The Sharks are Circling
I’m tired of the fear tactics incurred by all the business minded do-gooders in the senior care industry businesses trying to find ways to sell, sell, sell. Bring on the fear, so we can all make money.
We are warned to be afraid of falling, getting old, disease, looking bad, children ripping us off, being taken advantage of by insurance agents, financial specialists, mortgage brokers and scam artists, driving, wrong diagnosis, Medicare/Medi-Cal liens, not being able to see or hear, losing our minds, making mistakes with our medications, not taking our medications, being medicated at all, probate, courts, being put on machines, and most of all dying. The entire senior care business is being promoted and driven by fear. And, if you don’t buy a particular service or product…things will only get worse.
Seniors are different than the rest of us. They even have their own name…”seniors.” That defines the separation of both type and character. A “senior” isn’t me…it’s someone else. Until, of course, I get that age and suddenly become someone else.
When did getting old get so complicated? Where did all these “helping experts” come from?
Well…many have come into senior care to make money, earn a living, have a successful life. And, when other businesses failed or suffered with the recent economic downturn, they market forecasters told them, “thar’s gold in them thar old.”
And gold there is. Ten years ago, in my community, there were two home care agencies. Today, there are over 26 agencies. I’m not convinced that in one decade we’ve seen thousands of people suddenly succumb to age, illness and fraility. I sense somehow that having these services also works to increase the need. Build it, and they will come. And, the more they build, the more incentives need to be developed for people to actually be led to and pay for these services.
So, let’s pay people for “leads.” Now, we have referral agencies, “experts in senior care,” driving business to home care agencies, assisted living centers, attorneys, mortgage brokers etc. Referrals have become a business all on their own.
We’re selling access to old people the way to we sell leads to sell garage doors. And, why not? As the economy fails in one sector (banking, real estate, mortgage sales), it’ll boom in the anticipation of an aging marketplace, and in this case, business practices that follow one industry are blindly applied to the next.
Nowadays, the aging human being is a commodity… to be traded and bartered for a profit to be had by all the traders. No kidding. Gifts, luncheons, trips, and service trades are all par for the course and businesses pledge gifts and money to referral sources in order to gain access to a referral that can easily bring in $100,000 or more worth of revenue in less than a year.
Would it make a difference if you knew that the “best” assisted living retirement home was actually kicking back a referral fee of $2,000 to the so-called self defined expert making that referral?
It’s the gold rush heyday of aging as corporations, brokers, placement agencies referral services and all sorts of sudden self- proclaimed “experts” jump into the field to direct the unknowing public to the “right service,” at the “right time.” Except, those unsuspecting members of the public don’t know that palms are being greased all the way down the line with the final receiver awaiting the jackpot to make the sales goal defined by a corporate honcho several states away.
When a marketing director hangs the phone up in my ear for “interfering” on a referral when I question the validity of transferring a legally blind, 93-year-old woman who is at the end of her life, into a 70-bed facility with no low vision accommodations, I wonder who is protecting consumers from the fear mongers determined to make monthly sales quotas and keep their job for another quarter?
Because the reality is, that I’m not 90 years old today, but I hope to be so one day. Be forewarned that I will be warily suspicious of all the money grabbers waiting for this aging baby boomer to hit the skids so that my pockets can be emptied into their ever-hungry coffers.

That’s why we’re called Born To Age.   Our business is about all of us…not just seniors,  or “them” that are different than us.  How do we want our world to look as WE age?

That’s why we publish the directories…so people can see everything that’s available and make appropriate choices based on personal preference.  And,  we can also see what’s missing in caring for ourselves as we age….

Your comments are much appreciated…write to us on the world you want to see as you grow older…