How Senior Housing Fits in the Healthcare Expenditure Equation
Things are at a tipping point, say panelists at the NIC Spring Conference, but there is room for opportunity for those who can get connected and partner to find new ways to achieve value.
SAN DIEGO—“Value is created when silos break down.” That was the main message during a morning session Thursday at the NIC Spring Conference here in San Diego. The conference, which focused on how senior housing fits into the healthcare expenditure equation said that when silos are broken down, there is more support so that functional needs, healthcare, and enhanced housing services can come together to create better value for seniors.
David Nash, founding dean emeritus of the College of Population Health at Thomas Jefferson University, said that the problem, though, is that defining value is hard to do and depends on your perspective. But one fact remains, he said. “The current spending is unsustainable.”
Nash pointed out that the total healthcare industry spends roughly $1 billion per day. “We are at that inflection point. This is every Governor’s biggest problem.”
One potential solution, he said, is to go upstream shut the faucet off instead of mopping up the floor. What that means, he added, is that “it is key to find a way to achieve value instead of billing for volume and everything we do.”
That inflection point or tipping point, as Nash also put it, is an unbelievable opportunity in senior housing. “If you can become part of the hospital provider solution, then you and I can get connected in a new way to achieve value.”
Value, he added has a lot of names. It can be called a global fee, bundle payment and more. “In a bundle payment system, you, the senior housing operator knows Jane’s’ diet and exercise and can help connect those dots when she goes to the hospital for her heart.” The goal, he concluded, is to find new ways to work together.
But the journey there won’t come easy, Nash said. “This is going to be a test for this crowd’s appetite for risk, the road to risk is the road to redemption to help fix these aspects of the cost problem.”
Stay tuned to read more from the NIC Spring Conference and check out the stories already done below.
NIC 2020 Talks Future of Healthcare Disruption, Scale Will Matter
Panelists: Telehealth Will Produce Meaningful Savings for Senior Care