Boomers study shows future demand for health technology
From the Minneapolis St. Paul Business JournalBYLINE: Lauren WilbertBaby boomers in Minnesota consider themselves young until at least age 80 and say they will invest in technology to help them live independently, according to a survey released this week by Ecumen.That will open opportunities for businesses that successfully cater to those needs, particularly in the insurance, technology, senior housing and advertising industries. Some businesses already are creating a new niche to cater to the young at heart' seniors, while others will need to work on their marketing to connect with this audience.Ecumen, a Shoreview-based senior-housing nonprofit, surveyed 564 Minnesota baby boomers between the ages of 42 and 60 for the organization’s first Age Wave study.he research found that Minnesota boomers overwhelmingly believe technology will play a major role in their aging experience. Half said they’d spend $100 a month on technology to help them live independently, and 5 percent said they’d spend as much as $500 per month.Many boomers already are buying health technology for their aging parents and are savvy about products on the market, said Eric Schubert, Ecumen’s director of communications.'Technology is a huge part of their life,' Schubert said. 'Boomers have grown up in this TiVo, iPod age, and every sector of life that boomers have gone through, there’s been huge change.'Ecumen might even seek out partnerships with large retailers to sell digital health technology. Other businesses might look at the trends and develop partnerships of their own, Schubert said. 'While we’d love to bring everything to market, there’s clearly some [companies] better poised to act on things.'Tweak the messageBoomers' buying power will continue to grow, as evident in the sheer number of them. Ecumen’s study estimates that by 2020, Minnesota will have more seniors than children.Take into account that boomers plan to work into their 70s and even beyond and it becomes clear that the 'silver tsunami' will affect the way employers structure their hours. Many companies are trying to provide flexible work schedules to accommodate this work force. In retirement, boomers will do something they enjoy, and businesses can benefit from boomers' expertise,Schubert said.Insurance is another area set for changes. Most senior plans are sold as 'long-term care insurance,' a name that boomers hate, he said. 'It’s basically the precept that aging is about living, no matter what stage you’re at. So often aging is about the end of life and declinism, and boomers just aren’t going to go with this.'Boomers would rather buy a hybrid health care package that resembles a life-insurance policy that they could leave for their heirs, he said.Preferences in housing also are creating huge opportunities for developers and places like Ecumen.No one surveyed said they would like to live in a nursing home, and most said they’d prefer to live in a rural or suburban setting over an urban one.Entering the marketCommercial Equity Partners (CEP), based in Woodbury, is just one example of companies racing to enter the boomer market.CEP, which specializes in building business campuses, has partnered with Ecumen to develop a senior-living community in Woodbury adjacent to HealthEast Care System’s Woodwinds Hospital.The project would be 325,000 square feet and include a fitness center, common area, housing for 250 people, restaurants, a general store and transportation to places outside the development.CEP first has to convince Woodbury’s City Council to change the zoning, which now is designated for medical office developments. But already, the project is attracting investors and potential residents, said Bill Knutson, CEP’s vice president of senior housing.'It’s [focused around] emerging needs in health care, and our role is to understand how all these relationships can mesh.'
Minnesota / Independence leads list of baby boomers' old-age wishes: Study urges fresh options to support in-home care
Posted in the Pioneer PressBYLINE: Jeremy Olson, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.Feb. 20--Minnesota’s baby boomers want exactly what the state’s long-term care system lacks: technology and creative programs that will help them remain independent and at home in their frail and elderly years.That is one of the main conclusions of a study and survey being released today by Ecumen, a Shoreview-based provider of nursing homes and community services for the elderly.Executives with the organization hope the results will inspire lawmakers and caregivers to try new approaches and programs before the massive boomer generation reaches retirement age.Nine of 10 boomers in the survey said they want to live in their own homes rather than in rental apartments or nursing facilities. Most of the 564 survey respondents, ages 42 to 60, said they would pay more for a long-term care system that provides better community services.Boomers are saying, 'Give us some more options,' ' said Eric Schubert, Ecumen’s communications director. ' 'Help us live where we want to live, how we want to live.' 'What that population wants and what it needs may actually be one and the same. The nation’s reliance on institutional care for the frail and elderly is bringing many state Medicaid programs to the breaking point. Minnesota spends nearly $1 billion per year just for nursing home care, but that figure is expected to reach $20 billion by 2050.'It’s not rocket science to figure out that within about 10 years this is going to overtake the state budget if we don’t start taking some steps now,' said Rep. Joe Atkins, D-Inver Grove Heights. He is a member of the Minnesota 2020 caucus that is focused on solutions in long-term care.Ecumen officials said Minnesota could start finding solutions by copying successful programs in other states. Vermont has received special permission from the federal government to spend Medicaid dollars on community supports for seniors living at home.Atkins has co-authored a bipartisan bill that would help Minnesota seniors acquire available technology to help them live independently at home. QuietCare, for example, is a system of sensors that gauges people’s health and daily activity and relays that information to family members or caregivers.While the move toward independent living would save the state money and give baby boomers what they want, some policymakers worry it won’t be sustainable.The Ecumen survey didn’t address whether children or other relatives of the aging baby boom population are ready and willing to accept the role of at-home caregivers, said Bob DeBoer, director of policy development for the Citizens League, a civic group that is hosting a public event today to release the Ecumen survey results.If the system spends more money on relatives providing at-home care, 'will that really make a difference in this culture?' he asked. 'Will people do it? We don’t even know the answer to that.'While the survey showed boomers are actively planning for retirement, it also shows many are disinterested in long-term care insurance products and confused about who actually pays for nursing care at home or in group homes.The survey results will hopefully inform the baby boomer generation and start conversations about lapses in long-term care so the boomers can use the group’s size and clout to encourage change, said Kathryn Roberts, Ecumen’s president and chief executive.
Silent guardians
Posted in the StarTribune Motion sensors, virtual dinner companions and a talking pill could help baby boomers age more independently.By H.J. Cummins, Star TribuneToday, motion sensors can monitor the comings and goings of elderly Americans so they can live safely and independently in their own homes.One day soon, a cellular telephone will detect any new quaver in the voice, and a cuff link will notice any worrisome change of gait.Eventually a talking computer screen will tell the elderly whether they should take an aspirin for a headache -- considering their 12 or 16 or 20 other medications.Yesterday’s science fiction is tomorrow’s assisted living, say prognosticators now watching 77 million baby boomers grow old.The boomers' wish to age independently has businesses jumping in with a host of new products and services. The businesses include giants such as Intel and Pfizer as well as Minnesota enterprises such as Shoreview-based Ecumen, a nonprofit with senior housing centers in 80 communities, and HealthSense in Mendota Heights, which sells a monitoring system it calls eNeighbor.And for good reason: One projection has the digital home-health market growing 36 percent a year, to $2.1 billion in 2010. And the United States is behind Europe and Japan when it comes to developing such technologies.To help new technology reach Minnesota seniors, Rep. Joe Atkins, DFL-Inver Grove Heights, plans to introduce a bill Monday with tax credits of up to $1,000 for assistive technologies -- everything from telephone amplifiers to devices yet to be imagined -- that help them stay in their homes.Early alertsIn June 2005, Ecumen put motion sensors called QuietCare in the rooms of six of its residents, spokesman Eric Schubert said. That number is now more than 600.The sensors figure out a resident’s daily routine, and any deviation sends a computer message to the housing staff. The extra monitoring can keep residents longer in assisted living and out of nursing homes, for example, Schubert explained.Ecumen also plans to sell the monitoring service beyond its walls to elderly residents looking for a little support to stay in their homes.One of the first QuietCare clients at Ecumen’s Lakeview Commons in Maplewood was Honor Hacker, 81, a retired high school teacher who has been at the assisted-living center since June 2004. Six devices, each slightly smaller than an eyeglasses case, are placed high on a wall in each room, as well as in refrigerators and medication containers in each apartment.You’re completely unaware that they’re there,' Hacker said.But once last year, the sensors reported little movement in Hacker’s apartment -- unusual for the busy retiree, center director Wendy Traffie said -- which triggered quick follow-up treatment for an upper respiratory infection.That’s especially important for Hacker, who has asthma.For families looking to install a motion-detection system in a home, the going rate is between $200 and several thousand dollars plus $60 to $100 a month in monitoring fees, according to Bryan Fuhr, one of the owners at HealthSense.HealthSense’s eNeighbor product went on sale last June, and most have been installed in Twin Cities homes, Fuhr said. The eNeighbor system is set up to first call the client at home if the sensors pick up anything unusual.If the client answers and says, 'Everything’s fine,' that’s the end of it, Fuhr said. Otherwise, the system proceeds down a list of pre-designated contacts: a neighbor, then a son or daughter, then 911, for example.HealthSense is developing a variation on this for the Defense Department for use by people with traumatic brain injuries, he said.High technologyHelping the trend along is boomers' comfort with technology.In an Ecumen survey of almost 600 Minnesotans ages 42 to 60, nine in 10 said that they use the Internet and that they expect technology to help them live longer and more independently, Schubert said.'People of all ages are not afraid of technology any more,' said Cecelia Horwitz, executive director of the Center for Future Health in New York, which published a 2007 report titled 'Self Care’s Promising Future.'What they are afraid of is that there’s more data about them so the insurance companies might cut them off,' she said. 