This is why I really love NIC.

By Steve Moran

This is why I really love NIC (National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care). And yes, I love the other senior living organizations, but for different reasons (and, although NIC is a non-profit, it is not a trade group or association).

Today NIC launched a new microsite, “Senior Care Collaboration” that is narrowly focused on helping senior living organizations become the nation’s experts in forming coordinated care alliances with multiple healthcare stakeholders. Until this site was launched, there was really no single place you could go to access all of the current ideas and developments unfolding in this area . . . and there is a lot going on.

This will also be the focus of the Spring Conference.

Why You Should Care — Selfish Reasons

From a self-interest perspective, here is why you should care:

  1. Your buildings will have higher occupancy and if you are an assisted living or memory care provider . . . and perhaps even an independent living operator . . . longer lengths of stay. This means lower turnover and sales costs.

    If you are a skilled nursing provider, you will be the preferred placement for post-acute residents, which will translate into higher rates of reimbursement.

  1. If you are doing cutting-edge things, your community will be a more exciting place for people to work and stay working, which means an easier time retaining and recruiting staff. It will also mean that you have more free cash flow allowing you to pay your team more and have a better class of team members.

  1. If you don’t do it your competitors will, making a hard environment even harder.

  1. If we don’t do it as an industry someone else like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, United Health Plan, Blue Cross, or Uber will see blindingly mass profits and make senior living much less relevant than it is today (a problem with which we are already struggling).

Why You Should Care — Altruistic Reasons

Our current health delivery system is a big fat hairball of a mess. This is true even if you have great healthcare insurance. If you don’t or you are older, it is terrible. This is a way to help seniors get the care and dignity they deserve.

Finally, it is the single greatest opportunity to reduce healthcare costs in the United States. It would not be unreasonable to believe that if a significant number of senior living providers were on board it would save billions . . . yep, billions of dollars a year . . . and make a profit doing so.

Here is the link: “Seniors Care Collaboration”. It will be time well spent checking it out and subscribing to their weekly blog. Kudos to NIC for putting the spotlight on this opportunity for our sector.

I look forward to seeing you at the Spring NIC conference next month in San Diego where this topic will be explored in depth.