In this episode, we explore how Eventide Senior Living Communities is transforming the post acute and senior living experience by investing in its most valuable asset—its people. Joined by Kayla Linn, Chief People Office from Eventide and Gavin Reeg, Healthcare Solutions Consultant from UKG, we discuss how leveraging UKG's AI-driven, people first solutions helped Eventide boost employee engagement, improve efficiencies, including significant time savings with PBJ reporting, and ultimately enhanc...
Jun 18, 2025•27 min•Ep. 246
As Tutera Senior Living and Health Care marks its 40th anniversary, President/COO Randy Bloom shares with McKnight's Senior Living Editor Lois A. Bowers how the company is meeting evolving resident expectations and the industry's ongoing challenges related to employee recruitment and retention, and he also discusses the organization's growth strategy and the country's increasing need for more affordable senior living options.
Jun 11, 2025•10 min•Ep. 245
While most long-term care providers understandably dread the staffing recruitment and retention problems that face virtually everyone in the business, there’s a different mindset at Tutera Senior Living & Health Care. They call staffing a “huge opportunity.” It’s the type of proactive optimism that has led Tutera, which manages 86 communities in 10 mostly Midwestern states, to rise up and embark on a year-long, multi-tiered 40th anniversary celebration. “Our outlook is very bright. We contin...
Jun 03, 2025•20 min•Ep. 244
In this episode of the Reimagining Senior Living and Long-Term Care series, Jim sits down with Allison Rainey, Head of Nursing and Clinical Informatics at MatrixCare, and Daniel Zhu, Vice President, Product Management at MatrixCare, to explore the concept of collaborative intelligence in modern care planning. Together, they dive into how the integration of human expertise with AI-powered insights is reshaping the care planning process—helping care teams make faster, more informed decisions while...
May 29, 2025•21 min
William Dombi has been too busy working on home care advocacy to relax during his retirement from the National Alliance for Care at Home, he told McKnight’s Home Care in a Newsmakers podcast. Besides working for the law firm Arnall Golden Gregory, he is the board of advisers for New Day Healthcare. With the federal administration honing in on fraud, waste and abuse, Medicaid and hospice are in the crosshairs. The field has been in such a predicament before. The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 brough...
May 15, 2025•20 min•Ep. 243
When you’ve worked from the statehouse to the governor’s mansion, to AARP’s executive offices to long-term care association leadership, one builds a rich reservoir of workplace wisdom. Joseph DeMattos Jr. is out to share insights he’s gained during a rich, decades-long career to help raise long-term care providers experiences and fortunes. In this special McKnight’s Newsmaker podcast, the former Healthcare Facilities of Maryland top executive gives his four keys to LTC success and offers ways th...
May 06, 2025•25 min•Ep. 242
One Senior Care, based in Erie, PA, serves seniors in Pennsylvania, eastern Kentucky and soon-to-be northeastern Ohio. Because its population base is rural, one of the unique services One Senior Care provides is driving to seniors’ homes and transporting them to PACE services, Chief Operating Officer Craig Worland said. One Senior Care’s promise is to do what it can to let seniors stay in their homes and communities. PACE is a bipartisan issue, Worland believes. Republicans and Democrats as well...
May 01, 2025•18 min•Ep. 241
Gene Hackman’s death offers a vivid example of the choices older adults and their family caregivers need to consider such as where to live and how to develop a network of support, Andrea Cohen, board chair of the Caregiver Action Network and founder of HouseWorks, said. Home care can play a role in these conversations, Anne Tumlinson, founder and CEO of ATI Advisory and founder of the family caregiver group Daughterhood, said. Home care must treat family caregivers as one of their key stakeholde...
Apr 24, 2025•19 min•Ep. 240
A new nationwide learning institute for nurse aides aims to be the turnkey pipeline for both newcomers to the long-term care sector and mid-career professionals. The CareForce Academy was unveiled earlier this month and will be accepting its first applicants in July. Its technical platform and curriculum are in place, says Lori Porter, the co-founder and CEO of the National Association for Health Care Assistants, in this edition of the McKnight’s Newsmaker’s podcast. Porter and others in the NAH...
Apr 22, 2025•22 min•Ep. 239
Nancy Kao, the executive director at the Life Care Services-managed The Forum at Rancho San Antonio in Cupertino, CA, was nominated and selected to receive a 2025 McKnight's Pinnacle Award based on her efforts related to workplace culture, employee retention, resident satisfaction, wellness, technology and more. In this Newsmaker's podcast, she shares insights gleaned over her 30-year career as well as her thoughts on the future of senior living and care. "We need to be the one driving changes. ...
