Tag Archive for: Jody Holtzman

The Longevity Economy

What Exactly IS the Longevity Economy?

What is the Longevity Economy? It’s 8.3 trillion dollars. It’s 42% of total U.S. GDP. It’s equivalent to the third largest stand-alone economy in the world. It’s the rapidly growing market of products and services designed to benefit older adults, plus the multiplier effects of job generation, new businesses formation, and tax revenue across the U.S. economy. It’s a term that was coined by a new Thought Leadership team at AARP in 2009 to capture the full macroeconomic impact driven by the economic activity by and for older Americans.

At a time when common wisdom was leading to proposals to cut Social Security and to cut Medicare, the first boomers began to retire, and there was a sudden, rapid growth of startups in the health, digital health, and aging services industries, plus increasing interest by larger established companies.

“AARP began pushing back against the notion that we can’t, as a society, afford all these old people,” said Jody Holtzman, Founder and Senior Managing Partner of Longevity Venture Advisors, and former Sr. Vice President of Thought Leadership and Market Innovation at AARP.

Holtzman, who was recognized as a Top 50 Influencer in Aging by NPR/Next Avenue, was a guest of Phyllis Ayman on her podcast Seniors Straight Talk. The two discussed “The U.S. $8.3 Trillion Longevity Economy: Its Meaning & Impact.”

“To support the claim that we can’t afford all these old people – although no one would put it that bluntly – everyone would point to Medicare and Social Security as evidence, saying the programs were unsustainable. They were making an economic claim that we as a society can’t afford something, but their evidence and arguments weren’t economic. Their evidence was a design function of these two programs.”

Those arguments were based on an “ageist attitude toward older people and their usefulness,” Holtzman argued, “combined with an ignorance of one of society’s most important economic assets – older Americans.”

“Just 35% of Americans drive about 42% of US GDP, and over 50% of US consumer spending.” – Jody Holtzman

He and his team at AARP hired Oxford Economics, who found that consumer spending by older adults generates a GDP of $8.3 trillion. At a time when the economy was lagging, “This was the one enormous growth market.”

It didn’t take long for the market to catch up with reality. “The market moves faster than the culture,” Holtzman said. “In fact, the market recognized the value and potential value of this demographic shift across every asset class; venture capital, private equity, public companies, real estate. And brokers responded by making it easier to invest with new ETF’s, REITs, and portfolios designed to benefit from this demographic wave. It cuts across industries.”

In fact, older adults are a powerful economic driver. “The economic impact analysis showed that a population of just 35% of Americans drive about 42% of US GDP, and over 50% of US consumer spending,” Holtzman said. “What other segment of the population generates such a positive disproportionate impact?”

Instead of arguing that we can’t afford to support older adults, Holtzman said, “It’s that we can’t afford not to because they are driving economic growth. And it’s having multiplier effects that benefit society and people of all generations.”

Listen to the podcast.

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Nexus Insights Fellows News 2021

Nexus Fellows Flash Bulletin: June 2021

The Nexus Fellows are leaders in the aging industry, helping to shape public policy and redefine aging and aging services. From books to podcasts, here’s a sample of some of the work they’ve been doing in the past month:

