alzheimer’s and related dementias,” Schless said. 

ASHA, he said, also plans to respond to the committee with a rebuttal of the Post’s “misrepresentation” of the industry, providing information he said was overlooked in the reporting as well as information about the benefits and value of senior living.

Association leaders previously submitted letters to the editor to the New York Times and the Washington Post in response to their articles. Although The Post has not published letters from the associations, it did post a letter from Andrew Carle, lead instructor in senior living administration at Georgetown University. He said that the more than 6 million Americans affected by dementia and prone to wandering would be “exponentially safer” in assisted living communities than at homes in the greater community.

Industry quality initiatives

The industry has launched several initiatives focused on building consensus around assisted living quality measures, as well as infection prevention and control efforts. NCAL last week released its 2023 regulatory review report, which highlighted regulatory requirements across all 50 states. 

The Center for Excellence in Assisted Living, known as CEAL@UNC for the past year, itself was launched in 2003 as a result of a recommendation in the landmark Assisted Living Workgroup Report, delivered to the Senate Special Committee on Aging. 

In a recent podcast interview with McKnight’s Senior Living, Sheryl Zimmerman, MSW, PhD, the center’s executive director, called on all assisted living stakeholders “to be more mindful in a pragmatic, feasible way” across all of assisted living to address resident care needs.

“Most everyone involved in assisted living is aware there are opportunities for improvement,” Zimmerman told McKnight’s Senior Living. “The Senate Aging Committee delved into assisted living 20 years ago with the Assisted Living Workgroup Report, which led to the national Center for Excellence in Assisted Living, and as the executive director, I welcome the opportunity this brings to coordinate efforts to work towards excellence while providing person-centered care and quality jobs.”

LeadingAge, Argentum, NCAL and ASHA in June announced that they had joined with the National Association for Regulatory Administration to develop guidance for the industry and resources for operators, regulators, policymakers and other stakeholders. The groups, working together as the Quality in Assisted Living Collaborative, first turned their attention to the area of infection prevention and control, an issue brought to the forefront during the COVID-19 pandemic, with plans to address other issues.

NCAL also has its own National Quality Award program, based on the Baldrige Performance Excellence Framework. It recognizes assisted living providers that meet certain goals. The organization’s voluntary quality initiative for assisted living communities also has goals related to staff stability, customer satisfaction, hospital readmissions and the off-label use of antipsychotic medications.

The Joint Commission is planning to revise its infection prevention and control requirements for assisted living community accreditation as infection prevention and control regulations for the setting become more common at the state level.

The commission’s proposal focuses on the structures deemed essential to supporting quality and safety and outlines a framework for infection prevention and control programs. The suggested changes also more closely align with the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s core infection prevention and control practices for safe healthcare delivery in all settings, according to the commission. 

A Joint Commission spokeswoman told McKnight’s Senior Living that the proposed revisions are a continuation of the wider infection prevention and control chapter rewrite initiative that spans all areas of accreditation.

“Broadly speaking, the goal of the IC [infection prevention and control] chapter rewrite is to align the IC standards and elements of performance more closely with law and regulation, eliminate the requirements that do not add value to surveys, and streamline the chapter,” the spokeswoman said. “The proposed revisions are currently in field review. Once approved, the revised IC chapter will replace current IC chapter requirements.”

Once the new requirements are implemented, commission-accredited assisted living communities will receive access to a new assessment tool that will outline the specific actions and processes they will need to take to meet them.

The Joint Commission is accepting comments on the proposal until Feb. 21 through an online survey.

The changes

Specifically, the changes cover assigning management responsibilities for infection prevention and control, including developing policies and procedures, coordinating competency-based training and risk management. They also require organizations to have written policies and procedures guiding infection prevention and control, including reporting duties to local and state public health authorities.

The Joint Commission also is deleting an existing performance improvement component of the accreditation program requiring assisted living organizations to provide incidence data to key stakeholders — leaders, licensed practitioners, nursing and staff members — about multidrug-resistant organisms, because it was determined to be out of scope.

The Joint Commission launched its assisted living community accreditation program in 2022 to bring “national, consensus-based standards” to the industry. Its standards address the environment, staffing, emergency management, dementia care, medication management, the provision of care and services, process improvement and more. The program also requires organizations to track and report on five standardized performance measures: off-label antipsychotic drug use, resident falls, resident preferences and goals of care, advanced care plans/surrogate decision-makers, and staff stability.

