Welcome to Iowa This Week, I'm Tim Harwood.
Much of the baby boom generation has moved into retirement or at least
given serious consideration to what retirement will look like.
A little further in the future, they might also be thinking about things like senior housing and long-term care.
We're going to take up those topics now with Chris Hansen, CEO of Western Home Services based in Cedar Falls.
Thank you for being with us.
Oh, my pleasure.
Great to be with you.
So baby boomers in a lot of ways have reshaped American life from their early years to today.
Now what does it look like to be a senior after the baby boom generation has arrived at that point?
You know, I totally agree with you.
And by the way, just for transparency's sake, I am a boomer right in the middle of it.
I think the big thing is boomers are
We've just never been willing to be labeled.
And so even the whole term senior, I think a lot of us are like myself are major sufferers of boomeritis where we've thought we could beat the aging game by trying to stay in shape.
And so we've worn all our joints out and everything else.
But the thing is we've been talking about the boomers are coming, the boomers are coming, especially in the.
And I refuse to call what we do in industries, but in the in the profession of taking care of people or being with people.
And so they just are ready to continue to live their lives.
The old mold is not going to work.
The sheer numbers that are coming at us.
I think people don't really understand that only about nine or 10% of seniors actually reside in senior housing.
So if you think about that, especially from
a Western home perspective.
If we doubled all of our infrastructure as the boomers come through, we would still only be taking care of that same 10%.
So it's incumbent on, I think it's going to force us.
I know it is and we're adapting to it.
We've got to figure out how to allow boomers to stay in their own home.
How do we bring service delivery models around that?
I think the cool part is
We're not so tech adverse and so Again, nobody wants big brother watching or anything like that.
But if we can get some technology to augment Living with freedom living as independent as possible for as long as possible.
That's what we're all about
We're talking with Chris Hansen CEO of Western Home Services and the Western Home name very familiar to folks in the Cedar Valley for services provided to seniors on a wide spectrum
Let's talk about folks maybe in their late 60s, early 70s, potentially retired, but into that stage of their lives, maybe by a year or two, they've gotten a routine, they're comfortable.
What are they thinking about when it comes to things like long-term care, the future of where they're going to live?
What should they be thinking about as well?
Thank you for the first part of that.
What are they thinking?
They're not thinking enough.
We all live in a little bit of
in time in space in and I think we do do a good job of planning but senior living especially thinking about if things start to become more acute or more frail Where are those services going to be provided?
Historically there's been enough supply providers Cedar Valley is very blessed with a lot of really good providers
But we've had that availability I will tell you that going forward as this again the boomers have been coming the boomers have been kind of the boomers turn 80 this year the beginning and so The pressure is going to be you're not going to be able to just pick up the phone in the future and say hey I've You'll fall and I can't get up and I need help and I'm gonna need to come in here.
Do you have anything available just to
Pure numbers that are coming at us are gonna very much limit that So the second part of your question, what should they be thinking about?
It should be getting in their mind's eye Who they would want to have provide services either in home or if it needs to be some type of in building care or in facility care Who you would want
Provide that and then build some type of relationship affiliation with them Like with us we've got our wellness center.
That's external therapy programs We thrive era in home.
Okay, but try to get a relationship built so that you Have a plan for when and if that does happen plus just as age progresses that there could be some opportunity for you to Be part of an of an organization
acknowledging a certain level of unpredictability that comes with with life is there a timeline like how far in advance is it even possible to try to tab that to know I've got my ducks in a row or maybe I need to be working on this because I've reached this stage whether that's an actual age or something else
you know it's it's hard
Sometimes you know it's kind of like how long you're gonna live.
Thank God we don't know because if we did know that's all we would concentrate on on that date and literally thank God.
It's kind of a bit of the same thing.
I can tell you we're working with a company out of California that actually takes about 12 to 15 questions.
And then they put that through 500 million different data points, if you can believe that.
They're very insurance and actuarial.
And by comparing those data points to those questions, they say they are within 65% accuracy of whether you will need some type of, I'm gonna call it long-term supports and services, and what type you might need and for how long, which gives you some basis.
If you answer another 10 questions, they actually say they can get that up to an 85% accuracy.
And so then we're back to do you really want to know.
But again, having that relationship, having a relationship with a organization provider that has multiple levels in home care, independent living, and by independent, it really means.
Taking care of helping with a meal helping with bi-weekly housekeeping bi-weekly flat laundry If you're really more of a congregate independent, it's not necessarily about health services at that point, but it can certainly evolve
We're talking with Chris Hansen, CEO of Western Home Services based in Cedar Falls, and you alluded to the fact that there is quite a bit more senior housing and senior options than there might have been, say, 50 years ago in the Cedar Valley.
