[Partner Content] How Medicare Advantage plans can improve your residents’ experience with more supportive, holistic care

Coming out of the pandemic, there’s been a lot of focus on reimagining the traditional assisted living model to improve the resident experience and meet the changing demands of aging baby boomers, who increasingly want more supportive care without having to move into skilled nursing.

According to a recent article in JAMDA, the Journal of Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine, rates of chronic illness in assisted living communities are roughly one-quarter to one-half the rates among nursing home residents, underscoring the need for a holistic blended model that includes social and medical elements.

But the ability to provide more medical and whole-patient focused services varies widely from facility to facility.  

That’s where Medicare Advantage plans are proving to be what the Advisory Board calls the biggest disruptor in the senior care landscape. The plans offer new opportunities for senior communities to provide in-home, affordable, higher- level and more patient-centric health care services.

“The senior living space, I think, is going to dramatically change over the next 10 to 15 years,” said Dr. Kyle Kircher, Senior Medical Director for Optum Home and Community, which oversees the company’s United Healthcare® Assisted Living Plan and Optum care model. “And to keep up with those changes, partnerships are going to be key.”

Special needs plans: Improving the resident experience

While special needs plans for skilled nursing have been around for decades, similar Medicare Advantage plans for senior living residents are newer. But these Institutional Equivalent-Special Needs Plans, or IE-SNPs, are growing quickly.

IE-SNPs are improving the resident experience by bringing advance practice clinicians, behavioral and mental health specialists, social workers, therapists and care navigators directly into senior communities.

“One of the biggest changes we are seeing now is more and more provider groups are going into those settings to provide care as opposed to making those individuals have to come to the clinic,” he said.

Reimagining senior care through IE-SNPs

As an innovator in senior care, Optum offers one of the leading and fastest growing IE-SNPs, the United Healthcare® Assisted Living Plan and Optum care model, which is focused on improving the resident experience through its comprehensive and holistic approach.

Here are some of the things to look for when introducing a care model in your community:

Dedicated coordination

Care navigators. Specialists who help clinical teams deliver all the services your residents need. Whether that’s arranging transportation, making sure follow-ups with specialists are scheduled or helping residents and communities maximize their use of services. 

Clinical care teams. Clinicians who know your residents and closely track their unique medical, social, and mental and behavioral health needs. 

Reduction in hospital visits

24/7 medical support line. Ensure the care model has round-the-clock medical support, because issues don’t just arise between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. 

Proactive rather than reactive care. It’s important to have clinicians who coordinate and collaborate closely with your staff to help identify issues early, before they become more serious. 

Medication management. The Advisory Board study says adverse drug effects from poorly managed polypharmacy are the leading cause of hospital readmission among seniors. Care teams should closely track all of their members’ medicines regularly. 

Helps your community offer more services, additional support

More eyes and ears. Care teams with an on-site presence and in-depth knowledge of member residents provide often staff-strapped communities with an extra layer of support. 

Treating the whole patient. In addition to regular in-house visits focused on residents’ physical needs, care teams should screen closely for changes in behavior, mental health issues like depression and anxiety, as well as social and financial concerns that can negatively impact health. 

Optum: On the leading edge of senior care disruption

According to the Advisory Board, enrollment in special needs plans grew 15% between 2020 and 2021. And it expects demand for special needs plan to grow rapidly over the next 10 years as baby boomers age more deeply into their retirement years. This will be especially true for IE-SNPs, as older adults look ways to avoid living in more structured institutional settings.

“Despite some innovative and promising models of AL (assisted living), there is general consensus that overall, the current model of AL has been taken as far as it can go,” the JAMDA report concluded. “As a society, we are asking AL to be a product very different than its original roots.”

Optum is providing that needed disruption with its innovative and expanding care model, which melds the social with the medical and behavioral aspects of senior care and improves the resident experience by providing quality, affordable in-home health care services.

“A huge part of our model is the caregiving and guidance that we bring into communities,” Kircher said. “And we are on the leading edge of developing new programs and different types of services that meet seniors’ growing demands for proactive, comprehensive, holistic care that can keep them in their communities longer.”

Learn more about how this patient-centric model can benefit both you and your residents bydownloading the full white paper here.