The Joint Commission also launched an assisted living community memory care certification program last year in collaboration with the Alzheimer’s Association, to promote consistent, high-quality dementia care in assisted living. 

Industry efforts

Indicative of the growing importance of infection control in assisted living, regulatory requirements related to infection control and emergency preparedness were an addition to the National Center for Assisted Living’s 2023 regulatory review report, released last week. The report noted that such regulations now are in place in a majority of states.

Industry groups devised their own guidance for infection control and prevention in 2023.

NCAL, Argentum, the American Seniors Housing Association and LeadingAge in June announced that they had joined with the National Association for Regulatory Administration to develop guidance for the industry and resources for operators, regulators, policymakers and other stakeholders. Infection prevention and control was the initial focus of the effort, called the Quality in Assisted Living Collaborative.

Other existing infection control efforts available to providers include the CDC’s Project Firstline training program for infection control and prevention, a certification for infection prevention and control professionals via the Certification Board of Infection Control and Epidemiology, and an infection prevention and control document produced by Argentum during the pandemic. Other than the Argentum document, however, most of those efforts are not focused on assisted living, and they are not strictly guidance.

And assisted living was an area where such focus was needed, according to a study published in December 2022 in JAMDA – The Journal of Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine. That research found that infection control and preparedness in assisted living during the pandemic was hampered in part by limited clinical expertise and medical oversight of staff members and conflicting regulations and guidance for federal, state and local health agencies.

And in memory care settings, according to a study published in the June 2022 edition of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, a need existed “to bolster infection prevention capacity when caring for this especially vulnerable population.” 

Regarding overall quality, NCAL has its own National Quality Award Program, based on the Baldrige Performance Excellence Framework, that recognizes assisted living providers that meet certain goals.

NCAL also has a voluntary quality initiative for assisted living communities, with goals related to staff stability, customer satisfaction, hospital readmissions and the off-label use of antipsychotic medications.

Increasing COVID-19, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus vaccination rates in older adults is going to require a village to battle vaccine reluctance in the form of misinformation, hesitancy and fatigue, according to senior living experts.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently released two reports on vaccination coverage and treatment for respiratory viruses. The agency found that vaccine fatigue, inaccurate health information and vaccine hesitancy contributed to lower vaccination rates in older adults. 

A significant challenge is that many people now tend to equate COVID-19 with catching a cold, Argentum Vice President of Government Relations Paul Williams told McKnight’s Senior Living. 

“We need to continue to emphasize how serious these respiratory viruses can be for our residents, who tend to have multiple comorbidities and chronic conditions, putting them at greater risk for serious complications, and even death,” Williams said. “At this point, so many people have made up their minds on vaccination, and trying to get folks to reconsider is an uphill task.”

Many people are “done with COVID” and any discussion of vaccines, he added.

“Vaccine fatigue is real, even though it remains a threat to the older adults we serve,” Williams said.

Raising vaccination rates

According to the CDC, uptake of the updated COVID-19 vaccine is approximately 37% in adults aged 75 or more years, compared with the national average of 19% among all adults. The statistics aren’t much better for the flu and RSV vaccines — only 34% of adults aged 65 or more years had received the flu vaccine as of Oct. 28 and only 17% of adults aged 60 or more years reported receiving an RSV vaccine as of Dec. 23.

Nursing homes have national reporting requirements for resident and staff member vaccination rates, making statistics more readily available than in assisted living, which does not have such requirements. And not all states are mandating or tracking vaccination in senior living community staff members for COVID, RSV or flu.

Williams said that Argentum is hearing that communities with strong leadership often have higher vaccination rates, and that staff members who trust and respect community leaders are more receptive to calls for vaccination and the importance of helping to protect residents and colleagues in the community.

“Communities that involve trusted nurses and clinicians to educate residents and answer questions on the risk and benefits of vaccines have higher rates,” he added. “The use of toolkits and talking points have proven to be helpful but the main barrier to increasing compliance remains ‘vaccine fatigue.’”

Challenges of vaccine reluctance

The challenge in battling vaccine reluctance is not unique to senior living or nursing home providers; it is systemic among the US population at large, according to the American Health Care Association / National Center for Assisted Living.