  • Jay Newton-Small, CEO of MemoryWell, is wrapping up a second year of their joint contest for Hilarity for Charity, Seth and Lauren Miller Rogen’s Alzheimer’s charity and Humans of Dementia Storytelling Competition. It’s a competition for high school and college students to write the best profile of someone living with Alzheimer’s. Winners will have the chance to meet Seth and Lauren Rogen during the virtual celebration. Additionally, MemoryWell has added three new members to their team.
  • Jacquelyn Kung, CEO of Senior Care Group at Activated Insights, was interviewed by Skip Lineberg, host of The Main Thing Podcast, about elder care, and her passion to improve the aging experience. “The main thing I’ve learned in my lifetime so far is that getting older is what you make of it. And I see it as full of good news. Socially, we get happier as we get older, and the research shows that.”
  • Jill Vitale-Aussem, president and CEO of Christian Living Communities, sat down with Senior Housing Investors Podcast to talk about her book, “Disrupting the Status Quo of Senior Living: A Mindshift.”
  • Sarah Thomas, CEO of Delight by Design, delivered the keynote on designing products and services for the aging population with Chief Medical Office of AARP, DR Charlotte Yeh. Additionally, she moderated two panels featuring the important work of seven agetech startups at the Rehab Tech Summit mini-Summit. Thomas was an expert judge at the AOTA 2021 Inventors Showcase, where 11 startups pitched their innovative products designed to serve people across the lifespan. The winner designed a novel gait belt that improves the safety of caregivers and residents in senior living and beyond.
  • Dr. Bill Thomas, founder of The Eden Alternative, The Green House Project, and Minka, recently traveled the country, talking with elders and their care partners in more than 125 cities. He learned about their hopes and fears, and listened to their stories. What did he discover? That people want better alternatives for senior living. “It turns out that older people pretty much want what everyone else wants: to belong to a community that includes people of all ages and remain connected to the living world,” Thomas said.
  • Nexus Founder & Fellow, and NIC Strategic Advisor, Bob Kramer, has joined the Edenbridge Health Board of Advisors to help expand access to comprehensive, integrated, community-based and person-centered care for the frail elderly through innovative applications of the PACE Program.
  • In the blog post, “Just Move It,” CEO of SmartLiving 360, Ryan Frederick talks about the importance of physical exercise for older adults. “Inactivity is the fourth leading cause of death and about 1.5 billion people in the world are inactive to the point that it risks their long-term health. At a health care conference several years ago, four recent surgeon generals were asked for one tip for successful aging. They coalesced on one word: move.”
  • Nexus Fellow Kelsey Mellard, CEO of Sitka, sat down with Sanjula Jain Jo on Her Story for a candid conversation about being a healthcare leader and her transition from the Midwest to DC to Silicon Valley, building a resilient team, and overcoming challenges.
  • Longevity economy expert, Jody Holtzman, formerly of AARP is proud to be on the advisory board of Intuition Robotics, which is mitigating loneliness among older adults with the companion robot ElliQ. “The growing mismatch between the number of people in need of caregivers and the availability of caregivers is a multifaceted challenge for individual families and society more broadly. Technology must be part of the solution. Companion robots like ElliQ and others in this space, like my friends at Joy for All/Ageless Innovation, have an important role to play.”
  • Caroline Pearson, Senior VP of Health Care Strategy at NORC at the University of Chicago, announced the release of new research from NIC and NORC that looks at the impact of the pandemic on seniors by care setting. “Mortality rates increase by complexity of care, but, in lower acuity settings such as independent living communities, they are comparable to surrounding populations.”

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Update on Nexus Fellow May 21s

Nexus Fellow Flash Bulletin: May 2021

As the United States shifts gears from pandemic crisis management to a new post-COVID normal, we must now deal with the aftermath and identify what went wrong and what we can do better. Issues of transparency and loneliness in nursing homes linger. Large corporations that once were oblivious to the older population have found a new market. How will we address the age-old problem of social connection for those who are still isolated, a problem seniors have faced for decades? The entire industry, the way we view older adults, the options for living independently and the implementation of technology, must all be urgently addressed and thoughtfully designed into an actionable plan for the future of aging and longevity.

Our Fellows continue to strive for innovation and reform. Here’s what they’ve been up to:

NEWS:

  • Nexus Fellow David Grabowski, was quoted in an article by the Associated Press on nursing homes’ requirement to report COVID-19 vaccinations at nursing homes. “This is an important development that is months overdue,” said David Grabowski, a Harvard health policy professor who has tracked the industry’s struggles with the outbreak. “Many of us argued that this information should have been published starting in December when the federal long-term care vaccination effort began.”

 

  • Dr. Bill Thomas, Nexus Fellow and creator of The Eden Alternative, Minka, and the Green House Project, is helping value-based care innovator Lifespark (which acquired Tealwood Senior Living.) Dr. Thomas will be leading the efforts to combine the two companies’ operations. He has also created Kallimos Communities, new multi-generational communities with small dwellings clustered around shared green space. Additionally, he has a new project he’s working on with Signature Healthcare — currently called “Canopy” — a cluster of small ADA-accessible houses built close together.