It seems like it's expanded tremendously, especially if you're along and south of Green Hill Road in Cedar Falls.
Has the demand...
Still outstripped that supply.
I know you made reference to some percentages, but are you optimistic that the supply can catch up to the demand?
No, I'm not.
Now that's in the near term.
And of course, you know, we've all got to use our futuristic hats too as well.
So what could some of today's senior housing actually
Camille into down the road But I think the other thing that gets to be a little of a misnomer is that this Baby boom generation even though it's what 20 years wide or long That hump in that 20 years is major
And with all of the advancements that continue to be made and living well and all of that, that life expectancy is going to go along.
I kind of an old farm kid, so I kind of kid that this isn't just a little feeder pig that's going through this python.
This thing is a, we're going to be here for a while.
And so I think what I can tell you what we're looking at is instead of thinking that we're going to continue to force people through
our bricks and sticks.
We're moving away from that.
And what we're doing is we're working with how can we go out into the community?
We've got a fortified life plan, which is a continuing care retirement without walls.
But we've also got our whole thrive era brand, which is our wellness, but also our home and community based services.
And so how can we help keep people in home instead of needing to transition?
How can we avail our
wellness, our therapy, our nutrition, all of the things, spiritual care, all the things that we provide for our residents on our campus.
But how can we also do that externally and virtually in all the different ways?
And again, tie it to some more technology.
The big topic that we haven't talked about.
government safety net programs that we've been hearing for a long time may run out and not look at least like they do now at best.
Is that something that keeps you up at night?
So right now I happen to be the chair of the Iowa Health Care Association and through my 30-plus years I've been public policy chair of both trade associations.
So I spend a lot of time in Des Moines and in DC talking about Medicaid in particular, Medicare, Social Security.
The answer to that is yes.
Especially with some of the pressures that are today, none of us want to pay more taxes than we have to.
But at the same time,
We we also have to support infrastructure in order to take care of people and take care of people the right way As far as I'm concerned on the Medicare side I would also encourage people as a as a provider in the profession and space Make sure you really research if you're going to truly switch to a Medicare Advantage plan It all feels the same from that
tober to november uh sign up period and everything that comes across the tv it feels like that's all the same uh if they if anybody's gonna need services but you can get a little more your dental and vision or sneakers or gym memberships and all that i would just tell people to make sure and look at who that provider network is for that plan if you are really looking at a medicare advantage plan and then just really
continue to listen to the news talk radio, but just what's going on in the world about, you know, delay delayment in whether somebody can actually go and getting pre authorizations and all these things because it can be a very nasty business and it can be where people think they're lined up to do something and that provider might actually not even take that group as a payer.
So I would just caution everybody to really spend some time.
talk with ship talk with to make sure where you're going with that program and that those providers that you would want to utilize actually accept that as a payer.
But as far as, you know, the threat around Social Security, the threat around Medicare, just solvency and Medicaid, I think that gets a little hyped up for today's senior.
You know, I'm not going to get political here, but it really does just boil down to math and data.
When this was all formulated, it was built on a Pego system.
So all the employees that were working, then that would go in and that would cover those that had retired on a social security basis and Medicare.
Well, part of the challenge has been, especially the boomers, and as we've, as a country, kind of outsourced a lot of these jobs.
that pay side, again, because of the sheer numbers of boomers and we're totally outweighing the workforce here, that pay go system is a real challenge.
And especially as we live longer and all those things.
So I know it is, it's a very hard political conversation.
But I can tell you how we, you know, a lot of the ways we run our organization is we try to grab all the data we can.
We try to
managed by being able to measure what that data is saying.
And there's just gonna come a time when that PAYGO system is, as it is right now, it's gonna get in danger.
And again, not trying to be political, but we've got to keep bringing jobs back to the country.
And we've also, the whole immigration conversation.
This workforce to take care of the boomers is going to get harder and harder.
So we've got to figure out, in my opinion, we've got to figure out the legal way to get people here to support and to take care of our people.
We certainly are going to do it ourselves, but just the sheer numbers, we're going to run out of some talent.
Chris Hansen is CEO of Western Home Services based in Cedar Falls with us sharing some insights on the current state and future state of senior care and senior housing.
Thank you for being with us on this program.
Again, my pleasure.
Thanks for asking.
And that's all for today's edition of Iowa This Week and we thank you for listening.
I'm Tim Harwood.