“As a country, we face significant challenges with vaccine reluctance that require a collective endeavor by public health officials, other healthcare providers and the public,” an AHCA/NCAL spokeswoman told McKnight’s Senior Living. “Assisted living providers remain persistent in talking to family members and residents about their vaccine concerns and appreciate the partnerships of the larger healthcare system to help reinforce the importance of the vaccines.”

Last week, US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra met virtually with representatives from LeadingAge and AHCA/NCAL to express concerns about low vaccination rates among residents of nursing homes, which are supported by federal dollars through the Medicare and Medicaid programs. LeadingAge said in a statement after that meeting that it had urged HHS to help ease logistical issues that have slowed vaccination rates and to encourage hospitals to offer vaccines on discharge. 

David Gifford, MD, MPH, chief medical officer of AHCA/NCAL, writing in a column in McKnight’s Senior Living sister publication McKnight’s Long-Term Care News last week, discussed the need for the nation to collectively combat vaccine reluctance. He opined that strides in the right direction since the pandemic have been taken with vaccines, especially in the long-term care industry, but much collective work remains to be done by the healthcare profession to combat widespread hesitancy.

Vaccine fatigue and hesitancy, Gifford said, are “rampant,’ but especially so when it comes to COVID-19 and RSV vaccines. And although vaccine uptake in skilled nursing facilities is higher than in the general community (a number easier to know for nursing homes due to federal reporting requirements), he called for a doubling down on efforts to increase those numbers.

Gifford called for the ready availability of vaccines for residents through on-site vaccine clinics, provider reimbursements and consistent public health messaging. He said many new admissions arrive at an assisted living community or nursing home without being offered or having received the vaccine during visits with physicians in other healthcare settings.

AHCA/NCAL created a #GetVaccinated website last year with resources for providers to secure and administer vaccines on site, as well as resources to help encourage residents and staff members to receive vaccines.

The approach, designed to make enrollment more seamless for full-time high school and community college students, is modeled after high-quality youth apprenticeship systems in states across the country, according to the DOL.

“Equity and job quality have marked the most successful Registered Apprenticeship programs for workers and employers alike. This proposed rule codifies the Department of Labor’s strong commitment to these principles,” Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su said in a press release. “Importantly, the proposed changes will also provide strong worker protections, improved employer experiences and greater clarity about the roles of federal and state governments and their partners in the National Apprenticeship System.”

According to the DOL, the proposed rule would also include the following enhancements: 

• Strengthening of labor standards, quality and worker protections by making occupational skills and training more portable, enhancing alignment with postsecondary education and providing better performance data. 
• Better defining roles for state apprenticeship agencies and other stakeholders within the National Apprenticeship System.
• Codifying of the Office of Apprenticeship’s role for national leadership, promotion and standards.
• Promoting apprenticeship pathways, including pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship readiness programs, by expanding performance and data requirements to improve accountability, transparency and program outcomes. 

Apprenticeships are gaining ground in senior living and care, with Argentum’s Healthcare Apprenticeship Expand Program as one example. HAEP was initiated through the association as part of a $6 million US Department of Labor grant to train apprentices in key senior living and allied health occupations. Argentum was one of 28 public-private partnerships to receive a collective $100 million. The association outlined a goal of enrolling and supporting more than 7,200 apprentices by February.

HAEP participants also can receive financial support and care management services through a relatively new partnership with Work Well, which helps apprentices persist in their programs, overcome barriers and reach their professional goals. That support can come in the form of utility assistance, child care, home repair, medical emergency assistance, eviction assistance, financial literacy education and more.

Apprenticeships also are part of a national coalition’s plans to address fundamental issues facing skilled nursing facilities. Plans of the Moving Forward Nursing Home Quality Coalition, formed in the wake of a 2022 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine that industry leaders described as a wake-up call, include a pilot for a nurse aide apprenticeship program.

The Labor Department’s Employment and Training Administration is sponsoring a webinar on the National Apprenticeship System proposed rule Jan. 11 from 2 to 3 p.m. ET.

The list below details some of the most popular columns that were posted and read between Jan. 1 and Dec. 18, according to our analysis. Here’s a chance to revisit those columns or read them for the first time.

