There are nearly 70 million Boomers plus some 25 million sets of parents that have expressed a desire to stay in their homes as long as possible while they age. They also want the care and support delivered to them in a cost effective and efficient manner. The challenge here is that while 86% of Americans want to age in place, nearly 98% of the homes are not equipped for them to do that. Add to that mix of things the reality that hospital emergency rooms are going to quietly step out of the role default primary care provider and you have some interesting things to think about.

1. Digital Based Monitoring: Monitoring services for the elderly run the gamut from the “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” wristwatch type bracelet to more elaborate algorithmic microchip based services that compare current activities against stored pattern activities so as to alert the monitoring person (care giver or children) if a potentially harmful variance is occurring or has occurred. Recommended Action Step: Promote the use of these systems through pubic service ads. Give a tax credit for the purchase of the hardware and allow the monthly monitoring fees to be a deduction or a tax credit depending on the AGI of the user.
2.  Care Companion Certification: Two issues are boiling in the care companion industry: 1. No national Certification for workers or operators and 2. A huge shortage of qualified personnel. Care companion services and workers can take tremendous pressure off hospital resources and smaller communities by allowing most medical and care services to be performed at home. In addition, Physician Assistants can do most of the work that elder care physicians can do if properly directed. Recommended Action Step: Uniform state licensing, training, and registration requirements for care industry workers and operators. This can be accomplished with a state SRO (self regulatory organization).
3. Aging in Place Home Modifications: Many homes can be modified to allow the existing occupant to stay there much longer than is currently possible by designing a plan and implementing it around remodeling modifications to make the home senior friendly. Boomers are as big an audience for this as their parents. Contrary to popular belief, Boomers as a whole are not downsizing significantly as they age and are looking toward their later life home as a combination residence and assisted living. Recommended Action Step: Provide a tax credit equal to the amount spent on “senior friendly” modifications. Partner with the National Association of Home Builders to deepen and widen the qualifications for their “Certified Aging in Place Specialist” Designation.
4. Allowing up to 20K per year as a tax deduction for senior expenditures- Assuming the current tax code survives, an incentive, much like the Section 179 deduction could be utilized no matter what the AGI to encourage Boomers and their parents to deduct in the tax year in which they occurred all “ordinary and necessary” expenditures designed to make care and support easier for aging parents.Recommended Action Step: The current tax code is an amalgamation of special interest breaks and deductions.   Carving out a 20k deduction for seniors to assume more responsibility for themselves would not worsen the current mess. Loan packages could be assembled to allow seniors with sufficient equity in their homes to borrow against that equity to expend it on items like those discussed above.