The times are a changin.
Aging boomers
As the Silent Generation is fading away, the Baby Boomers are replacing them. What has worked for decades in the CCRC industry is changing. Baby Boomers are more physically active, more socially active, and more technologically savvy than their predecessors. To attract aging Baby Boomers, CCRCs are having to update their facilities and change their old ways of doing things. The following are some emerging trends in the CCRC industry.
More contract choices within a single community
To offer various price points and maintain full occupancy, single CCRCs are increasingly offering a range of contracts instead of only one type. This means more choices for consumers, but it also complicates the initial purchase decision for them. As a part of this trend, CCRCs are also offering more than one offered level of entrance fee refund plans.
A renewed emphasis on managed care or coordinated care
Managed care has become more important since the Affordable Care Act has many features that increasingly pay providers for good health outcomes or penalize them payments for bad health outcomes. This has led to the increased consolidation of both health systems and insurers and brought more coordination between a patient’s various providers. Medicare’s traditional fee-for-service reward for volume over results historically harmed retirees by them receiving poorly coordinated care.
Since CCRCs are care providers, they are increasingly coordinating the care provided and focusing more on results. Some offer on-site programs like Elite Care and/or an onsite physicians’ office and have an off-site affiliation or more formal relationships with larger health systems and local hospitals
Some CCRCs offer a program that provides some of the benefits of a continuum of care while the member stays in his or her current home, such as the CCaHs. They coordinate the use of home health care affiliates or subsidiaries of a CCRC or its management company. They may also lower the price point of entry into a CCRC’s system of care.
This “age at home” care tends to capture residents within the system at a younger age and allows sales agents to identify the best customers for an upsell. This also increases CCRC revenue by including more income from third-party payers like Medicare or private insurers.
Home care agencies are using software that enables them to more efficiently manage both caregivers and patients by providing automation of administrative functions such as billing, payroll, scheduling, and even care plan creation. This enables them to offer high-quality services in the home and track clinical data for each client’s individual health status.
Updating facilities and technology
Baby Boomers are more demanding than the Silent Generation. The CCRC industry is having to have to deal with a different kind of consumer than they have been used to dealing with in the past and it must adapt the services they provide to respond to the demands of these new potential customers. To meet these demands, CCRCs must analyze their communities, as well as their amenities and develop programs that are flexible and innovative. Baby Boomers like a more modern décor, lots of fitness and recreation options, and many are used to having access to technology.
Co-housing
Co-housing is a cross between single-family residences and a more communal living arrangement. It is an option that has some appeal for a growing number of older adults because it offers the privacy of single-family dwelling along with an increased sense of community. The advantages for seniors include things like access to a communal group of caregivers and shared responsibilities to ease the burden of some day-to-day activities, such as preparing meals or doing yard work.
The continued need for qualified healthcare professionals
As the older adult population increases, the need for healthcare professionals is also increasing. However, even though healthcare is considered one of the largest growth industries in the country, it is still experiencing a shortage that is likely to continue.
Going green
CCRCs need to obtain LEED certification to demonstrate new construction and renovations are achieving “green” standards.
Children and parents living in the same CCRC
Caregiving for an older family member is not what it was when first studied and the caregivers were called the “sandwich generation,” those people squeezed between aging parents and their own younger children and grandchildren. Now it’s the children who are on the verge of retirement or who have retired and still have the responsibility to care for their much older parents or other family members. Even if they are not direct caregivers, they still feel obligated to monitor the family member’s welfare. As life expectancy keeps increasing, this situation will become much more prevalent.
Most people expect their retirement to be a time of freedom when they can spend time on their own wants, needs, and dreams. A time when they can spend more time with their children, grandchildren. However, for those with very old parents, this just doesn’t happen; their time is consumed with caring for their parents.
Kathrin Boerner, an associate professor of gerontology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, in her 2015 presentation at the Gerontological Society of America, noted: “The very old are the fastest-growing segment of the population in most developed countries, with an expected increase of 51% of elders age 80+ between 2010 and 2030.” And two-thirds of these very old people have advanced-aged children, who typically are their primary caregivers.
One recently developing trend is when children retire to a CCRC and move their parents into the same CCRC. The children live in the independent living section of the CCRC while the parents may be living in the independent living, assisted living, memory care, or assisted living sections. This way the children are not the caregivers but may easily monitor the care of their parents while still being able to enjoy their own retirement. Of course, this is an expensive option, but for those who can afford it, it is a great option.
Trends that target wellness and lifelong learning
- Integration and expansion of wellness programs into senior living residence design, including adding a wellness/healing garden, health spa, therapy pool, putting green, and an indoor aquatic center.
- Providing internet-based education and lifelong learning programs for residents.
- Trends that target maintaining independence
- Providing generous public spaces for enjoyment.
- Incorporating “smart home” technology and wireless connectivity into senior living residences.
- Bringing home health care, telehealth technology, geriatric assessment services, adult day care services, and non-medical home care services into CCRCs to promote quality of life as one ages in place.
- Delivering community-based services to homebound older adults.
- Offering education opportunities sponsored by local colleges or universities.
Trends that target assisted living
By embracing the theory behind reminiscence therapy and extending it, many memory care facilities are using sight, sound, and even smell to help dementia residents retrieve long-term memories. They are designing grounds and living areas in styles that surround residents in the familiar world of their youth. Research indicates that this form of memory care reduces agitation and anxiety, and even improves cognitive function for some.
Trends in technology
Baby Boomers are more likely to embrace technology that enhances their quality of life.
- The market for wearable tech for seniors is growing.
- Technologies available include senior-friendly phones with larger displays for those who suffer from poor vision and remote controls for windows, lights, thermostats, and doors.
- Rather than the old-style emergency alert systems that simply summoned help with the push of a button, new systems have features like advanced fall detection, which automatically alerts the appropriate responders when an older person falls.
- CCRCs are beginning to use geofencing technology. A small, unobtrusive GPS device is worn by those with forms of dementia like Alzheimer’s. When the wearer wanders beyond a pre-set range, caregivers are alerted immediately to the location of the resident, thereby lessening the chance that someone will wander away.
- A new era of person-centered care is guiding the design and function of assisted living communities. More assisted living communities are now designed to appeal to niche groups of seniors with similar cultures and tastes. With a greater emphasis on meaningful socialization, the communities are offering a full menu of enjoyable activities such as yoga, tai chi, exercise classes, game nights, barbecues, book clubs, and organized group outings to theaters, museums, and restaurants.
Trends in design
With an eye on attracting a new generation of older adults, many assisted living communities will be adding room features that resonate with Baby Boomers, such as walk-in closets, spacious bathrooms, and kitchenettes that provide a comfortable setting more like the homes in which they are used to living. While still ensuring a sense of individual privacy, such communities also feature landscaped gardens and beautiful architecture to appeal to the eye and heart of residents.
Trends in skilled nursing
The increased building of skilled nursing facilities that use a neighborhood or small house concept.
A central park-like area has wings radiating from it like streets. Home-like entry doors in the wing corridors lead to a suite of rooms that surround a central living room, kitchen, and nursing station.
Each suite is sort of a self-contained mini nursing home. The suites are organized to maximize normal living environments and routines, resident autonomy, sense of community, and quality of life to make the experience more homelike for the residents and their families.
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