Apr 17, 2025•18 min•Ep. 238
The healthcare landscape is shifting—fast. As the industry moves away from Fee-For-Service (FFS) and toward Value-Based Care (VBC), practice groups must rethink how they deliver and get paid for care. But making the leap isn’t just about changing contracts—it’s about transforming the way care is coordinated, risks are managed, and success is measured. In this episode, our expert panel breaks down what it takes to thrive in a value-based world.
Apr 10, 2025•22 min
The United States healthcare system will change more in the next 10 years than it has in the last 100. That is the thesis of a new book written by Paul Kusserow and David W. Johnson. The high cost of care and poor outcomes are helping to drive the transformation, Kusserow said. To improve the system, there needs to be more whole-person care, and care needs to migrate out of high-cost institutions such as hospitals. Home remains a suitable setting for care because it is the most efficient place t...
Apr 10, 2025•20 min•Ep. 237
The staff at Yates Center Health and Rehabilitation were riding high after learning in early March that their humble one-story nursing home in eastern Kansas was the state’s highest rated. The team had celebrated a third-straight five-star survey not long before. But an out-of-control grass fire that swept across the prairie the afternoon of March 14 dramatically changed the fortunes of the facility, its staff and residents. The fire encroached on the brick nursing home with little time to prepa...
Apr 08, 2025•11 min•Ep. 236
Optimism for the future and helpful advice for long-term care professionals who hope to advance were in deep supply recently when the 2025 McKnight’s Pinnacle Awards winners gathered to receive their honors. In this special installment of the McKnight’s Newsmakers Podcast, honorees David Gifford, MD, and nursing leader Robert Francis Amoloria give their thoughts on the makings of success — personally, professionally and for the sector in the years ahead. “I’m very optimistic,” says Amoloria, the...
Apr 01, 2025•23 min•Ep. 235
Education remains a barrier to hospice care, Rachel Jordan, director of legislative affairs and advocacy at Hospice of the Chesapeake, said. There is still a lot of fear and stigma surrounding the word hospice. The provider, which has four locations and recently began offering high-flow oxygen, tries to reassure people that hospice does not have to mean forgoing treatment. As a nurse practitioner, Jordan said her goal is to support the patient and family, improve the symptom burden and increase ...
Mar 27, 2025•20 min•Ep. 234
The new Lunder CareForce Institute makes no small plans: It aims to be a driving force behind solving the nation’s frontline healthcare worker shortage. Established by Hebrew SeniorLife, a Harvard Medical School-affiliate, the institute opened for business last week with sector veteran Tammy Retalic at the helm. It will employ a mix of technology and elite caregiving expertise, as well as online modules that inject experts into training and education cycles. The first nurse-aide students should ...
Mar 25, 2025•26 min•Ep. 233
The expansion of home- and community-based services has been an important milestone in the tenure of Margaret McDonald, associate vice president for the Center for Home Care Policy and Research at VNS Health. More work needs to be done to enforce the Omstead decision, a landmark case that found that people with disabilities have a right to receive supports in the community under certain conditions, said McDonald, one of this year’s McKnight’s Pinnacle Award winners. On the week of the 2025 Pinna...
Mar 20, 2025•17 min•Ep. 232
During Argentum’s recent Public Policy Institute in Washington, DC, Senior Vice President of Public Policy Maggie Elehwany and Vice President of Government Relations Paul Williams discussed Argentum’s legislative priorities for the 119th Congress, as well as updates to its public policy paper highlighting the value of assisted living.
Mar 19, 2025•18 min•Ep. 231
Investors in the seniors housing and care space have always seemed to make skilled nursing a second-thought customer. Now, however, the demographics have become so positive, even skilled nursing is enjoying more time in the spotlight — and it should for a long time to come. That’s according to Bill Kauffman, a senior principal at the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care, who keeps a close eye on skilled nursing matters. “The optimism is certainly here, for sure,” he told McK...
Mar 18, 2025•9 min•Ep. 230
Esther Cromwell founded the first Haven Family Care Home in 2005 after realizing her passion for older adults while helping a widowed neighbor. She began researching what goes into senior care facilities and realized more could be done. Today, Haven Family Care is Avendelle Assisted Living, with 18 locations in North Carolina and Virginia, serving as a bridge between home and skilled nursing care.