Just a quick reminder for the audience—ISNPs or Institutional Special Needs Plans—are Medicare Advantage plans that limit enrollment eligibility to Medicare beneficiaries who live or are expected to live in a long-term care facility for 90 days or longer. You have to be an ISNP owner if you want to share in savings.

One of the most common buzzwords in business today is “ESG,” shorthand for environmental, social and governance. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) wants to establish ESG disclosure requirements to increase transparency of companies’ ESG goals and commitments and help prevent them from misleading investors by overstating their ESG focus. Companies across sectors are scrambling to gather data about their carbon emissions and other ESG factors in anticipation of the change. 

Perhaps without knowing it, the senior living sector was in some ways ahead of the curve on ESG before the term became popular. 

Investing in ESG is essential for an industry that exists to protect and promote the health and well-being of older adults. Healthier living environments benefit human sustainability and social capital, and providing these environments can result in healthier, happier residents and a more profitable business. A growing number of companies within the senior living sector now see the connection clearly and are highlighting their ESG commitments. In fact, prioritizing both resident and employee health and well-being is becoming an increasingly important driver of investment decision making.

Sabra, a real estate investment firm with significant investments in senior living facilities, sees a direct link between ESG goals and a return on investment (ROI). A letter to investors in the company’s 2021 Sustainability Report put it this way:

“We believe our commitment to corporate responsibility creates value and promotes the long-term interests of our stakeholders – our investors, tenants, team members and the communities in which we invest.”

Another senior living ESG proponent, Brookdale Senior Living, created an internal multidisciplinary task force to advance its ESG goals. The company’s 2021 ESG Report calls ESG “central to the organization.”

The enhanced focus on ESG is driving investments in new programs and technologies that benefit the health and well-being of residents and staff – from indoor environmental quality improvements, to third-party certifications, to mental health and stress reduction programming. Supporting the health, safety and well-being of employees, customers and supply chain workers is critical to maintaining a sustainable and resilient business.

The pandemic increased recognition of the value of investing in human health and well-being as an integrative ESG strategy. An important ESG element in senior living facilities is the need for good indoor air quality – a must-have that became painfully clear during the pandemic. 

But ESG considerations go well beyond reducing airborne health threats. Proper lighting, access to green space, the allocation of space within the buildings and a host of other factors under the “S” category can have a substantial impact on the health and well-being of seniors. In the senior living industry, these investments are not just about checking a box or meeting metrics, they can have a material impact on the business, such as increased resident satisfaction or employee retention. 

Earlier this year, Delos joined forces with senior living companies to launch the Wellness Innovation in Senior Environments (WISE) initiative. The initiative is centered around research conducted with the Well Living Lab – founded as a collaboration between Delos and the Mayo Clinic – and focuses on innovations to meet the growing demand for safer and healthier environments for senior living residents and staff. This effort to advance wellness in the sector also helps to elevate ESG.  

The link between health and the indoor environment is well-established. Providing healthier indoor environments is absolutely essential for senior living residents, who are more vulnerable to the effects of environmental hazards – such as polluted air – and are likely to spend even more time indoors. It’s not just the right thing to do, it’s a business imperative for all senior living companies.  

Current research under the WISE initiative includes examining the impact of portable air filtration on indoor air quality in a skilled nursing facility, and the impact of circadian lighting on health and cognitive function among older adults in senior living communities. Future research is expected to focus on ways to reduce falls among residents and alleviate stress among senior living staff. WISE collaborators include Sabra and Harrison Street, a leading investment management firm exclusively focused on senior living and other alternative real estate assets.

The importance of health and wellness in the senior living sector is expected to increase as members of the baby boom generation continue to age and seek living arrangements that align with their desires and their lifestyles. 

Now is the time for senior living companies to embrace ESG and anchor it in their business strategies to benefit residents and staff as well as the bottom line.

Start improving your indoor environment today by speaking with a Delos Wellness Solutions Expert .

Peter Scialla is the president and chief operating officer of Delos.

The administrative burden in post-acute care is in desperate need of fixing and there is one proven solution that is doing it. Post-acute care providers are commencing their adoption and deployment of this solution, en-masse, with a razor sharp focus on reducing employee churn, making existing teams more efficient and reducing overall costs of operations. The adoption of this technology led solution has nearly tripled in the last year alone, but let’s look at what has played the catalyst of this change.