 

  • Bob Kramer, Founder and Fellow of Nexus Insights, was interviewed by Nancy Griffin for SeniorTrade Blog. He defines 5 Boomerville Segments likely to flourish in the future: Wellnessville, where residents will focus on healthy lifestyle, diet and exercise; Margaritaville, resort-style independent living (Minto Communities’ Latitude Margaritaville has three wait-listed locations with more in development); Serviceville, where the emphasis is on volunteerism, mentorship and giving back; Collegeville, where residents focus on continued learning in a communal living environment, and Changeville, for those concerned with making a difference in the world and creating a legacy.

 

  • Preordering is now available for “Right Place, Right Time, a book by Nexus Fellow and CEO of SmartLiving 360, Ryan Frederick. “Place plays a significant yet often unacknowledged role in health and happiness. The right place elevates personal well-being. It can help promote purpose, facilitate human connection, catalyze physical activity, support financial health, and inspire community engagement.”

 

  • Nexus Fellow Kelsey Mellard, CEO of Sitka, sat down with Sanjula Jain Jo on Her Story for a candid conversation about being a healthcare leader and her transition from the Midwest to DC to Silicon Valley, building a resilient team, and overcoming challenges.

 

  • Will seniors continue to buy groceries online post-pandemic? Jody Holtzman, longevity economy expert, formerly of AARP, thinks seniors will split their shopping, using online for staples such as canned goods and going into stores for fresh foods. Some senior consumers claim it’s a social outlet for them. “As the necessity imposed by the pandemic lessens,” Holtzman says, “retailers will have to start to play the price game.” Read more at Blomberg.com.

 

Out and About:

  • Jill Vitale-Aussem, president and CEO of Christian Living Communities, and Nexus Insights Fellow, recently spoke at a session, “Finding success in increasing diversity and inclusion,” at the 2021 Women of Distinction educational webinar. We’d also like to congratulate Jill on joining the SeniorTrade Advisory Board.

Jill Vitale-Aussem joins SeniorTrade Advisory Board

  • On June 30, Nexus Fellow Sara Zeff Geber will be joining experts and thought leaders in the areas of aging, retirement and thriving for the “Boomers Thriving After the Pandemic” virtual summit, hosted by Wendy Green from Hey, Boomer. Other speakers include Helen Dennis and John Tarnoff. Part of the proceeds will go to Meals on Wheels Greenville and The Walk to End Alzheimer’s. For more info visit the virtual summit’s Eventbrite page.

Sara Zeff Geber on Hey Boomer

  • Sarah Thomas, CEO of Delight by Design and Nexus Fellow, recently presented at the Rehab Tech Summit sponsored by AARP Innovations Labs. She spoke about designing for all, including age tech, universal design, living with purpose and designing beautiful products for everyone at every age.

 

COMPANIES ON THE MOVE:

  • Jay Newton-Small, CEO of MemoryWell, is growing MemoryWell. After a successful capital raise, she’s been adding some amazing new talent to her team including Sarah Jones from Healthsense, GreatCall and Best Buy Health.

 

  • Jacquelyn Kung, CEO of Senior Care Group at Activated Insights, is working with her team to create recognition programs for senior care providers, based on their resident and family surveys. The goal is to tie the data to outcomes and impact metrics, and to use machine learning to identify patterns in those who improve to apply across a broader population of providers.

 

NEW RESEARCH:

 

 

VIDEO DISCUSSIONS:

 

 

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Jody Holtzman interview

Trends, Challenges and Opportunities in the Longevity and Aging Industry – A Jody Holtzman Interview

COVID-19 has been a tremendous challenge for everyone, but it has shone an especially bright spotlight on how underserved our aging population really is. We sat down with Senior Managing Partner at Longevity Venture Advisers, Jody Holtzman, to discuss trends, challenges and opportunities in the longevity and aging industry in this new world.

Jody is a well known leader in the aging and longevity world, having spent the past 15+ years in the field, preceded by a career in strategy consulting. His work in aging includes a 12 year stint at AARP where he ran research and was senior vice president of thought leadership and market innovation.

 

NEXUS INSIGHTS – You have spoken about Baby Boomers and their lack of interest in traditional long-term care communities, especially assisted living. Tell us more about that.

