This week, Senior Housing News readers got a glimpse into senior living board rooms to hear what’s causing the industry both optimism and anxiety across the country. Readers were also clued into which U.S. states use assisted living the most, what’s on the mind of senior living marketing executives, and why the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) decided to ban pre-dispute arbitration agreements in long-term care.
Most Read
States Where Seniors Use Assisted Living the Most—Oregon and Washington have the highest rates of residential care use in the nation, according to data recently published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The Midwest is another hotbed for residential care, with Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska all beating the national rate for seniors 65 and older, as well as seniors 85 and older.
Trending Now: Three Hot-Button Issues for Senior Housing Execs—With a record attendance of 2,500-plus and many of the industry’s top leaders present, the 2016 National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC) Fall Conference offered a glimpse into some of the trending topics that are causing both optimism and anxiety in C-Suites and boardrooms around the nation. Specifically, execs are less worried about oversupply, are more concerned about workforce development, and are bullish on future merger and acquisition activity.
Marketing Exec’s Must-Do List for the Future of Senior Living—From operational models, to pricing practices, to leveraging data in the most efficient and effective ways, senior living marketing executives are envisioning what tomorrow’s winners will look like and they are pushing for innovation accordingly. “There’s so much room for improvement in this industry,” said Dan Hutson, chief strategy officer for Cornerstone Affiliates, at the recent SMASH Senior Care Marketing Sales Summit in Chicago.
CMS Bans Arbitration Agreements in Long-Term Care—In one fell swoop, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has squashed the controversial use of pre-dispute arbitration agreements in long-term care. The move was announced Wednesday, when CMS issued a new final rule governing the nation’s long-term care facilities. The new rule, which marks the first comprehensive update CMS has made regarding long-term care facilities since 1991, bans the controversial practice used by long-term care facilities to settle disputes with residents and families outside of the court system.
Weekend Reads
Why Retiring on a Cruise Ship Might Be the Smartest Thing You Do—Look out, senior living—cruise ships are increasingly becoming a feasible place for seniors to live full-time, according to this PopSugar article. “Turns out, it’s not always much more costly to live on a cruise ship than it is to stay in an assisted living facility—and you really can’t beat the ever-changing views,” the article’s author writes.
End-of-Life Care Needs an Overhaul—In this article for Time, Robert Kane, a professor and Minnesota Chair in Long-Term Care and Aging, Health Policy and Management at the University of Minnesota, and Jennifer Brokaw, a board-certified emergency physician and the founder of C2it Health, write that their personal experiences with long-term care facilities has left them “deeply concerned about the ability of ordinary, non-medical people to receive quality, dignified care at the ends of their lives in these facilities.” “If not even people like us—with all our resources and personal connections—could not get the acute medical and long-term care that honors the wishes of patients and families to have a gentle and dignified end, the system is broken,” the authors write.
Written by Mary Kate Nelson
Companies featured in this article:
