The Business of Aging

SeniorCareMarketer.com to Benefit Companies That Market to Older Americans

Fisher Vista, LLC, the firm that owns the successful HRmarketer.com, has announced plans to release a similar product aimed at the rapidly growing senior care industry and named SeniorCareMarketer.com. The service will be released in the first quarter of 2008.

SeniorCareMarketer.com will offer the senior care industry the same marketing benefits and services that its sister product, HRmarketer.com, offers the human resource industry: the ability to generate publicity, website traffic, sales leads and improved search engine rankings. HRmarketer.com, launched in 2002, is the largest marketing and public relations firm in the human resource marketplace.

Like HRmarketer.com, SeniorCareMarketer.com will combine databases of marketing and public relations opportunities with press release distribution, campaign management, and social networking services. A full range of Internet marketing PR and SEO services will also be available to customers.

The diverse senior care market comprises many buyers and purchasing influencers of products and services relating to the care of older adults, including hospitals, doctors, nurses, case managers, home care agencies, residential facilities, physical therapists financial planners – and even the seniors themselves. All are typically involved in the care of an older adult, and marketers of these products and services want to influence these potential buyers.

Individuals interested in learning more about SeniorCareMarketer.com can visit www.SeniorCareMarketer.com. 

Investing in Skilled Nursing aka Real Estate

In our recent posting  Private Equity Likes the Senior Care Market, we discussed the private equity firm Carlyle Group's $6.3 billion purchase of Manor Care.

Well, the Washington Post on Monday ran an article titled For Carlyle, a Deal on Demographics that discusses how this deal is also about real estate.  Interesting article.

But the primary motivation for the investment is the aging Boomer population (more than 60 million boomer's preparing to retire) according to the Carlyle Group's strategists who say

"You are taking advantage of the favorable demographics," said Karen H. Bechtel, a Carlyle Group managing director who heads its health-care practice. "We believe this is really coming. You are going to serve more patients and have the capability to serve more patients and improve your business."

Former NYC Mayor Ed Koch Argues for Home Care

In a recent Opinion piece for the Long Island Newsday, former Mayor of NYC Ed Koch writes "The new....Congress needs to restore the priority of home health care for senior citizens."

According to Koch, while spending for Medicare home health care spending has decreased since 2000, spending on nursing home care has increased by several billion dollars even though home care "is far cheaper" and offers a "higher quality of life" than nursing home care.

The reason (according to Koch)?  Because the home care industry (typically composed of small health employment agencies) does not "have nearly the lobbying power of big institutions like the nursing home industry and the hospitals."

Koch writes:

None of this makes common sense. Home care allows the elderly who have become frail to maintain their dignity and independence, sleep in their own beds, use their own kitchens and stay in the house they have long enjoyed (or in the house of a child or relative) - unless their condition deteriorates to the point where moving into an institution is absolutely necessary.

I must agree with Mr. Koch.  Home care is far cheaper than alternatives like nursing homes. Yet, even long term insurance companies pay less per day for home care than they do for nursing homes.  It just does not make sense.

But I am optimistic this will all change - soon.  The Baby Boomer's  are fast becoming caregivers for their parents and they (Boomer's) will likely have as much impact on the institution of aging as they have on so many other institutions.

Private Equity Likes the Senior Care Market

The Carlyle Group is taking national skilled nursing and assisted living facility operator Manor Care private in a $6.3 billion deal that pays stockholders $67 per share. 

This deal follows the recent $1.43 billion acquisition of nursing home operator Genesis HealthCare .

Analysts say both deals were triggered by the perception that elder care-oriented businesses can only get more valuable as the baby boomer generation continues to age.

We agree.

Will House Style Nursing Homes Replace Larger Counterparts?

An article on Scientific American discusses how residents of small nursing homes appear better satisfied than do residents of traditional large nursing homes. Measurements included meaningful activity, relationships, comfort, a sense of security, dignity, individuality and privacy, and food.

These small-house nursing homes (4 houses of 10 residents each)

contain private bedrooms and bathrooms, residential-style kitchens, and communal dining and sitting areas.  They are staffed with the same professionals  as traditional nursing homes except they tend to use nursing assistants to provide cooking, housekeeping, personal laundry, and personal care to residents.

Do You Want a Shake with those Alzheimers Drugs?

MSNBC ran an article in June titled Milkshake drug nourishes Alzheimer's brains discussing how "Drinking a milkshake-style medicine at breakfast seems to feed brain cells starved from Alzheimer's disease". The milkshake drug is called Ketasyn, made by Accera, and "offers an alternate food source to rev up those hungry neurons" according to researchers. Accera said the shake is a a co-therapy and not a drug intended to stop Alzheimer’s.

Most of the other promising AD drugs (designed to stop AD) in Pharma pipelines focus on getting rid of the sticky plaque called beta-amyloid that clog up patients’ brains by degrading the neurons (nerve cells) in the brain.  The article on MSNBC discusses some of these drugs in the pipeline.