• Most-read column by Editorial Director John O’Connor:

A new and needed direction for senior living

“Argentum’s president and CEO wants to do something that runs against conventional wisdom. It also happens to be brilliant,” O’Connor wrote May 11, shortly after Argentum’s annual conference had concluded. There, James Balda had called for better provider relations with Congress.

“Increasingly, the actions of Congress are affecting senior living in ways both subtle and obvious. …That alone is reason to be on good terms with lawmakers in Washington, particularly those with clout,” O’Connor wrote, adding that good relations also could help senior living in its quest to continue to be regulated primarily at the state level. Read more here.

Read additional columns by O’Connor here.

• Most-read column by Editor Lois A. Bowers:

‘The Golden Bachelor’ could be a golden opportunity

Is “The Golden Bachelor” another example of stereotyping and ageism? Or is the show’s outreach and focus on older adults a reason to cheer?

Bowers pondered those questions in her and McKnight’s Senior Living’s most-read blog of the year, in which she also discussed senior living community watch parties, researchers’ musings about the TV “reality show” and more.

“I’m hoping that the airing of ‘The Golden Bachelor,’ faults and all, will lead to thought-provoking, productive discussions about aging and ageism and that senior living residents, and older adults in general, ultimately will be more visible and celebrated,” she wrote Oct. 23. Read more here.

Read additional columns by Bowers here.

• Most-read guest column:

The big shift coming to senior living

“What’s going to happen to senior living when your best consumer segment — those high-income, high-net-worth boomers — don’t need you anymore? This question is especially important because we know they already don’t want what you offer.” That was the question posed and point made by Matt Thornhill, founder and CEO of a middle-market solution called Cozy Home Community, in an Oct. 23 guest column.

Thornhill encouraged readers to pursue “different, and less expensive” solutions to attract a potentially huge market. Read more here.

Read more guest columns here.

• Most-read marketplace column:

Sliding scale insulin for diabetic residents: Is it helpful or harmful?

Twenty percent of assisted living residents have type 1 or type 2 diabetes, and they are relying on their healthcare professionals to assist in managing their disease, Jered Yalung, PharmD, director of marketing and operations at Options for Senior America, wrote in a May 18 marketplace column.

Yalung suggested actions for senior living operators to take for residents with this chronic condition. Read more here.

Read more marketplace columns here.

Be part of the story

Interested in submitting a guest column or marketplace column in 2024? Find out how here.

And help decide our top columns of 2024.

Subscribe to our free flagship newsletter, the Daily Briefing, and our other free daily e-newsletters, by clicking on “Subscribe” in the upper right corner of our website, wwwmcknightsseniorliving.com, or via the “Have we got news for you!” box in the right column.

Also join us on our social media channels to be a part of the story next year.

McKnight’s Senior Living is on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @_McKnightsSL. Additionally, you can follow editors John O’Connor at @ltcritr, Lois A. Bowers at @Lois_Bowers and Kim Bonvissuto at @KimBonvissuto on X.

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According to the Post’s research, more than 2,000 residents wandered away from or were “left unattended for hours outside” of senior living communities from 2018 to 2023, and 98 of them died. (Read this article to learn more about the response of industry advocates.)

It isn’t the first time the industry has been scrutinized by the national lay press, of course, and it won’t be the last.

In fact, the Post articles follow the November publication of a package of articles by the New York Times and KFF. That report, titled “Dying Broke,” scrutinized an industry pricing structure that adds fees on top of basic charges, to cover additional services such as help with activities of daily living, insulin injections and blood pressure checks. It also cited the growth of rate increases, the for-profit status of most providers, and the operating margins they see.

Other examples of somewhat recent unflattering coverage of the industry include a 2017 report by CNN that counted more than 16,000 cases of sexual abuse in assisted living communities and nursing homes since 2000 and, on a more local level, articles about the senior living industry in the Minneapolis Star Tribune and Atlanta Journal Constitution in 2017 and 2019, respectively.

Although such attention can lead to efforts to try to increase state regulation of operators, in a recent interview I conducted with Nexus Insights and National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care founder Bob Kramer (not about these media investigations), Kramer said he believes that the government’s “desire to invest the money to set up a federal regulatory apparatus is still going to be lacking,” although “there will be a lot of noise” about it.

A 2018 report by the Government Accountability Office certainly generated some “noise” when some federal lawmakers and consumer advocates said they would push for changes in assisted living because of the report’s findings. But the report’s to-do list primarily was for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and state Medicaid agencies related to state reporting of deficiencies in care and services provided to some assisted living residents.

