Minnix: Providers need to innovate to stay in business

The current policies of the Affordable Care Act push innovation, which is crucial to the success of the long-term care industry, LeadingAge President and CEO Larry Minnix told McKnight's.

“We have to look at their policy objectives, not their politics,” he said of the presidential candidates during an interview McKnight's Editorial Director John O'Connor at LeadingAge's national convention this week. That said, the Romney-Ryan plan would push cuts for “important programs for our members,” specifically Medicaid and low-income housing, whereas the ACA has avenues for long-term care reform that would include accountable care organizations and bundled payment.

“We're telling our members ‘get to the table,” he said of ACOs. “You'll either be a bundler or a bundlee. Get in the game.”

Minnix added that innovations such as Green Houses and neighborhood models of nursing home of care are the products of nonprofit innovation.

“It's not widely known that the not-for-profit sector tends to be the sector that produces innovative ideas because they're not profitable,” Minnix said, adding that LeadingAge members “are the crucibles of innovation.”