JH – First, it is hard to generalize when you are talking about a population of just over 70 million people, which is the current Boomer population in the US. That’s more people than in the UK, France, or Italy. So, let’s just establish that one size does not fit all and there will always be a segment of Boomers for whom traditional long-term care settings are attractive. However, even before the pandemic, occupancy rates across independent and assisted living already were at a low, while the age of new residents continued to climb well into the 80s. And the mental image and mental model of long-term care communities for Boomers was one of nursing homes where people are warehoused to die. Since the pandemic this image has only been deepened as Boomers saw nursing home death rates, as well as experienced such with their own older loved ones.

There also is something else going on when we look at how Boomers view long-term care. And that is, they simply do not see themselves in those settings. It does not jive with their own self-image. This came out in spades to me the first time I spoke to a LeadingAge conference and did this exercise with the audience. I asked everyone to stand if they proudly participate in the management of any type of long-term care community. Three hundred and fifty people jumped up. Smiles all around! Then, I asked them to remain standing “if you are looking forward to the day you live in your own facility.” And the overwhelming majority of the audience sat down. These were people on the front lines of senior living, committed to making life better for older people. But they also, overwhelmingly, were Baby Boomers. And they did not see themselves in senior living. So, something has to change.

There is something else going on when we look at how Boomers view long-term care. And that is, they simply do not see themselves in those settings. – Jody Holtzman

NEXUS INSIGHTS – You talk about how the pandemic has shaped how and where health and healthcare happen. Tell us about the trends that you are seeing.

JH – Trends over the past year, both within and outside senior living, have increasingly confirmed that the home is and will continue to be the focus of health, care, and connected living. The growing consensus across the healthcare community got a boost from the orientation embedded in the concept of social determinants of health (SDOH) which is encapsulated in the view that health is a function of one’s zip code and the conditions of life in a geographic area. Health is now, officially, “beyond medicine.”

In parallel with the new focus on SDOH over the past year, digital health has exploded. While the health benefits of home-based care were being proven, along comes COVID and people are told to lock down and remain in their homes. Telehealth, telemedicine, and other virtual communications, became the dominant market response in healthcare and society more broadly. All in combination reinforcing the centrality of the Home and further boosting demand for more home and community-based products and services.

 

NEXUS INSIGHTS – You work with a lot of healthcare companies in the aging space. How are they dealing with these new trends and market opportunities?

JH – In response to the pandemic, and to both longstanding needs and those recognized by looking at health through the lens of SDOH, CMS has added a growing list of non-traditional, supplemental benefits that may be reimbursed through Medicare Advantage, but not traditional Medicare. Startups and others have responded with an array of new offerings covered by new reimbursement codes. And MA plans have been increasingly adding them to services already offered in their plans. While payers have had the near-term benefit of attracting new customers through product/service-based competitive differentiation during Open Season, the longer-term health benefits and attendant cost savings have yet to be proven. And this brings us to a dilemma. While the need and availability of a growing list of technology-enabled products and services has been established, customer/patient adoption is still low, and returns on investment have been as well.

For startups, this is concerning because, in many cases, they are being directed by investors and others to build their channel strategies around Medicare Advantage. Even if the deals with payers are all gain-share arrangements without requiring cash outlays by the payers, they still are making an investment in time and dedicated resources, if only to track progress. The question needs to be asked and monitored – how long will MA plans include offerings that garner limited customer uptake? If nothing else, the current terrain calls for a diversified go-to-market strategy that is not solely dependent on Medicare Advantage.

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Nexus Fellow

Nexus Fellow Flash Bulletin – March 2021

COVID has caused dramatic disruption in our education and healthcare systems and long term care environments. We wear masks, we distance, we stay home. So what have we learned? How can we come out stronger on the other side? Despite the massive challenges and barriers to implementation, there is a strong sense of hope on the horizon.

“Out of the tragedy of COVID, there are a lot of silver linings, a lot of good things we’re learning. Let’s seize the opportunity from the crisis so we can say we learned from it, and we won’t be here a year or two from now saying that nothing is different.” Nexus Founder & Fellow, Bob Kramer

While the pandemic has had a devastating impact on the seniors housing and long-term care industry, it’s also shed a big spotlight on this industry like never before. And that has advantages. After all, how could anyone identify a problem if they aren’t looking. People are paying attention now, and if we take this opportunity and make the changes needed, the senior living and long-term care industry will vastly improve post-pandemic.

