Five Questions With: Glenn Kaplan

GLENN KAPLAN is president and CEO of Kaplan Development Group, which recently opened its first All American Assisted Living facility in Rhode Island. / COURTESY ALL AMERICAN ASSISTED LIVING
GLENN KAPLAN is president and CEO of Kaplan Development Group, which recently opened its first All American Assisted Living facility in Rhode Island. / COURTESY ALL AMERICAN ASSISTED LIVING

Glenn Kaplan is president and CEO of Kaplan Development Group and its affiliate, All American Assisted Living, a for-profit entity that recently opened its first Rhode Island senior living community in Warwick. In addition to assisted living units and memory units for those with Alzheimer’s, the facility offers its Optimal Living Program, which includes a full-time rehabilitation consultant and exercise physiologist to help residents manage health conditions by increasing strength, mobility and balance, in an effort to reduce the likelihood of falls, injuries and hospitalizations. Kaplan talked with Providence Business News about All American Assisted Living’s new senior living community in Rhode Island.

PBN: This is All American Assisted Living’s first foray into Rhode Island; what was the thought process behind siting a senior living community in Warwick near Kent Hospital?

KAPLAN: In our search for an opportunity in Rhode Island, we found that the Warwick area presented great demographics and opportunity for All American Assisted Living’s unique model. Being near a hospital is always a plus from a visibility standpoint, but also from a professional partnership perspective. Kent Hospital has a longstanding relationship with the greater Warwick community, and locating our senior living community nearby was a great opportunity to create a natural progression of services for seniors near Kent Hospital’s campus. Allowing our residents to have such immediate access to the hospital’s current health care providers and specialists provides a sense of comfort to residents and their families.

PBN: Tell us about the community; how many individuals or couples can it accommodate?

- Advertisement -

KAPLAN: Our community is comprised of both traditional assisted living apartments and our Rose Lane memory care program. If each suite is rented individually, we can accommodate 112 individuals. Our model has a higher percentage of couples than is the case with most assisted living communities. One individual of a couple may have some health issues or care needs, while the other is much more independent. Our model allows us to provide that assistance and allow the couple to thrive as a husband and wife, with neither partner having to serve as the other’s caretaker.

PBN: Describe the shared-suite concept and the Optimal Living Program, and their anticipated benefits?

KAPLAN: Our shared suite concept, with two-bedroom apartments, allows us to reduce the building size, and we pass on those reduced construction costs as savings to our residents and their families. We first developed the concept to provide the same quality amenities and benefits to our residents and their families at a lower price point; we’ve found that the social benefits residents receive through close relationships with their suite mates and knowing our staff members well has resulted in higher resident engagement and satisfaction.

The Optimal Living Program proactively addresses health care, in contrast to our nation’s health care, which is mostly reactive. We are beginning to see a national shift in this, but we want to be ahead of the curve. Our Optimal Living Program in Warwick offers several benefits, including a full-time physical therapist and a full-time exercise physiologist on-site; progressive and customized wellness classes and cognitive classes for residents with varying levels of dementia. In addition, residents’ strength, mobility, balance and quality of life are regularly monitored, evaluated and treated. Our caregivers regularly communicate with one another to ensure continuity of care and they receive regular in-service training.

Insurance-approved physical therapy is traditionally prescribed after someone falls, breaks a hip, is hospitalized and receives rehabilitation/physical therapy. We believe that elderly people should receive ongoing physical therapy to build up core strength and improve balance to prevent falls. In our communities with our Optimal Living Program, we’ve seen, on average, a 42 percent reduction in falls.

The average person, 82 or older, in the United States only gets about 42 seconds per day of what is considered to be exercise; our residents, with a 92+ percent participation rate, average 150 minutes and more of exercise each week.

PBN: Describe the financial structure; do residents buy their unit outright or pay rent; what other fees residents might be assessed?

KAPLAN: We prefer to divert our efforts to include blue-collar and middle-class residents and families along with the upper-class clientele, whom most of our competitors focus on recruiting. By having fees that are lower than those of our competitors, we are proud to bring our brand of assisted living – without cutting any services, quality or amenities – to a wider group of individuals. This enables allowing All American Assisted Living to reflect the communities in which we operate. It is not a buy-in model, but an annual lease, with a 30-day notice clause to terminate the lease. One of our main differentiators is that we are an all-inclusive model; people know exactly what they will be paying one month to the next, and do not need to worry about additional costs for care, a la carte services and the like.

PBN: Are there insurance policies ¬ such as Medicaid, Medicare, commercial health insurance or long-term care insurance – that help defray the costs?

KAPLAN: Yes, we work with many long-term care insurance plans that cover some or all of the monthly fees at the community for residents and their families. We are starting to see more and more of our residents coming to us with long-term care insurance policies, and we work closely with these companies to get approval for residency for their clients. Also, we work closely with the Veterans Administration and help not only veterans, but also their surviving spouses, to access the Aid and Attendance Benefit, which can cover nearly half of the monthly costs of living at the All American Assisted Living in Warwick. We are happy to meet individuals and discuss with them what programs or insurances they might have to help them access the benefits of living at All American Assisted Living.

No posts to display