Juniper Communities’ Connect4Life care coordination model soon will be finding its way into senior living communities across the country under the terms of a new five-year licensing agreement between the Bloomfield, NJ-based operator and Richmond, VA-based Medicare Advantage plan developer and administrator AllyAlign Health.
The partnership with Juniper gives AllyAlign exclusive rights to implement Connect4Life as the foundation for its Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services-approved care model as part of the company’s Medicare Advantage plans nationwide. Juniper will retain the right to continue using Connect4Life in its communities and future partner locations.
Connect4Life integrates onsite primary care, pharmacy and lab services with social supports and residential care in an effort to improve outcomes and save money. An independent analysis released in 2017 found that the program resulted in 50% lower inpatient hospitalization rates, more than 80% lower readmission rates and 15% lower emergency department use for Juniper residents compared with Medicare beneficiaries who did not live in Juniper communities but had similar conditions.
Juniper and AllyAlign already have been working together on the Perennial Consortium, an operator-owned Medicare Advantage network that includes additional founding members Christian Living Communities and Ohio Living as well as other partners. Perennial uses the Connect4Life care model as a foundation for its plans, for which enrollment will begin a year from now, with coverage effective Jan. 1, 2021.
Read more about this remarkable partnership in this article in McKnight’s Senior Living.