Still, at a time when demographics mean that a larger number of older adults will be in the market for senior living in the coming years, operators can expect the scrutiny to continue.

As Kramer told me: “The reality is that there are good operators and not-so-good operators.” Even well-intentioned providers may find themselves challenged by staffing shortages, although many have limited move-ins in an effort to better align staffing and resident needs.

“The more the industry can articulate and, in a sense, hold itself accountable for higher standards of care, the better off the industry will be, because we don’t want to go the direction of skilled nursing,” Kramer said as I interviewed him on the occasion of McKnight’s Senior Living’s 20th anniversary. (If you haven’t seen the cartoon of him on the first-ever cover of our print magazine in 2003, you can see it here.)

And therein lies the opportunity.

Possible solutions are suggested in the Post coverage, among them training, increased vigilance and more accurate risk assessments. Industry advocates also point to their efforts to attain and maintain quality among providers.

“Our association has participated in multiple efforts to build sector consensus on assisted living quality measures and other topics,” LeadingAge President and CEO Katie Smith Sloan said Sunday in response to the Post’s coverage.

For instance, LeadingAge, Argentum, the National Center for Assisted Living and the American Seniors Housing Association in June announced that they had joined with the National Association for Regulatory Administration to develop guidance for the industry and resources for operators, regulators, policymakers and other stakeholders. Infection prevention and control was the initial focus of the effort, called the Quality in Assisted Living Collaborative. The work “will help the sector collaboratively address the most urgent issues,” Sloan predicted at the time.

On top of that effort, NCAL offers its National Quality Award program, and Argentum offers several certificate and certification programs, just to name a few quality-focused initiatives. And providers can pursue efforts outside of those offered by industry membership associations, such as assisted living accreditation and memory care certification through The Joint Commission.

Keep it up. The Post is. The media outlet promises to continue to report on the assisted living industry and is soliciting information from readers about their “experiences with elder care, assisted living and dementia care.”

Lois A. Bowers is the editor of McKnight’s Senior Living. Read her other columns here.

Senior living industry leaders stressed their belief in the importance of quality, safety and accountability Sunday in response to a package of articles in the Washington Post titled “Memory Inc.,” about assisted living and memory care community residents who had eloped and died. Many communities are “dangerously understaffed,” an article in the report alleged.

“Since 2018, more than 2,000 people have wandered away from assisted-living and memory-care facilities unnoticed or been left unattended for hours outside,” according to another article in the report, published Sunday, which counted 98 deaths among whom the authors described as “walkaways.” The writers said that their calculations were based on an “exhaustive search of inspection results, incident reports and media accounts nationwide” but that because they were unable to obtain records in all states, “the data … is certainly an undercount.”

“The bulk of the official records came from 29 states that make current reports public online. Two additional states said they had no incidents; 10 did not provide records nor do they make them available online; some provided only partial records,” they wrote. The article detailed several instances of residents wandering outside and subsequently dying after spending too much time in excessive cold or hot temperatures or under other circumstances.

“In case after case examined by The Post, inspectors cited evidence of too few people on duty to care for the number of residents, of staff ignoring alarms, of skipped bed checks and staff sleeping on the job, of general neglect and, in a few cases, falsified records,” the authors said.

‘Nothing more important than safety’

Argentum President and CEO James Balda told McKnight’s Senior Living: “Nothing is more important than our residents’ safety, and any fatality is one too many. Any community in which an incident occurs is subject to appropriate state regulatory penalties, up to, and including, loss of license.”

Argentum was one of the major national associations that advocates on behalf of providers and was quoted or mentioned in the report. The National Center for Assisted Living, the American Seniors Housing Association and LeadingAge also were included.

“To be clear, LeadingAge has no tolerance for bad care, and quality is a top priority for our nonprofit, mission-driven members,” LeadingAge President and CEO Katie Smith Sloan told McKnight’s Senior Living.

Older adults and their families, she added, “deserve a strong national aging services system that supports and sustains providers of high-quality assisted living, including adequate and well-trained staff,” and elected officials and other stakeholders should “prioritize policies to support older adults and the professionals working in aging services to ensure equitable access to high-quality care in assisted living as well as other care settings.”