Our Nexus Fellows are front and center. They’re experts, thinkers and entrepreneurs, bringing fresh ideas and important insights to the industry at this critical time.

What’s the latest? Here’s a Nexus Fellow Flash Bulletin:

  • Bob Kramer, Founder and Fellow of Nexus Insights joined Jocelyn Dorsey, Becky Kurtz, Elise Eplan and Deke Cateau on a panel last month for A.G. Rhodes Living Well-Virtual to discuss the stark realities of what is happening with COVID19, aging, and in the senior housing world. “What became clear in our conversation is that, despite the overwhelming challenges and difficulty in pandemic protocols and vaccine strategies, there was a sense of hope throughout.
  • Nexus Fellow Kelsey Mellard, CEO of Sitka, announced that Sitka has raised $14 million in Series A financing led by Venrock, with participation from existing investors Optum Ventures, Homebrew, First Round Capital, and Lifeforce Capital. This round of funding will enable Sitka to accelerate product development and expand growth with new and existing partners.
  • Jill Vitale-Aussem, president and CEO of Christian Living Communities, and Nexus Insights Fellow, was featured in a McKnight’s Senior Living piece on how the senior living industry needs to change. “We need meaningful purpose in our lives. We don’t need to live in a hotel. We need to belong…to continue growing and learning…I am a huge proponent of shifting our thinking of residents as customers, which really creates helplessness, and moving to a model of citizenship”
  • In an op-ed piece in The Dallas Morning News, Jacquelyn Kung, CEO of Senior Care Group at Activated Insights and a Nexus Insights Fellow, with Nexus Insights Founder and Fellow Bob Kramer and author Ed Frauenheim offered five practical solutions for “repairing and renewing the industry.”
  • In a recent interview, Jody Holtzman cited four important trends to consider as we embark on a rebuild of a broken industry. Three of them are driving a changing view of health: the expanding holistic view of health that started with a focus on social determinants; the growing list of non-traditional supplemental benefits reimbursed by CMS; and, the increasing centrality of the home as the locus of health, care, and connected living. These are tempered however by a counter-trend: the slow uptake and limited usage of new supplemental benefits.
  • In a recent article for the journal Health Affairs, Nexus Fellow David Grabowski, along with Charlene Harrington, Anne Montgomery, Dr. Terris King, Sc.D., and Mike Wasserman, discussed recommendations for changes to public policy that would “make ownership, management, and financing more transparent and accountable to improve US nursing home care.”
  • In his latest piece on the SmartLiving 360 blog, Nexus Fellow Ryan Frederick explains that while Zillow provides comprehensive information about homes to purchase or rent, it can’t answer the question of what happens when you lose electricity and water for days, as happened in Texas recently. Whether neighbors come together as a community to help each other through the crisis has a big impact on whether you’ve chosen the right place to live.
  • Sarah Thomas, CEO of Delight by Design and Nexus Fellow, was keynote speaker at the Rehab Tech Summit in February. In her speech titled, Designing the Future: Creating Your Own Path Through a Lens of Innovation, she said,  “It’s time we challenge our own views on aging. As we design products, services, spaces and communities we must design for ALL. Our designs should delight our consumers at every age. It was such a pleasure to share my professional journey that has taken me around the world changing the global perspectives on aging.”
  • Caroline Pearson recently completed a project looking at consumer experience measures for Medicare Advantage plans. The report recommendations holding plans accountable for aspects of consumer experience that are meaningful to beneficiaries and within the health plans’ control to improve. Caroline’s team at NORC continues to examine the impact of COVID-19 on older adults in seniors housing. Look for their report due out soon.
  • Dr. Bill Thomas will be featured in the 30th Annual Aging Well Conference hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Parkside Professional and Continuing Education Office on April 23 & 30. In his keynote, Dr. Thomas will deliver a multi-part interactive keynote “What if Everything we Know About Aging is Wrong?” followed by a Q&A session. In his breakout session “MAGIC:  Exploring Intergenerational Communities,” Dr. Thomas will share new concepts in Multi-Ability, Multi-Generational, Inclusive Communities that brings together people of different ages, abilities, and backgrounds.

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