Processes such as Eligibility Verification and Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) form the engine of post-acute care operations. However, these processes have turned highly inefficient and unsustainable to the stability and growth of providers, due to high-volume administrative work. Teams are still forced to spend hours manually completing tasks like claim submissions and authorizations. Gradually, overworked employees burn out and resign. Replacing these churned employees is an ordeal that demands investments in hours and costs. According to a survey by R1, 90% of respondents are facing a labor shortage in their RCM teams, and 50% of their RCM roles continue to be vacant. On the other hand, since so much time goes into completing administrative work manually, operational costs have increased significantly. 

The tried-and-tested methods of hiring and outsourcing can no longer match the breadth and complexity of this challenge. The solution is to change the way administrative work gets done, not hiring more hands or offloading it to other hands. 

Organizations are adopting a technology driven method of solving this problem: Automation.

What once started out as business process management in the 90s, is today an advanced amalgamation of technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Robotic Process Automation, Natural Language Processing and more. Automation might be new to post-acute care, but it demonstrates the ability to alleviate the burden from teams and  manage complex repetitive tasks. Automation uses software bots that are trained using business logic to interact with existing digital systems and perform sequences of actions like a human would. These actions include clicking on screens, inputting data, downloading and uploading forms and a wide range of actions that involve hundreds of repetitive clicks. 

Do the last few words ring a bell? That’s because every key administrative process from verifications to denial management consists of sequences of clicks and form-fills. This is what teams in post-acute care have to contend with every day, and this is also what automation does best. What automation brings to the table are the last pieces of the winning formula: Accuracy, Consistency, Timeliness and Efficiency.

Why exactly is automation the better solution? 

In post-acute care, recruiting is a prolonged process, often lasting months. During such periods of time, organizations struggle to function at maximum capacity. They are forced to limit new admissions, thus losing revenue. Due to limited operational strength, administrative processes suffer delays, which in turn upsets revenue from existing accounts.

 But the story doesn’t end with recruiting. If one were to also add in the costs of hiring, training and attrition, it would be a different story altogether. This is where automation makes a difference. Today, a provider can get started with automation within the span of a few weeks. Automation helps organizations save on operational overheads such as hiring and training costs, without compromising their processes. In fact, automation improves execution speed, since it can run for any length of time.

So is automation a replacement for administrative teams? Absolutely not. When automation takes over repetitive tasks, teams have room to work on critical business problems. Their work is more engaging and they become productive without being overworked. Automation has a positive effect on employee satisfaction, the toughest variable in the staffing shortage.

In the early days, post-acute care organizations spent months (even years) trying to get automation right. As with any new technology, the initial cost of building and deploying an automation solution was high. However, the ecosystem has made  significant strides today. Organizations like Element5 offer pre-built workflows delivered in a SaaS model that allow teams to automate specific tasks and pay based on their needs. More importantly, pre-built workflows integrate with existing systems seamlessly, require no maintenance or overhead costs and can be deployed rapidly to ensure teams witness value from Day 1. 

Automation isn’t a mere fad. It has already become the technology of choice for leading providers, helping them streamline and scale their operations while simultaneously reducing operational expenditure. In short, automation is transforming administrative teams into levers of growth for organizations in post-acute care. 

The future of work has arrived.

If you’d like to know more reasons to automate, this ebook can help you get started.

The event, centered around technology and innovation, featured both panel sessions and collaborative discussions, resulting in key takeaways that can help in planning for the needs of seniors and their caregivers.

Innovation: Critical to focus on today’s and tomorrow’s needs 

Operators have many competing priorities, so it can be challenging to take time out of daily needs in order to evolve to new and better solutions. 

In the 2022 State of Fall Research Report, 80% of operators who were surveyed said technology was highly effective in reducing falls, but many expressed dissatisfaction and were overwhelmed when it came to implementing new systems, due to not only the time commitment involved, but also staff shortages, barriers to training and the cost of the technology itself. 

With all of the obstacles that the COVID-19 pandemic created, the unique situation did give operators the chance to focus on technological solutions, particularly when it came to mitigating isolation. Yet greater needs were also uncovered. John Cochrane, president and CEO of HumanGood, said, “COVID amplified our need and absolutely accelerated our adoption of technology [within senior living communities]. And as we look to create a culture of innovation, something that I couldn’t get people to buy into five years ago, they are now saying, ‘I get it.’ But if new tools don’t make operators’ lives easier on day one, they’re out of here.”

