Terese Corbin, Vice President of Care and Compliance, joins Greg Puklicz, President of 12 Oaks Senior Living, to discuss the transformative impact of value-based care in senior living. They explore how this approach emphasizes proactive wellness management, leading to better health outcomes, longer resident stays, and overall satisfaction while maintaining cost-effectiveness through coordinated services like August Health.
You’re listening to The Roots Podcast by 12 Oaks, where we’ll be joined by industry leaders to discuss and highlight the character, competency and care that is required to successfully manage senior living portfolios.
Greg 00:13
Welcome again to another episode of The Roots Podcast, brought to you by 12 Oaks Senior Living. Today’s topic is one that’s particularly interesting and really one of the hot topics around senior living these days. And that is value-based care. So value-based care, nobody better that I can think to talk about it. With us here today is Terese Corbin, who’s our Vice President of Care and Compliance here at 12 Oaks Senior Living. So welcome to the Roots Podcast.
Terese 00:49
Thank you for having me.
Greg 00:51
You bet. So let’s start with this. What the heck is value-based care, right? We hear a lot of people use those words, and I’m not sure they always know what they mean. So explain to me what is value-based care.
Terese 01:05
So value-based care is a different way of looking at health care in our current system today. So value-based care is making sure that our residents are well in place versus our fee for service that is in place now with traditional Medicare. So it encourages our providers to not just go in and see a lot of residents just to get a reimbursement, it makes them slow down and helps to keep them healthy.
Greg 01:36
So what’s the goal of value-based care? I mean, is it better outcomes?
Terese 01:42
Better outcomes, less hospitalizations, less E.R. visits, happier residents. They stay with us longer and happier overall.
Greg 01:51
Well, that makes a lot of sense. So, I can see why it’s an important topic. So the installation of value-based care, so where does it begin?
Terese 02:02
Well, we first begin with data. So collecting the right data to make sure we know the care that we are providing for our residents right now, are we going in the right direction? That’s where we need to start. And so that’s where we’re working with, August Health. We should have all of our communities up and running on August Health by the end of the year, and we’ll start collecting that data to move towards the best outcomes for our residents.
Greg 02:28
So August Health. What is August Health? What is it? What service do they actually provide as a partner to us?
Terese 02:35
So August Health will be our EHR, our electronic medical records and also our EMR. So that is what our nurses and staff will enter their assessments, enter their plans of care, and it also generates reports for us so we can see what’s going on in the communities.
Greg 02:53
Okay. And will other health care providers be able to access these records?
Terese 02:58
Yes. The physicians will also be able to access, the home health and hospice possibly may be able to access that information as well. So we can all have good coordination of care.
Greg 03:08
Yeah. Let’s talk about that right there. Coordination of care, right? Because, I think as much as anything senior living, the expression it takes a village is very applicable here. What is that community of care that and what are kind of the litany of services that you see us at 12 Oaks starting to provide for residents as we shift from a social model of assisted living into this medical model? So how is that different and what’s going to change in terms of care offerings at the communities?
Terese 03:36
I think one of the major things that will change is the services that we’ll be able to bring into the communities. So our goal is to not have our residents go out to the physician outside of the community. We can bring all of those services in-house as well as pharmacy as, our lab, of course, hospice and home health and also therapy. We can have our own therapy come in and provide them that care.
Greg 04:10
So greater resident satisfaction through coordination of care. So who really coordinates the care? Is that something we will do as the assisted living provider? What’s the role of the resident in the family in this?
Terese 04:24
Well, we’ll still help provide it, but we’ll be working closely with the family and the resident to make sure we’re providing the services that they feel that they need. So if it’s a priority for them, we’ll make it a priority for us and we’ll provide those services for them.
Greg 04:38
So this is elective? Is it predominantly elective?
Terese 04:42
It’s all elective services.
Greg 04:45
So we’ve got all these services now in community, how does that help us in terms of assessments, right? I mean we’ve got now all these people providing different services. I guess we’ve got August Health is our platform with all this data. So how does this information kind of get coordinated and assessed? What’s that process look like?
Terese 05:09
For me, I think just having it all in one area and being able to look at it as a whole. We’re not waiting on reports from all of these different entities to make decisions, it could be all in one platform. That way, we can make the best decision for that resident.
Greg 05:25
How does this impact the residents’ financial situation? Is this going to cost them a lot more money to obtain all these services in senior living?
Terese 05:36
And that’s one of the great things. It should not cost them much more. Depending on what insurance they have, what their copays are. But with us bringing it in and being able to help them choose the right providers shouldn’t cost them any more.
Greg 05:51
And for those that don’t have insurance, is Medicare an option?
Terese 05:54
Medicare is an option.
Greg 05:56
Right. So these additional services can be funded through their Medicare.
Terese 06:00
Yes.
Greg 06:19
If they don’t have private insurance?