'That’s a big issue.'Another issue is regulatory hurdles slowing down research and development in this country, said Kathy Bakkenist, an Ecumen vice president and public policy chair of the Center for Aging Services Technologies, an industry and research consortium.'Intel right now is setting up to test a series of products in Ireland, because they cannot get permission to test [them] in the United States,' Bakkenist said.She expects that Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman and Rep. Jim Ramstad soon will introduce a bill in Congress to support a two-year study to promote the potential of assistive technology.What that technology will be is the subject of many imaginations now.A 'virtual dining table' is being developed that can connect distant family and friends with real-time video and sound, Horwitz said. It’s companionship for people living alone, and helps to ensure they don’t skip meals.Also in the works is 'Chester, the Talking Pill,' an animated character on a computer screen, Horowitz said. If elderly users aren’t feeling good, the computer will know all their medications and possible side effects.'The system can even be intuitive,' she said. 'If you ask if you can take some aspirin, it can say, 'Your doctor says you can take Tylenol.' Then the system will ask, 'Why? Do you have a headache?' and even, 'On a scale of 1 to 10, how bad is your headache?' 'Feed that computer readings such as blood pressure or heart rate, collected by tiny monitors in earrings or a belt or a shirt, and 'Chester' could announce: 'Have a glass of water. You’re dehydrated,' Horwitz said.All that technology promotes more self-care, which keeps people independent, she said.'You don’t want to create a need for more doctors,' Horwitz said. 'You want to empower patients to take care of themselves as much as possible.'
Kathryn Roberts: Let’s not drown in the silver tsunami
Posted in the Star TribuneNew public policies and products can help Minnesota to ride the age wave. Kathryn Roberts Lotions hide aging. Phrases such as senior moment' disparage it. And many policymakers put it off. That won’t work much longer. In 2020, Minnesota will have 1 million people over age 65 vs. 69,000 in 1950. Those 85-plus will be the fastest-growing group. Who will pay for their care? Absent change, it will largely be Medicaid at a cost of $20 billion to Minnesota by 2050. And that’s only part of it. Alzheimer’s disease costs businesses more than $36 billion nationally in caregivers' lost productivity. Every 1 percent decrease in family caregiving drains another $30 million from the state. Half of Minnesotans find possibilities of paying for long-term care a major problem, according to a recent Citizens League poll. Yet more than 60 percent say we should collectively take greater responsibility in public problem-solving. Doing exactly that, we can ride the age wave rather than drowning beneath it. Statistics are overwhelming, but focus comes easier when considering this: As humans we’re hard-wired to live where we want, in communities we call home, among people we love. Yet public policy does the opposite, guaranteeing care that we can’t adequately fund in segregated institutions where many people don’t want to live. A better way sought by a bipartisan group of legislators called the 2020 Conference is to adopt a Vermont initiative that allows Medicaid-eligible people to pay a family member or friend for care in one’s own home rather than in an institution. Also proposed are tax credits to aid technology purchases, such as unobtrusive home sensors that send activity updates to a caregiver’s cell phone, identifying small problems before they grow. This keeps Medicaid for those truly in need. The rest of us must realize that financial planning can’t end with the kid’s tuition or final mortgage payment. We must share solutions to live where we want, how we want. Today the most feasible ways of doing that are personal savings or insurance. In relatively short time, thousands of Minnesotans joined the state’s 529 college savings program. Public education efforts targeted and educated them. Lessons are there for long-term care. State policymakers and the insurance industry, for example, could help make long-term care insurance more accessible, understandable and easier to purchase. First, let’s abandon the name 'long-term care.' If a person needs such care -- and many people don’t -- they typically need it only for a year or two. Plus it screams decline. Aging is about living, even at death. Second, we need products that easily fit in lifetime financial planning. Potential approaches include adding care coverage as a rider to basic health or disability coverage, permitting Minnesotans to join the current state employees care insurance plan, or creating hybrid combo products, such as a life coverage product where unused life insurance pays for care. Finally, we need an aggressive marketing campaign similar to that on college savings and a Minnesota website where people can bypass complexities and easily compare and purchase state-endorsed insurance plans. In Minnesota, every youngster should be ready for kindergarten, be able to afford college and then live proudly where they want as an older adult. From beginning to end, we’re in this together.Kathryn Roberts is CEO of Ecumen, which is Minnesota’s largest nonprofit senior housing company.
Ecumen Joins Commercial Equity Partners to Propose Lifestyle Community for Seniors Adjacent to Woodwinds Health Campus in Woodbury
SHOREVIEW, MINN., (January 23, 2007) €“ Ecumen, Minnesota’s largest non-profit senior housing company, has joined with Commercial Equity Partners, developer of Woodbury’s Tamarack Hills Business Lifestyle CampusTM, to propose a new lifestyle community for seniors who want to live in Woodbury.The proposed development, called Crestwood Creek, would focus on meeting people’s desires for lifestyle housing that provides convenience, a strong sense of community, a variety of services, wellness opportunities that energize mind, body and spirit, and easy access to leading medical care. Crestwood Creek would be built adjacent to Woodwinds Health Campus. To advance a proposal, the City of Woodbury must allow a lifestyle community for seniors on the 23-acre parcel, rather than a medical office building. The land is currently under a moratorium, which members of the City Council will examine in a February 27th City Council workshop meeting.“Our customers are telling us that they want housing that allows them to live life on their terms in communities that they love,” said Steve Ordahl, Ecumen’s senior vice president of business development. “They desire places to live that allow them to live independently and fully as possible, but that also provide easy access to medical care when needed. These are very different from retirement communities that have been built in the past in Minnesota. We envision a development that will fit very well with Woodbury’s strategy of building a high-quality, well-planned, livable community for all ages. ”As currently planned, the Crestwood Creek development would include independent living, assisted living, a wellness center with fitness center, spa and aquatic therapy, transitional care and memory care. Amenities would include concierge services, an on-site post office, bank, general store and regular transportation to Woodwinds and other areas of the community. The site also would feature a primary care clinic/medical office building with an emphasis in geriatric medicine.“We chose Ecumen because of a shared commitment to create a quality of life for seniors and provide quality jobs in Woodbury,” said Bill Knutson, vice president, healthcare/senior living properties for Commercial Equity Partners. “Ecumen is a leader in this new approach to €˜aging in place’. We believe that Healtheast’s Woodwinds Health Campus has €˜set the stage’ for 21st century hospital care and, after hearing Woodwinds’ goals for future development of its campus, we are proud to partner with Ecumen to align Crestwood Creek with that vision for the benefit of Woodbury residents.”Ecumen (www.ecumen.org) is based in Shoreview. It provides a variety of housing choices and services for people 50+. The name Ecumen comes from the Greek word for “home”, which is “Oikos.” Ecumen works to create “home” for older adults wherever they choose to live. Ecumen, which is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), has 4,000 team members who provide housing options and services in approximately 100 communities in the Upper Midwest. It was named in 2005 and 2006 as one of the “Great Places to Work” in Minnesota by The Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal.Commercial Equity Partners a growing forward-thinking commercial real estate developer based in the Twin Cities offering properties, services and consulting. Commercial Equity Partners specializes in wellness based retirement communities and Business Lifestyle Campuses. For more information on Commercial Equity Partners, visit www.cepcompanies.com .
New to Market - Exercise Program for the Mind
Posted in the StarTribuneShoreview-based Ecumen, an operator of independent and assisted living housing, care centers and home health care, has initiated a six-month pilot project at its Lakeview Commons facility in Maplewood to test a new cognitive fitness program.' Ecumen is using the mPower Cognitive Fitness system from Dakim Inc. of Santa Monica, Calif., to help customers reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.Dakim believes that regularly exercising the mind is the key to memory and mental function. Using a touch-screen interface, mPower has thousands of exercises featuring colorful images and generational-specific references including movie clips from the '30s and '40s. The program feels like a game but the questions have been designed to address cognitive processes from memory to computation to critical thinking and life skills.Ecumen is one of 11 senior housing companies nationally (the only one in Minnesota) testing the program. Ecumen has enrolled about 30 residents in the new cognitive program and will evaluate the program over the next six months before rolling it out to its more than 100 communities.PATRICK KENNEDY