Reimagining Elder Care: The Green House Project

Categories: In The News, National Media Items

My hope would be that this is a profound wake-up call and an opportunity for policy makers, regulators and society at large to take a look and see that we’ve been warehousing [the elderly] for a long time. This pandemic has shone a light that we never had before. We need to establish a coalition of stakeholders – policy makers, regulators, providers — and tap into their expertise for what could work. We need to ensure we are looking at this systemically and that we don’t endeavor to apply quick fixes to make it better. We need to think about how did we get here and why did we think warehousing was OK?

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  • “A small but growing group of nursing homes are already implementing these changes. Collectively called ‘household models,’ these nursing homes have generated enthusiasm among diverse stakeholders and long-term care experts. Because of its scale and consistency across homes, the Green House approach has been the most frequently studied household model.”

  • “Alternatives to traditional nursing homes for older adults who cannot remain in their own homes has prompted interest in smaller, community-style facilities such as the Green House model. Staff are used more flexibly in the Green House model, and work with small clusters of residents; the model’s success, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, has attracted interest as an alternative to traditional nursing homes.

  • “The Center for Innovation and its Green House Project is promoting government incentives that support construction of modern, person-directed facilities through targeted grants or Medicaid rate increases. Providers in Arkansas and soon Ohio, for instance, receive Medicaid rate add-ons for private room nursing care.”

  • “Some suggestions included increasing state investment in home care, incentivizing a transition toward fewer-occupant rooms and Green House-style facilities, standardizing the Medicaid reimbursement system with data-based adjustments over time, increasing audits and financial transparency requirements for nursing homes, and building workforce pipelines into the sector through scholarships and more flexible training programs.”