CCRCs As Healthcare Providers

Earlier this month Steve Maag, LeadingAge’s Director of Residential Communities, shared an insightful video presentation (a Quickcast) on environmental and industry trends that are anticipated to impact the future of continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs). If you are in any type of leadership position in an organization that owns and/or operates a CCRC with some level of responsibility for that organization’s future direction, then I strongly encourage you to find 15 minutes to watch this presentation.

There are three broad areas Steve addresses, including consumerism, healthcare reform and technology. This being a blog on healthcare public policy, a couple of years back I shared some of my own thoughts on the risks and perils that CCRCs face in assessing their role as a healthcare provider in the post, CCRCs: Healthcare Providers—Or Not.

Now having some additional data points I thought it might be interesting to revisit what I wrote back in August 2012. I then identified five major areas that CCRC organizations needed to be cognizant of as they assess strategic positioning as a healthcare provider in their market:

Healthcare delivery related cost pressures
New care delivery and payment models
Increasing demand for home and community-based services
The need for infrastructure investments
Potential future tax consequences for nonprofit organization

In considering the impact these areas could have on organizations unwilling or unable to effectively address that impact it was my opinion then that those organizations would be further ahead to get out of the healthcare business altogether than to wait on the sidelines. Fast forward 29 months and I will double down on that assessment.

Successful CCRC organizations of the future are making the requisite investments today to assess their healthcare market environment and determine how they can effectively and profitably integrate into that environment. To assist organizations with that process I recently updated my whitepaper: A Framework for Strategic Planning & Positioning in an Era of Healthcare Reform. Please feel free to download and use to help your organization with this critically important assessment.

Cheers,
  ~ Sparky