home health care

For too many years, high quality data about care of seniors has been elusive.  Lack of standardization of technology platforms – or lack of care platforms altogether – hobbled the care industries -- senior living, home care, home healthcare. Yet the merger and acquisition of companies in other industries ultimately results in consolidation of data. Platforms matter—they enable data standardization which in turn fuels growth. Consider Jet Blue’s interest in buying Spirit, getting planes and pilots(infrastructure) that match its current business. Consider Optum’s acquisition of Amedisys home health business. Note its 2015 $72.5 million write off of a failed in-house software deployment process. No doubt, Optum’s own data standardization business will help integrate Amedisys if the acquisition is improved.

The 2023 Technology for Aging Market Overview is published. With the establishment of the term AgeTech at CES 2023, the formal interest in the market of offerings for older adults has now been established.  Investors are interested, startups are multiplying, and the landscape is favorable for new and intriguing offerings in the space.  And in some cases, the new offerings are coming from current players.  There are caveats, of course. Tech for all ages remains stubbornly difficult to use, whether it is the frequency of upgrades, the multiple steps to authenticate that the user is not a robot (including checking a box that one is not a robot!) and so it goes. We are not surprised at any of the barriers and pre-requisites we face to log on. And we know that new barriers are just around the corner.

September brings falling leaves, rising and falling hopes. Turns out that VCs are waking up to the opportunity in the longevity economy. Recognizing that people may live a lot longer, perhaps even to 100. How do you prepare for such a long life? Behold the rise of the active adult lifestyle, now enabled with a boom in 55+ rental communities. Combine that change with the ‘Forgotten Middle Market’ of senior living. Consider the Chicago Tribune article about tech for aging in place. Now add in the shortage of workers in home care, health care, and nursing homes. If there was a time to look at the role of monitoring and engagement technologies that augment and assist the worker in the care of older adults – it would seem that this is the time. Here are four Sept blog posts on these and related topics:

The Census knows the growth and potential explosion of care needs and older adults. Consider their newly published document explaining the industries to those who may still not see what’s happening. "Assisted Living Facilities for the Elderly saw a 34.4% increase in revenue from 2013 to 2020.  Home Health Care Services experienced an even larger increase – 50.5% -- during the same period." These assertions are built on the Service Annual Survey (2021).   The U.S. Census Bureau projects that in 2050, the U.S. population ages 65 and over will be 83.9 million, nearly double what it was (43.1 million) in 2012.