With the appropriate internal resources and partners, new innovations can help operators solve the big problems of today, and look to the future to improve the living situation of seniors under their care.

Strategic Partnerships: Find trusted technology partners to drive innovation 

Typically, senior living operators are not found in the same room as venture capitalists. They are in different lanes and play different roles within our society. It is a mistake to assume that this means collaborations between the two are unnecessary or unprofitable. Creating forums to exchange ideas enables both groups to learn from each other and provide compelling insights that can drive the business of senior living forward.

Operators need to commit to their technology partners in order to create the path for more technology investment in senior living. Those partnerships are critical, as they enable innovation through the lens of users’ — residents and/or clinical staff — in order to create solutions that are effective, drive value and address real pain points. Once that value is proven, additional technology investment in senior living will follow. 

Measurement: Identify, communicate and measure goals  

Clear goals and timely feedback are the cornerstones of any strong business plan, and technology in the senior living space is no different. Innovation does not exist to implement and walk away. Ongoing measurement and strategic conversations on insights derived are critical to inform optimizations that drive results. 

There is an opportunity for senior living operators, capital and technology partners to improve communication. Operators should relay their needs and what types of solutions might be helpful. Tech providers should seek feedback and continually update system features, and capital partners should communicate their investment goals and what success looks like from a business standpoint. 

For example, any solution meant to improve the resident experience should have an agreed-upon outcome before it is implemented. How will the outcome be measured? What needs to be accomplished to declare victory and move on to next steps? These questions should be considered and answered by each party so that everyone is on the same page and achievements are transparent.. 

Currently, pilots lack the structure and accountability to drive decisions quickly. Innovators are agile and can pivot quickly when operators are judicious in their evaluations. If the goals and commitments are agreed upon upfront, it’s easier for all parties to validate success. Dragging out decisions or pilots will stall (or stop altogether) innovation. 

As senior living communities look to the future, technology undoubtedly has a place in the conversation. With the proper resources, open communication and a continuous feedback loop, innovation can propel the industry forward in a way that is meaningful for seniors, providers and stakeholders. 

To start your own journey towards transformational change, download the SafelyYou’s inaugural 2022 State of Falls Report. 

[Partner content] On average, people spend about 90% of their lives indoors. For seniors and their caretakers, this amount of time has the potential to be even greater. The indoor environment, particularly air quality, has a direct impact on the health and wellness of residents, and the need for cleaner air in senior living communities has never been more important.

Seniors represent some of the most beloved members of our society and are also the most vulnerable, as aging bodies are less able to fight off illnesses. As the fastest growing population, adults aged 55-plus are living longer, on average, and are more health-conscious than ever before, seeking living environments that enable better health throughout their golden years.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought the importance of indoor air quality (IAQ) to the forefront, but respiratory infection prevention is only one of the critical benefits of good air quality. Exposure to air pollution, for example, can worsen already existing conditions of older adults, such as diabetes and asthma, and can also affect cognitive abilities. In addition, as we age, our bodies become less able to compensate for the effects of air pollution and airborne particles. It is thus critical to prioritize indoor air quality, and the onus is on senior living community owners and operators to create healthier and safer environments for their residents and staff.

In fact, IAQ is an important factor for prospective residents of senior living communities and their families in terms of COVID-19 and beyond. A Delos Consumer Insights survey conducted in September 2021 revealed that the public is more aware of the importance of IAQ in senior living communities. When it comes to choosing a senior care community, prospective residents and their families are also likely to consider the air quality improvement measures that a senior living community has put in place, before making a decision. According to 46% of the respondents, air purification measures were very important, and 63% said they would most likely choose one community over another based on prioritization of air purification.

This heightened awareness and demand for better indoor air quality means that seniors and their families are likely to continue favoring communities with proven solutions in place. Delos has deep cross-sector experience in improving indoor air quality through Advanced Air Purification solutions in schools, offices, commercial spaces and hotels. We use a rigorous process to evaluate independent, third-party product testing results, apply evidence-based and data-driven research, and consult industry best-practices to select products that stand up to their claims on performance, safety, efficacy and user experience.

