5 Shifts That Are Changing the Future of Senior Housing and Aging Services

I’ve written before that we’re in a transitional decade for senior housing and care, as aging services move from serving the Greatest and Silent generations to serving the Boomers and older Gen-Xers.

In talks I give as part of the NIC Academy (specifically, the Fundamentals of Underwriting Senior Housing & Care introductory-level course), I identify 10 factors that I believe will influence the future of senior housing and aging services. Here I want to mention five shifts that are going on at the same time, where the speed of the shifts and how providers respond to them will be critical.

Shift 1: Moving from a focus on health care as “sick care” to a focus on health care as “well care.” The former is reactive and the consumer has a passive role in it. The latter is proactive, with a participatory role for the consumer.

Shift 2: Moving from a focus on adding years to life, the primary goal of the last generation of senior housing and aging services, to a focus on adding life to years, which is what the Boom/X generation desires. 

Shift 3: The discovery that community is not just physical proximity. Instead, it depends on fostering engagement, belonging, inclusion and a sense of purpose. 

Shift 4: The infusion of private sector capital to drive innovation in products, services and delivery systems, as well as the arrival of new capital structures for senior housing that spur investment in people, technology and systems, not just buildings.

Shift 5: The transition from a fee-for-service payment model based on volume to a value-based reimbursement model that focuses on outcomes and prevention. 

Under the old payment model, senior housing and care simply provides older, sicker patients to feed the volume-driven health care industry, while the new model recognizes that senior housing and care plays a vital, preventative role that can improve health while reducing costly hospitalizations, because it addresses social determinants of health. 

The speed of Shifts 1 and 5, which involve changes in our health care system, are not something within the control of the senior housing and care sector. But the other shifts are very much under our control. They are opportunities to lead instead of follow.