As value-based care continues to reshape healthcare and senior living, experts discussed evolving models and what it means for senior living operators at the 2025 National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care’s Spring Conference in San.

The rise of value-based care in senior living reflects a “sea of change” in the industry over the past five years, according to Bob Kramer, co-founder and strategic adviser, who introduced the panelists for the Thursday session.

Value-based care is the services delivery model that strives for better health outcomes, shifting the care delivery mindset from sick care to well care, the experts said. Brian Fuller, ATI Advisory managing director of value-based care design and delivery practice, said it is about serving the whole individual and all of a person’s needs, including health-related social needs, healthcare delivery services and augmentative services, including food, nutrition, housing and transportation.

Value-based care is the only solution on the table to systemically change healthcare, he said, adding that it presents a revenue growth opportunity for investors. For senior living operators, value-based care offers improved health and resident satisfaction and has the potential to increase resident length of stay, the panelists said.

Stakeholders interested in finding ways to improve healthcare — be they payers, providers or families — place senior living operators in a unique position since they interact with aging older adults everyday, according to Larry Leisure, Chicago Pacific Founders co-founder and managing partner. Artificial intelligence, remote patient monitoring and technology advances are going to enable senior living operators to deliver more services with less friction, he said.

Bickford Senior Living President Andy Eby, who is also a partner in the Senior Living Transformation Company and co-founder of the Serviam Care Network, likened senior living to the character Cousin Eddy from “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” — the weird guy that shows up in a trailer with not much to offer.

“It’s what we are in the overall healthcare ecosystem,” Eby said. “There is so much more healthcare happening in my community, but I feel like as an operator, I’m paying for it.”

Bickford, he added, set up a transformation center to incubate ideas, to prototype projects and take tangible actions inside its communities. As an operator, Eby said, it’s his responsibility to prove to payers and insurance companies what senior living can do and how it can drive outcomes. He said he views value-based care as a new way to differentiate his company in the marketplace and provide proactive healthcare to residents.

Eby said the senior living industry is caring for the population responsible for the most healthcare spending.

“We have to show up as operators, take more responsibility for the outcomes happening inside our communities,” Eby said, adding that operators can’t wait for someone else to step up.

Value-based care, he said, is almost like an invitation to a more proactive health model, moving from a reactive sick care system to a proactive healthcare system. He called it a gift to move from defense to offense, requiring a more aggressive style of leadership to push the limits of what operators are able to do inside their own organizations.

“There’s this huge culture shift that happens in an organization to move to a more offensive role,” Eby said. “Peole are looking for a place to start. There is no place to start — you are the place to start.”

Fuller said this conversation was made in the hospital sector 15 years ago, noting that the hospitals that succeeded dove into their organizations, the market, and created their own opportunities. He encouraged senior living operators to “get on the road” by creating a strategy and a roadmap.

“You can’t get there if you don’t get started,” Fuller said. “It’s incumbent on you to take control.”

Eby agreed, saying it’s all about simplifying the process.

“There is no path. You make the path by walking,” Eby said. “Get your ass moving.”