United Church Homes is collaborating with a group of health care nonprofits and helping to form  a new group aimed at giving seniors better access to care as they age. 

The Ohio-based organization, along with Metta Healthcare, the parent company of Ohio’s Hospice and Pure Healthcare, is forming a new nonprofit entity called Radiant Alliance.

The plan is for the new entity to become an affiliate of CareSource, a nonprofit health plan based in Dayton, Ohio, that this week announced its new definitive agreement with Radiant Alliance.

Through the new alliance, the organizations will have “new opportunities to build and deploy integrated value-based care arrangements for high-acuity populations,” according to an announcement.

United Church Homes CEO Dr. Kenneth Daniel told Senior Housing News that the organization, which has 102 owned, managed and market-rate and affordable senior housing communities in 15 states, would remain “its own separate, legal entity” and be a partner with CareSource within the umbrella of CareSource subsidiaries.

“Now, we have access to the resources that CareSource can bring,” Daniel said. “We have access to capital, to technology and to the expertise of CareSource that will help us grow mutually in our collaborative efforts as well as individually.”

The nonprofits partnered with CareSource have launched several pilot programs that will measure health outcomes, wellness, quality of life and ultimately, cost. Already they “are beginning to show significant value, especially for those with complex needs,” the announcement noted.

United Church Homes is gaining access to new resources through the partnership, including technology to aid operations, data management, efficiencies in purchasing power and strategic planning. With the strength in numbers, CareSource will have a “much more impactful voice” when dealing with CMS and HUD going forward, Daniel added.

Through the partnership, Daniel said he envisions opportunities to deploy capital more quickly, rather than waiting on public HUD funding. That will, in theory, allow the organization to reach more prospective residents of senior living more quickly.

UCH is also working with new technology companies identified by CareSource to monitor vital signs of older adults via wearable devices, as well as partnering with Ohio Hospice on a data center for UCH’s NaviGuide program, which pairs service coordinators with older adults to receive information and services from home care agencies to meal delivery, home maintenance and more.

“We want to integrate our data streams now into their systems and begin to get deeper understandings of all the clients,” Daniel said.

Daniel said he also sees an opportunity to expand middle market affordable senior living and care options to more people. In the last three years, Daniel said the organization acquired three middle market properties with monthly rents ranging between $1,000 and $3,000. United Church Homes also has a property with monthly resident rates between $3,000 to $5,000 in Columbus, Ohio.

UCH is in the pre-development phase of a Dayton, Ohio urban renewal program known as the Salem Avenue corridor. It’s slated for 130 apartments for older adults with an affinity towards the LGBTQ+ community, while being open to all. CareSource invested $1 million towards the effort.

Daniel said he views the Radiant Alliance and the greater CareSource partnership as a sign of what’s to come in senior living and health care, as more operators and health care organizations pivot toward value-based care.

“We think there’s a tremendous opportunity to unlock those boundaries, coordinate reimbursement streams [and]build a model that’s more client focused and client directed that allows us through the leveraging of technology and data,” he said.

By helping to form Radiant Alliance, United Church Homes is joining a larger industry trend of senior housing operators getting organized in anticipation of new payment sources for senior living and health care services. One of the biggest recent examples along those lines is the Perennial Consortium, which includes another Ohio-based operator, Ohio Living, as a founding member.

“We’re bringing Medicare and Medicaid dollars together with the subsidy and creating what we believe will be a very integrated, robust and measurable experience for Medicaid beneficiaries,” Daniel said.