LifeSpire of Virginia, Pinnacle Living Form Home-Based Care Joint Venture

Two senior living providers — LifeSpire of Virginia and Pinnacle Living — have teamed up to provide home-based care services through a new joint venture agreement. The partnership comes at a time when more senior living providers are incorporating home-based care into their service lines, a trend that hasn’t played out too well in the past.

Richmond-based LifeSpire of Virginia is a senior living provider that manages four continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs) with 1,300 residents throughout the Old Dominion state.

Meanwhile, Pinnacle Living is a Glen Allen, Virginia-based senior living provider that offers assisted living and memory support residences. The company operates five communities and serves 1,100 residents.

The newly formed organization has been named Senior Living Partners of Virginia LLC (SLP). William Mayes has been brought on to serve as SLP’s CEO. Prior to joining, Mayes was the senior vice president at WesleyLife in Des Moines, Iowa.

The decision to form SLP was inspired by demographic trends and the goal of increasing care options for residents, Mayes told Home Health Care News.

“You have 70 million baby boomers who are starting to age, and the more that population ages, it increases the need for these kinds of services — home-based care,” he said. “They’ve had outside services coming into their communities all along, and they see there’s an opportunity for them to offer that kind of service to help fulfill residents’ needs.”

Talks to form SLP began a few years ago, when the two providers recognized the similarities between their organizations.

“These are two large continuous care communities in the state of Virginia with very long-standing histories,” Mayes said. “They’ve each been in business for over 70 years. They’re both faith-based not-for-profit organizations, and they started talking about how similar they are and how they wanted to expand their mission.”

The Senior Living Partners of Virginia model

Through the agreement, SLP will deliver skilled home health services, as well as custodial care. SLP will initially offer these services in the greater Richmond, Newport News and Williamsburg areas.

For now, SLP plans to focus on serving the residents in the LifeSpire of Virginia and Pinnacle Living, with plans to eventually extend home-based care services to the surrounding communities at large.

“The bigger picture is the aging population and how we can help them maintain their independence, wherever they call home, whether it’s their personal home or a community like LifeSpire of Virginia or Pinnacle Living,” Mayes said. “We’re going to support them and help keep them as healthy as we can to prevent hospitalizations.”

Additionally, SLP has also completed its purchase of Williamsburg Landing Home Health and has acquired its existing assets, including state and federal home health licenses and certifications. The company will function as a subsidiary of SLP and operate under the name Affirmation Home Health.

While home-based care is new territory for Pinnacle Living, LifeSpire of Virginia dipped its toe in the water back in 2019.

Back then, the company launched Lakewood at Home, a continuing care at home program that helped seniors age in place. As part of the program, members pay a monthly membership fee for home care and other services.

This prior experience has come in handy for SLP when it comes to staffing. The company will take on the Lakewood at Home staff already in place, with plans to grow the team as needed.

Emerging trends and potential pitfalls

In general, SLP falls in line with the trend of senior living providers entering the home-based care space. Senior living providers have been especially interested in offering private-pay home care.

This is often a response to the increased demand for home-based care, as seniors prefer to remain in their homes and communities. In fact, 90% of seniors want to stay at home for as long as they can, according to data from the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) and AARP Public Policy Institute.

Aside from SLP, some examples of senior living providers moving into the home-based care space include Bickford Senior Living, Senior Resource Group and Holiday Retirement. Five Star Senior Living (Nasdaq: FVE) likewise plans to grow its home health business, according to a June report from Senior Housing News.

Overall, more than half of the U.S.’s largest nonprofit senior living organizations offer some sort of home- and community-based services (HCBS), according to the LZ 200 list.

One reason home-based care services are appealing to senior living providers is that they allow operators to build up in-house referrals, where clients may begin receiving care in their own homes, then move into a community down the line, if necessary.

Home care and senior living also have similarities around private-pay revenue models, which are typically used in independent living and assisted living.

Still, there are plenty of challenges for senior living providers that want to deliver home-based care. And many of the operators that have tried to launch HCBS lines in the past have failed.

One of the biggest obstacles is staffing.

Even the most experienced home-based care providers suffer staffing woes, as workforce shortages persist. The median turnover rate among private-duty home care providers was 65.2% in 2020, according to the Home Care Pulse Benchmarking Report.

There are also key differences in what home care and senior living workers value. For example, home care workers tend to value scheduling flexibility, while senior living workers often value consistency, SHN noted in its recent report.

Mayes believes that senior living’s biggest challenge is understanding the difference between the two industries. Home-based care and senior living providers deliver care to similar populations, but they have very different operational platforms, he emphasized.

Before jumping into home-based care, senior living providers should conduct the appropriate amount of market research and form relationships with the established industry experts, Mayes said.

“I think studying the market is really important,” he said. “Utilizing people who have the knowledge of the industry that you’re interested in getting into is important. Make sure you’re looking at building out a very strong plan and base of operations. Make sure you have strong guidance or counsel before you just jump into it.”