The report shared factors known by those active in the field — that assisted living mainly is regulated at the state level, that care and services primarily are paid for via residents’ private funds, that retaining staff members remains a challenge and that pay for aides averages “less than most Starbucks baristas.”

It also maintained that, in elopement cases, “[f]acilities and senior managers largely have not faced serious consequences,” that “regulatory fines seldom exceed $10,000,” and that “[t]he biggest financial risk facilities face usually comes from lawsuits,” which are “typically covered by operators’ insurance.”

‘Multiple efforts’ related to quality

State oversight of the industry “is often weak in several areas,” the authors wrote. For instance, they said, their analysis found that only 13 states mandate a minimum number of on-duty caregivers per resident, that only nine states require caregivers to obtain at least six hours of training about caring for residents living with dementia, and that information about violations is incomplete or not available to the public online in 21 states. Overall training requirements, the authors added, vary from five to 90 hours across states where an amount is specified, although many states mandate training but do not specify an amount.

“Our association has participated in multiple efforts to build sector consensus on assisted living quality measures and other topics,” Sloan said. “Our engagement in those, as well as our advocacy, educational and research efforts to improve care throughout  aging services, are ongoing and, given the stresses of our country’s current approach to long-term care financing, increasingly urgent.”

In one effort this year, LeadingAge, Argentum, NCAL and ASHA in June announced that they had joined with the National Association for Regulatory Administration to develop guidance for the industry and resources for operators, regulators, policymakers and other stakeholders. Infection prevention and control was the initial focus of the effort, called the Quality in Assisted Living Collaborative. The work “will help the sector collaboratively address the most urgent issues,” Sloan predicted at the time, and Balda said that the initiative ultimately could lead to greater consistency across the states.

“Assisted living will continue to evolve with our country’s changing needs. Regulations, staffing needs and training requirements must evolve with them,” Sloan said Sunday.

In a statement to McKnight’s Senior Living on Monday, NCAL said: “The assisted living profession remains steadfast in constantly improving and adapting to meet the needs of their residents, including those living with dementia. We will continue to seek out opportunities to work with policymakers and stakeholders to advance high-quality, personalized assisted living care.” 

‘Overwhelmingly popular’

Balda pointed out Sunday that “[a]ssisted living and memory care communities are overwhelmingly popular with residents and their families. Our communities offer choice and dignity to 1.4 million seniors each day, and surveys find that 94% of residents report good or great satisfaction, and 91% say they feel safer than living on their own.”

In a recent J.D. Power satisfaction study, he added, assisted living and memory care communities were found to be “overwhelmingly popular with residents and their families,” scoring 837 on a 1,000-point scale.

“Professionally managed communities have security procedures such as exit/entry logs, wearable tracking devices, and cameras in place to keep residents safe, and unless an independent physician has deemed them a risk for their own safety, they are free to come and go from their home as they choose,” Balda said.

The association, he added, has “serious concerns about the validity of the Post’s data,” but “even taking it at face value, fatalities due to wandering are 0.0015% of the more than 6.2 million assisted living residents served in the last five years.”

In its statement, NCAL said that the stories in the Post report were “tragic,” and the association expressed condolences to those affected. “However, these rare incidents are not indicative of the life-affirming experience that 99.9% of assisted living residents typically receive,” NCAL said. “Caregivers make the safety and well-being of every resident their utmost priority, and their passion for serving seniors is evident through the high levels of satisfaction that residents and their family members report each year.”

ASHA President and CEO David Schless told McKnight’s Senior Living that the association had not yet issued a statement on the Post’s report.

On Monday, Argentum posted on its website additional information about its reaction to the series as well as links to all of the Washington Post articles.

REITs a focus as well

Senior living organizations were not the only focus of the report. Another article in the story package concentrated on real estate investment trusts, especially Toledo, OH-based Welltower, which, according to the 2023 ASHA 50 list, is the largest owner of senior living properties.

Many assisted living communities, the Washington Post authors wrote, “are now held by investors under pressure to produce profits for shareholders. In some places, a bare-bones approach to staffing and pay has produced a chaotic environment where medications are missed, falls and bed sores go unnoticed, residents are abused and confused seniors wander away undetected.”

One former Balfour Senior Living executive, who was not named in the report, told the media outlet that Welltower, which owned the operator’s buildings, would not let the company give raises “to hire and train more and better workers to improve safety” because it was concerned about the potential effect on profitability.