Terese 06:01
Yep. Exactly.
Greg 06:03
Well that’s fantastic, right? So coordination of care, better wellness outcomes for the resident in the community. Clearly there’s better outcomes for the residents. So for the community looking at it now a little bit from the business mode what do you see as better outcomes here for the communities and owners and investors in senior housing?
Terese 06:28
Well, I think having a proactive health model will keep our residents in house longer, will improve our length of stay. I think it’ll help with our staffing. The staffing I think will be happier because our residents will be happier. So, I think overall, just our overall improved health outcome for our residents and increase NOI with length of stay.
Greg 07:15
So yeah, length of stay goes up. And then I suppose RevPAR goes up because there’s additional services being provided, being funded by all these buckets of money that are available with private insurance, with Medicare and, and the like. From an implementation point of view, so you’re rolling out August Health right now, right? And you’re going to have that up and running in all our communities? What’s the timeline for that, do you think?
Terese 07:20
We will be up, up and running 100% by the end of the year. So we’ve started our first group of communities. That rollout is going great, and we’re looking for them to go live within a couple of weeks, and then we’ll start the next rollout.
Greg 07:33
So you’re doing that now. What’s been the reaction of the people in community to the system?
Terese 07:38
They are very excited about it. They were able to see a demonstration at a recent meeting, our trifecta meeting, and they’re all very excited about August Health and what it’s going to do for them.
Greg 07:50
So we get the system up and running. Then what do you see as the next steps as we move into 2025?
Terese 07:57
Then we start collecting data. We start seeing where we are and honing in on areas that we need to improve on as a company. So, we go from there.
Greg 08:08
So as we look to install value-based care in our 12 Oaks communities, what’s interesting to me is that it’s a real differentiator for 12 Oaks. I don’t know that a lot of communities and a lot of other senior housing operators and organizations are kind of going all in on value-based care. What are you seeing out there?
Terese 08:33
I think we are being very innovative as far as embracing that, knowing that it is new. Some people are staying status quo, and we are trying to be innovative and proactive in managing chronic conditions and keeping our residents healthy and happier and focusing more on the wellness versus the illness.
Greg 08:54
And, too, as you said earlier, I think, with greater length of stay, better satisfaction and wellness amongst our residents, I think that’s going to help stabilize communities, help stabilize staffing, and ultimately, manifest itself in better financial results, at the communities, right? So it really is a win-win situation for everybody involved, right? For the owners, the investors, the operators, the employees at the communities, and most importantly, the families and residents at the communities. So are there other types of services that you see that could be provided? Like I’ve heard talk about even respiratory, X-ray, psych services…how far down the list can this possibly go?
Terese 09:47
I think the list is endless. I think it depends on number one, what do our residents want for that community? And then two, who all is able to come in and provide it? I can see I.V. hydration so they don’t have to go to the hospital to get hydrated. Bringing x ray in-house so they don’t have to go to the E.R., and those results can be read and sent right back to us in the provider, and so the recommendations could be made right there. So I can see the list being endless, just depending on who we’re able to get into the community.
Greg 10:20
How will assisted living and memory care still be able to differentiate itself from long term care and sniffs? So conceivably senior housing’s not moving into this sniff and long term care business, right? What are the differentiators? What’s still going to distinguish our communities as senior housing communities?
Terese 10:43
Well, I think the fact that with sniffs, you have residents that are sicker; our residents are getting sicker and sicker. So our residents are still going to be able to have a higher quality of life, and that’s what our focus will be on is the wellness. With skilled care, that’s a different scenario. And they do need that 24 hour nursing care. Whereas our residents are not not quite as sick. And that’s what we’re trying to keep them. We’re trying to keep them at a good baseline, a wellness baseline so they can stay with us longer and not go to sniff.
Greg 11:15
So I guess the difference is in a sniff for long term care, they’re treating a chronic condition in assisted living. Would you say it’s more about encouraging wellness? Building wellness in our resident population?
Terese 11:33
So we want to manage that condition before it becomes worse, before they need to go to a skilled care or sniff. We still can treat it, but we want to manage it from a proactive standpoint, not a reactive standpoint.
Greg 11:45
So again better outcomes, right? We’re being proactive, we’re being thoughtful, and in senior living the resident can then still enjoy all the other benefits that our senior living provides, be it dining services, the activity services, the camaraderie, the mobility amongst the community, right? All those things that our communities offer.
Greg 12:11
Terese, appreciate you taking the time to talk about value-based care. It’s one of the most important initiatives of 12 Oaks Senior Living, and we’re really glad to have you helping us lead 12 Oaks into the world of value-based care.
Terese 12:27
Thank you for having me.
Greg 12:28
You bet. And that wraps up another edition of The Roots Podcast, brought to you by 12 Oaks Senior Living.
Speaker 1 12:38
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