While the health and safety of residents and employees is the top consideration for senior living owners and operators, there is another factor at play: scalability. The senior living industry is poised for exponential growth – the number of Americans transitioning to assisted living communities is expected to increase by 180%, from 15 million in 2000 to 27 million in 2050. The investment needed to prepare for this unprecedented growth can appear daunting, but in fact, a full infrastructure overhaul is often not necessary to provide residents and employees with healthier indoor conditions.

A peer-reviewed study from the Well Living Lab, founded as a collaboration between Delos and Mayo Clinic, evaluated the use of portable air purifiers in a classroom setting. The study found that supplementing an HVAC system with portable air purifiers can result in up to five times lower particle concentration, improving air quality throughout the classroom, not just near the unit. Portable air purification units reduce particle transmission both near the units and throughout the whole room, cost significantly less than a full HVAC system upgrade, and can be implemented immediately.

More scientific research is currently underway to advance our understanding of the importance of indoor air quality in senior living communities. Delos’ WISE initiative, in collaboration with senior living industry leaders, focuses on the impact of indoor environments on senior health and well-being. Innovative solutions are needed to help meet the growing consumer demand for communities that offer safer, healthier environments for residents and staff. Delos takes an evidence-based approach to identify products and solutions that work to help optimize health and wellness in indoor environments.

Improving air quality can help to not only reduce exposure to airborne pathogens, but also boost cognitive performance, facilitate sound sleep, and reduce the overall exposure to airborne particulates. As people worldwide are living longer, healthy aging is becoming more and more important. Now is the time for the industry to address the concerns of residents and their caretakers, and optimize senior living environments for improved health and wellness.

Get started by talking with a Delos Clean Air Expert today

Interested in learning more about Delos’ health and wellness insights in Senior Living spaces? Register for McKnight’s 17th Online Forum on July 19th

[Partner content] Senior living communities face a battle to provide privacy and support for their residents while also being watchful and attentive to any health declines. The line between watchful and invasive is often dependent on the individual being monitored, and then further limited by resources and low staffing.

While communities strive to provide the best care for their residents, there are scores of policies and directives that pull staff attention away from residents. This is where artificial intelligence (AI) is paving the way for safer senior living.

AI is all around us. Virtual assistants are on our cell phones, and autonomous cars can “see” the road and respond. These tools rely on highly specific pattern recognition, which is what makes AI perfectly suited for long-term care monitoring, and these solutions are being developed to be more flexible for patients and residents at all levels of care. Previous monitoring solutions focused on bed-bound residents, but as AI technology improves, so can monitoring for more independent residents.

VSTAlert for Senior Living is using AI to create proactive fall monitoring for more mobile senior living residents, especially those in memory care units. The solution is adaptable to each resident’s monitoring needs featuring high and low-risk modes that can be set on a custom schedule and updated as needed. Using the same ultra-precise AI and LIDAR sensors as VSTAlert for Skilled Nursing, the system monitors resident rooms for falls when set for low-risk monitoring and detects bed or chair exits to alert staff before a fall for high-risk monitoring. The technology is designed to give residents more freedom to live their routines privately while also supporting care staff with proactive alerts for high-risk residents. And because the system does not use cameras, residents maintain a higher level of privacy.

Care teams can rely on AI monitoring to provide additional awareness of resident safety, without increasing rounding or staffing. The solution monitors resident rooms 24/7 to maintain consistent awareness between shifts, and interfaces directly with the care team onsite to address alerts. This reduces delays and empowers even short-staffed teams to prevent falls in the moment, instead of reacting to a fall after it happens. As an example, VSTAlert for Senior Living relieves stress from night shifts by monitoring all residents for midnight bed exits. Staff can assist restless residents quickly and avoid disrupting peaceful residents with rounding or loud fall alarms.

The unique power behind AI is its autonomous nature. Once in action, the solution works steadily in the background, allowing residents to live unrestrained and staff to focus on care. Once AI is integrated into a team’s day-to-day processes, they can rely on AI to be vigilant, proactive, and detail-oriented, which allows staff to be flexible, creative, and compassionate.

AI technology is assisting long-term caretakers, enabling them to prevent falls and keep residents safe. At VirtuSense Technologies, our mission is to accelerate access to healthcare. We were founded in 2013 by engineers who wanted to prove that you don’t have to wait for a fall or a heart attack to be cared for — predictive AI can make healthcare simple, affordable, and accessible without compromising the quality of care.