Mar 06, 2025•14 min•Ep. 229
In this episode of the Reimagining Senior Living and Long-Term Care series, Jim sits down with Allison Rainey, Head of Nursing and Clinical Informatics at MatrixCare, to discuss a side of technology that often gets overlooked–when is it too much? While technology plays a critical role in supporting staff, too many disconnected systems, overwhelming amounts of data, and inefficient workflows can lead to staff burnout rather than relief. Allison shares insights on how to ensure technology is truly...
Feb 24, 2025•24 min
R. Tamara Konetzka, PhD, the Louis Block Professor of Public Health Sciences at the University of Chicago, has been studying the intersection of Medicaid home- and community-based services (HCBS) and Medicare. Her research has found that when dual eligibles use Medicaid HCBS they are more likely to use home health versus skilled nursing facilities after hospitalizations. Konetzka also is fascinated by the idea that community-initiated home health serves as a frontier for a long-term care benefit...
Feb 13, 2025•20 min•Ep. 228
The Biden administration over the last three years spearheaded efforts to rein in Medicare Advantage plans’ use of prior authorizations to deny care and cut short coverage for nursing homes. But at the end, it also left some pretty substantial decisions on the table for the incoming Trump team — seen by many as pro-Medicare Advantage. In this episode, Nicole Fallon, vice president of integrated services and managed care for LeadingAge, breaks down what we know about the future of MA. First up: W...
Feb 04, 2025•23 min•Ep. 227
In this podcast episode, we dive deep into the world of practitioner efficiency and explore practical strategies for maintaining and enhancing it within your practice group. Laurie Bergeron, VP Product Management, PointClickCare, and Darcy Koehn, Chief Population Health Officer, Peak Healthcare, discuss specific strategies and tools, and the crucial role technology plays in streamlining workflows.
Jan 30, 2025•14 min
Matt Derrick, managing partner of Denver-based Confluent Senior Living, discusses baby boomers, supply and demand challenges, key growth markets and the future of senior living. "For 2026 and beyond, the sky is the limit for senior housing developers," he says.
Jan 30, 2025•14 min•Ep. 226
Medically Home, which provides a decentralized hospital-at-home program, has been in business over 10 years and has 20 health systems across 18 states. The Acute Hospital Care at Home waiver, instituted during the pandemic, has helped the company grow more swiftly, Medically Home CEO Graham Barnes said. Given that the Congressional Budget has scored the waiver budget-neutral, and it is popular among both Medicare beneficiaries and hospitals, he believes Congress will grant the waiver a five-year...
Jan 16, 2025•17 min•Ep. 225
Comfort Keepers, which has more than 600 locations in the United States and Canada, aims to “elevate the human spirit.” That mission permeates every aspect of the company's operations — from its approach to client care to its selection of franchises, according to Scott Oaks, vice president of franchise development for the companion and personal care company. To recruit and retain strong franchisees, the company puts an emphasis on its onboarding process. Franchisees walk caregivers through a fou...
Jan 09, 2025•20 min•Ep. 224
LeadingAge has formally asked the incoming presidential team to repeal the federal nursing home staffing mandate adopted by the Biden White House. “The staffing mandate, we are expecting it to be repealed, and we are asking the administration to repeal the staffing mandate,” said Janine Finck-Boyle, vice president of health policy and regulatory affairs for LeadingAge. “We have moved definitely in advocacy, and we’re looking at, hopefully, that will be what will happen.” Those efforts come as Le...
Dec 20, 2024•27 min•Ep. 223
Julie Ward, senior executive officer of public policy for The Arc, feels a strong sense of urgency to help protect the Medicaid program and its home- and community-based services (HCBS) from impending cuts. For people with disabilities, she noted, HCBS is a lifeline. If HCBS is cut, it will force people into institutions and cause hardships for families. The HCBS program is currently grappling with challenges including a waiting list of over 711,000 and a workforce shortage. Procedural challenge...
Dec 19, 2024•20 min•Ep. 222
Discover how senior care communities can prioritize resident and staff safety with dedicated emergency response solutions. In this episode, we explore the critical role of highly trained emergency dispatchers in delivering compassionate, reliable support—from elevator safety to risk mitigation—freeing nursing staff to focus on exceptional care while enhancing safety, reliability, and peace of mind for all.
Dec 16, 2024•12 min