A Welltower company spokesperson told McKnight’s Senior Living that “[c]ontrary to the allegations … Welltower did not oppose wage increases for Balfour employees at the property in question.”

The Washington Post report, the spokesperson said, “contains numerous inaccuracies, hearsay from anonymous sources and demonstrates a general lack of understanding of the industry.”

The Welltower spokesperson said that the REIT “has continuously supported the investment by its operators in human capital and did so throughout the pandemic and the extreme staffing crisis that the world was navigating. In fact, since 2019, compensation expense per resident has increased over 23% across the Welltower portfolio with compensation at the Balfour properties increasing by a comparable amount.”

The REIT also “is innovating and investing in technology and tools to improve the resident and employee experience,” according to the spokesperson.

“We operate in the competitive private-pay seniors housing market,” the spokesperson said. “Ensuring that our operating partners are able to provide residents with high-quality care and a fulfilling experience are the key factors that result in residents choosing to move into our properties, in turn driving our long-term success.”

A source close to the Washington Post reporting told McKnight’s Senior Living that “well before publication,” the REIT was sent Welltower-related details that were planned for the article and that spokespeople for the REIT “repeatedly” declined to provide a comment. Additionally, the source noted that the article reported that Balfour and Kisco representatives did not respond to “numerous” requests for comment and that a Lavender Farms manager declined to answer questions from a reporter from the media outlet who visited the site.

A Washington Post spokesperson told McKnight’s Senior Living that the publication stands by its reporting.

Another report

The Washington Post articles come on the heels of a package of articles published in November by the New York Times and KFF. That report, titled “Dying Broke,” scrutinized an industry pricing structure that adds fees on top of basic charges, to cover additional services such as help with activities of daily living, insulin injections and blood pressure checks.

The package also had cited the growth of rate increases, the for-profit status of most providers, and the operating margins they see. And it reported the results of a survey that in part found that 66% of Americans aged 50 or more years are “mostly” or “somewhat” anxious about being able to afford the cost of an assisted living community or nursing home if they need to move to one.

In response, association leaders submitted letters to the editor to the New York Times.

The Washington Post’s “Memory Inc.” package of articles:

Dozens of assisted-living residents died after wandering away unnoticed

Senior homes left dangerously understaffed amid assisted-living boom

How your state regulates assisted-living facilities

Questions to ask before choosing an assisted living facility

Facilities where seniors died after walking away or being left unattended

A coalition of senior living, healthcare and veterans organizations collectively provided their continued support in a letter sent Thursday to House and Senate leadership for an assisted living pilot program geared toward serving veterans.

The American Seniors Housing Association, Argentum, LeadingAge and the National Center for Assisted Living signed a letter advocating for the Expanding Veterans’ Options for Long Term Care Act. The bill would establish a three-year pilot enabling some veterans to have their care needs met in an assisted living community rather than a Veterans Affairs home.

The associations previously voiced their support for the bill, which was reintroduced earlier this year after going nowhere last year. The House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Health held a hearing this summer on the bill, which received the support of the US Department of Veterans Affairs — with conditions. 

The VA indicated that having the authority to provide assisted living services would help the agency find a place veterans who need such services but don’t qualify for nursing home care. But a VA representative testified that the agency would need more time and resources to implement the program. 

In its letter to House and Senate leadership as well as Veternas’s Affairs Committee leaders, the coalition called the proposed pilot program an “economically sound and sensible approach to demonstrate the benefits” of assisted living, and that the bill gives the VA the authority to offer additional options in its long-term care programs.

“It provides VA the critical flexibility to address the needs of a rapidly growing population of aging or disabled veterans who are not able to live at home, and future cost savings will help more veterans receive the assistance they need,” the letter read. “The timing is right for such action given what we know about aging and the increasing demand for supportive services.”

Pointing to statistics from a 2020 VA report, the authors noted that the number of veterans eligible for nursing home care will increase 535% over the next 20 years. The letter also noted that costs to the VA for nursing home care alone are not sustainable and that assisted living offers “significant cost savings” for those who don’t require a high level of medical care.

Additional signers of the letter were the AARP, the Alzheimer’s Association and the Alzheimer’s Impact Movement, DAV, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, the National Association of State Veterans Homes, the National Rural Health Association and Paralyzed Veterans of America.

