3 Trends CCRCs Need to Look for in 2015

Continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs) will have to pay attention to three major trends if they want to compete with for-profit providers in 2015, according to a recent LeadingAge QuickCast.

The three major trends impacting aging services, not only for CCRCs but the broader senior housing industry, include catering to the changing consumer, the impact of health care reform and increasing prevalence of technology in senior care, said Steve Maag, director of residential communities for LeadingAge, during a brief video presentation last week.

“Baby boomers are going to become more demanding than the Silent Generation,” Maag said. “You’re going to have to deal with a different kind of consumer than you’ve been used to dealing with and it’s going to make you have to adapt the services you provide, the settings you provide them in and how you provide them in order to respond to the demands of those consumers.”

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To meet these demands, CCRCs will have to analyze their campuses, as well as their amenities, and develop programs to be flexible and innovative. 

“You have to be able to response in new ways to new services and new ways of doing things in order to attract and maintain a service delivery system and a campus that’s going to be attractive to new consumers,” Maag said. 

The second major trend deals largely with health care reform and how it will impact the manner in which health services are delivered to seniors. 

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It has nothing to do with Obamacare, Maag said. Rather, it all focus more on transitioning from the historical fee-for-serivice system to a more risk-based system that is measured by performance.

And it will be crucial for CCRCs to begin tracking their quality outcomes if they want to thrive in this evolving environment. 

“If you don’t know what your costs are, what your lengths of stay are, or what your re-hospitalization rates are, your’e at risk of losing money when you participate in those kind of captivated risk-based, performance-based systems,” Maag said. “That’s what’s going to happen in the future.”

CCRC providers will have to know their role in the new risk-based system, and technology can help them accomplish this. 

“Technology has been changing dramatically over the last several years and it will have a major impact in what we do and how we provide services,” Maag said. “For-profits are spending millions of dollars in [technology]. We need to start looking at that and become a player in technology in the future.”

In 2015 and beyond, CCRCs will be charged with evolving with these major trends and analyzing their campuses to see just how they fit into the greater shifts taking place in the senior housing and care sector. 

“When you look at these three different trends, you’ll have to ask yourselves these questions,” said Maag. “Think about 2025. Are you going to be viable in 2025?”

Written by Jason Oliva

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