Battle to Dominate At-Home Care Could Shape Senior Living Market and Brookdale’s Future

I recently wrote about the senior living implications of Option Care’s planned acquisition of home health giant Amedisys (Nasdaq: AMED). The situation became even more interesting last week, with UnitedHealth Group’s Optum arm making an all-cash play for Amedisys.This news makes it more evident than ever that senior living providers must have business strategies that […]

How Cascade Senior Living Services Helps Residents ‘Age In Place’

When Chad Solvie and his wife began operating three senior living communities in Washington state, one of their biggest challenges was ensuring consistent, quality care for their residents, who are mostly low-income seniors on Medicaid and Medicare. “Our providers were kind of a hodgepodge,” says Solvie, president and CEO of the privately owned Cascade Senior […]

How a Former UnitedHealth/Optum Leader Aims to Transform Senior Care with Lifespark

Lifespark recently announced the hire of Matt Nyquist, a former leader with UnitedHealth Group’s Optum arm, as chief population health officer. Nyquist will help lead Lifespark’s expansion to states beyond its home base of Minnesota later this year. Lifespark’s growth will mark another milestone in senior living’s evolution toward being more integrated within population health […]

A New Senior Living Operating Model Comes Into View After 2 Years of Disruption

Senior living operators have been enacting changes in operations since the Covid-19 pandemic began, but some adaptations have been fleeting while others have proven longer-lasting.  Recent conversations with several executives — including with large providers such as Brookdale, Frontier and Senior Lifestyle — highlight that operators now have committed to new practices across essentially every […]

Medicare Advantage Insurer Anthem Wants to ‘Push Innovation Buttons’ with Senior Living

As senior living providers assess how they can seize new opportunities in Medicare Advantage (MA), they should consider one of the nation’s largest insurance companies an interested potential partner. Indianapolis-based Anthem Inc. (NYSE: ANTM) is the largest for-profit managed health company under the Blue Cross and Blue Shield umbrella. It is also the most prominent […]

Why Senior Living Providers Need to Seize New Medicare Advantage Opportunities

The Medicare Advantage era is dawning in senior living. Due to policy changes implemented this year, these insurance plans appear poised to become a more important payer for senior living services. Under Medicare Advantage, federal dollars flow to private-sector insurance companies—including giants such as UnitedHealthcare (NYSE: UNH) and Humana (NYSE: HUM)—which offer benefits packages to […]