Determining assisted living’s value is part of a “significant and unavoidable issue” that thrust the sector under a hot national spotlight recently, thanks to a KFF Health News / New York Times series examining the struggles of the middle class to access and pay for long-term care.

The “Dying Broke” series, published in November, was the focus of a panel discussion Tuesday that included a policy expert, and reporters and families involved in the series. Collectively, the panelists provided potential policy solutions to address the long-term care industry challenges highlighted in the series.

Meanwhile, letters from senior living leaders to the New York Times made it clear that they think assisted living is part of the answer, not the cause of a problem.

Part one of the series examined America’s high long-term care costs, including how they compare with those of other countries. Part two looked at the high costs and profits of assisted living communities. Part three pondered the shortcomings of long-term care insurance.

In a letter to the editor submitted Nov. 21 by Argentum to the New York Times, president and CEO James Balda applauded the outlet for recognizing that assisted living is more cost-effective than nursing homes and in-home care. But he said the series failed to recognize that “senior residents and their families overwhelmingly love assisted living.”

“Our communities promote independence and dignity through care and socialization — encouraging pets, physical and mental activity, social excursions and purpose, all within the secure environment of their home,” Balda wrote, pointing to a recent J.D. Power 2023 Senior Living Satisfaction Study resident and family satisfaction survey. “More seniors should have access to the quality care our communities provide.”

Balda called on state and federal policymakers to create more options for seniors, such as expanding Medicaid, modernizing tax savings programs to include long-term care, and increasing availability of long-term care insurance.

The American Seniors Housing Association similarly submitted a letter to the editor on Nov. 21, acknowledging that although many Americans have sufficient savings and home equity to pay for long-term care at home or in assisted living, many underestimate the consequences of longer life spans. 

“Our society does not have an adequate answer in place to help those whose savings are insufficient or who do not qualify for Medicaid assisted living, which is limited and not an option in all states,” ASHA President and CEO David Schless wrote, adding that Congress, agencies and states need to work together on finding solutions. “Policymakers need to think broadly for ways to incentivize retirement savings, reactivate the market for long-term care insurance, expand Medicare benefits and much more.”

Addressing challenges through collaboration

Rani Snyder, vice president of program for the John A. Hartford Foundation, introduced the panel and said the scale of change needed to address the industry’s shortfalls is going to be “hugely challenging” and includes long-term care insurance, assisted living regulations, and transparency. 

Reed Abelson, the New York Times healthcare reporter on the series along with KFF Health News correspondent Jordan Rau, said that through her reporting she found that the struggle to figure out long-term care is a “universal experience.”

“I’m amazed at how people were able to find solutions. They really worked hard and they were creative and really self-sacrificing,” Abelson said. “People were incredibly committed to trying to make life better for someone.”

Anne Tumlinson, founder and CEO of ATI Advisory and founder of the online family caregiver support community Daughterhood, said that the data show that the vast majority of older adults with high levels of need are living in the community, not in assisted living or in nursing homes, due to the high costs of care and the lack of a financing system in this country to pay for it. 

‘Very dire situation’

Of those living in the community, only one-third are receiving financial support from Medicaid to pay for home- and community-based services, she said. Of the remaining two-thirds, half live under 200% of the poverty level and are paying out of pocket or relying exclusively on family caregivers, Tumlinson added.

“A lot of older adults living in the community today without any kind of Medicaid assistance, who cannot afford home care or assisted living, and do not have long-term care insurance policies,” she said. “”Those people are 100% relying on family caregivers, if they even have them. If they don’t, it’s a very dire situation.”

She called the long-term care system underfunded and one in which every single family is developing its own solutions one family, one household at a time. But she said that the issue is not something the private market can solve alone, and she called on the federal government to come up with a solution by pooling risk through taxes or premiums.

“It’s politically difficult, but as a matter of policy, it’s pretty simple,” Tumlinson said. We know what to do; we just haven’t had the political will.”

That lack of political interest, she said, is compounded by people looking at the situation as an individual problem, when it really is a “collective problem that requires a collective solution.” 

“When we are in community together, that creates the opportunity for us to elevate our voices as a community,” Tumlinson said. “We have to elevate that fire, and we can do it as a community. And these lived experiences are critically important for policymakers to hear because it informs everything.”