The evolving model of assisted living, the increasing health needs of assisted living residents, value-based care, care integration at the assisted living community level and within a health ecosystem that includes assisted living. Those topics and related ones have been featured at long-term care industry conferences for years—increasingly so, and most assisted living operators are experiencing at least some of those changes firsthand.
Perhaps, then, you have grappled with the same challenge as one described by an attendee of the recently concluded Argentum Senior Living Executive Conference. She expressed concerns about her ability to accurately represent her community and the industry as a whole to the lawmakers and others from the various levels of government with whom she interacts.
“This whole conference has been around embracing care,” she said on the last day of the annual gathering. And yet, she added, provider advocates are stressing in their messages to policymakers and regulators that assisted living operators don’t provide care and are not healthcare entities.
“I want to be sure I am connecting the dots … on telling the story,” she said, adding, “We’ve got to be able to bridge that somehow.”
Another meeting attendee agreed that there sometimes appears to be “a very fine line” between types of providers. She added that “a really great metaphor” she heard at the conference gave her a new way to think about assisted living and its role in healthcare. It was that assisted living providers “are like the host of the party, and we’re bringing in the people to the place,” such as partners and vendor companies, and they are the ones that provide the care directly.
Maggie Elehwany, JD, senior vice president of public affairs for Argentum, said that it’s helpful for providers to focus on their role in addressing social determinants of health with residents when speaking with policymakers.
“We are the access point. …We help provide care for chronic disease. We make sure people are taking their medication [and] that they’ve got access to their provider,” she said.
With federal, state and local lawmakers and regulators, as well as members of the lay media, increasingly scrutinizing assisted living operators individually and at the corporate and industry levels, it will be critical for providers and their advocates to be able to offer an accurate, consistent message about the industry, what it is and what it is not. It’s party time.
Lois A. Bowers is the editor of McKnight’s Senior Living. Read her other columns here. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) at Lois_Bowers.
