People in the US are gradually coming out of a cliché that once you attain the age of 65 years, you must be off to Florida to spend the rest of your life post-retirement. However, having said that a poll indicated that approximately 75% of the adults in the US intend to work even after the age of 65 years in some capacity.
This change in attitude is a “culture shift,” which will undoubtedly take a few more years to become a “full-blown reality.” According to the Bureau of Statistics, the change has already taken place, and as of 2017, around 9.2 million workers were already into employment beyond the age of 65 years. Having said about the living part, you cannot ignore health care facilities either.
Senior living and aging trends to look out for in 2019
Experts have predicted a few trends that you must prepare to witness in 2019. What are these trends? Let us take a quick look-
- There will be an increased tendency to opt for managed care plans. You will find an increasing number of senior individuals participating in Medicare Advantage. The main reason for this is that here the duration of stay is lower, and so is the skilled nursing requirement. In this regard, there has been an increase of 29% in those opting for managed plans for the last 5 years.
- It is also expected that there will be ‘repurposing’ of Skilled Nursing Facility due to declining occupancy. Also, the number of licensed beds dropped by 1% and occupancy reduced to 79% from 82%. In order to adapt to these unexpected changes, SNF providers or operators will venture out into alternative modes of living like “low-income apartments” or assisted living villages. Whether it is low-income apartments or assisted living shelters, both have witnessed a rise in consumer demand.
- Being strongly motivated by the Physician Payment Law, the year 2019 will witness Advanced Alternative Payment Models or APMS in addition to ensuring that the costs are low and at the same time enhance the quality of the services.
- Another marked change that might come into effect for the elderly population in March 2019 is about the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Advanced or BPCI-A which was put into force on October 1st, 2018. As many as 1700 plus health systems along with “physician group practices,” signed up for the program. The authority body will settle in March 2019, whether or they will continue with the existing diagnostic categories or not.
- Another area that will manifest changes is in the aggressive revenue cycle management. That will make cash collection accurate. This is also a trend that is slated to manifest itself in 2019.
Regardless of whether it is memory care facility you are talking about or SNFs, the primary objective of the changes that will take place in different sectors is to offer wrap-around facilities, simultaneously ensuring that the housing, senior and living care services provided are in tandem with the type of lifestyle that elderly population has been living in the past.
