We welcome Chuck Gehring, President and CEO LifeCare Alliance.

Throughout the episode, Chuck emphasizes the goal of keeping clients independent in their own homes and off waiting lists, emphasizing the importance of preventative measures and education.

He also touches on the challenges faced by seniors living on a limited income and their struggles with rising costs, especially during the summer months. With the growing number of seniors in Ohio and their significant voting power, Chuck discusses the upcoming presidential campaign and the focus on seniors as an important voting demographic. He also brings attention to the Medicaid reauthorization process and the potential loss of coverage for many if not reauthorized by August 2023.

Looking to the future, LifeCare Alliance aims to build an endowment to ensure its sustainability and prepare for the complex needs of the organization. Chuck also express concerns about training and retaining the next generation of staff.

Join us on this insightful episode of Looking Forward Our Way as we explore the challenges faced by those in need and the crucial work being done by LifeCare Alliance to provide assistance and support.

Here are the resources we mention in the podcast.

We would love to hear from you.

Give us your feedback, or suggest a topic, by leaving us a voice message.

Email us at hello@lookingforwardourway.com.

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And of course, everything can be found on our website, Looking Forward Our Way.

Recorded in Studio C at 511 Studios. A production of Circle270Media Podcast Consultants.

Copyright 2024 Carol Ventresca and Brett Johnson

We are looking forward our way from Studio C in the 511 studios in the Brewery District. That's just south of downtown Columbus, Ohio. Hi. This is Brett. One issue Carol and I have wanted to cover is the challenge of food insecurity, particularly with older adults But truly, with all families in Central Ohio.

Hello.

Thanks for having me. Yes. You know, we've got a lot to talk about today, but I think it would behoove us to hear a little bit more about you and your journey at LifeCare Alliance. Well, I've been the CEO of Life Care Alliance for 22 years this month, and

it's wonderful. Congratulations. But I well, yeah, they haven't fired me. So that's a good thing. But I started out. I I spent 20 plus years in for profit. I was with I I was an accounting undergrad at all the Ohio State University -- Go Bucks. -- and started in public accounting briefly and then spent the decade in the eighties. Or actually the decade of the 2 thousands because I'm only 29 years old. But, anyway, decade of the eighties with Anheuser Busch. And finance and operations. And then with a food service company for much of the nineties, but you know what happened, I was the person they sent oftentimes to talk to some of the nonprofits. I was not the philanthropy person. We didn't have 1 of those. But they'd go and say, hey. Find out what they need and what they want. Really? I and I was put on a lot of boards, especially at Anheuser. It was important that we were in the community because of the product we made. And I got to know the nonprofit community, and it was really interesting to me. And so 22 years ago, here I am. And I got here, and here I am. So I did go almost out of state to Xavier for an NBA, but I've been here. I grew up on the west side. I'm a hill topper. And so I've been here a long time. And -- Some incredible people on the hilltop. We've done a lot for our city. And I love it here, so I don't know that I need to live any place else. Wonderful. And that amazing way career path will take you. You don't even you know, you go school for 1 thing and all of a sudden you realize, oh, somebody will tell you. But you know what? In the 2 thousands, you're gonna be at a nonprofit doing this. You get no. That's what I'm going to school That's right. -- amazing. That's right. And I never thought of that because I was just trying to get up as high as I could at Anheuser Busch in the eighties, and we were prepared to move. I probably it was really dumb luck that I was not shipped off someplace. I got promoted a couple times right in Columbus. Which was a real oddity for Anheuser, my boss, who hired me, who I still talk to and love, moved 13 times. And but during the the time I had at Anheuser, we had 4 little kids. And

so we thought, oh, well, we better think about this a little bit. Wonderful. So and, you know, not too many people admit to being Columbusites,

being board and bred in Franklin County. Oh, I was I was born and bred on the hilltop, and I just think it's a wonderful place. Mhmm. Hilltops changed a little bit, and it's funny because after all that for profit experience, you roam around. You're everywhere, and you come back down. I went down because somebody said you need to go down interview with people getting, and I went down to LifeCare Alliance. And I said, this is where I used to ride my bike -- Mhmm. -- as a kid. Right. And it was just I thought this was gonna be I said, this is this is this is this is this is this dumb. I'm not coming down here. But then, you know what happened? My parents both ended up with a form of dementia. And they were about a mile away from the office, and that was kind of a godsend -- Yes. -- for many years because I was able to run over and take them out after or work or help them out or whatever it was. And we went through many almost a decade of horrendous stuff with them. So and then I've had to move them. And so if you're put I'm kind of a a person who believes in fate, and you're you end up where you're supposed to end up. Absolutely. And I think I've ended up where I'm supposed to end up. Absolutely. III grew up in Linden, Mhmm. And

when the Linden Park was renovated, got a chance to go to a meeting there. And I was just walking around going, this is pretty cold. You know? I used to play tennis here and, you know -- Mhmm. -- basketball over there. And yeah. Well and a lot of people don't like that, but I think it's great. Oh, absolutely. And I think it's good. My kids grew up here and stuff and and set us some faraway place and

this is a wonderful community. It really is. And it's

they're just so generous, and it's a place to be, and a lot of good things get done here. Well, and a lot of good people like you, Chuck, who are doing great things for our community. So kudos to you, and and congratulations on your 22 years. We're glad you're celebrating with today. Good. Same to you, Carol. You've done a lot of good stuff here too. We well, we've had fun doing it too. So so let's I guess we're gonna move on here after our our patent each other on the back. We, Columbusites, who do that well. So, Chuck, in 20 20, the state of Ohio published the poverty report stating that Ohio had a 13.9 percent poverty rate. That's a million and a half people. Franklin County is not only higher in percentage than the rest of the state, but also nationally, which is only 13.1 percent. Unfortunately, Columbus has had a large population of those in need for decades. Life care alliance has been a major factor in our community since 8 team 98. Now you weren't there when it started. Not that long ago. -- smart aleck. You know, I just had to put that in there. So tell us more about the history of life care alliance, its mission, and the individuals

as a older person might. Okay. You know, it's amazing that she went to Chicago to get information on this nursing group. As a sociology major at at Otterbein in Ohio State, We we talked a lot about whole house in Chicago, which was the first settlement house. Mhmm. And Columbus had a wonderful settlement house grouping here, which we've lost a few over time, but we still have have have Saint Stephen's and some others that are doing a great job in the community. Yep. Absolutely. So at least we went and learned our lessons with what was working in other cities. And I will say that Carrie

happened to be married in 18 98 to the mayor. My name is Sam Black, but she did all this on her own. And Sam actually was the person that created the juvenile justice system here in town. He was an attorney and a lawyer. And didn't wanna be mayor, but they needed somebody. So he became mayor for 2 years, which was their term limits. But what a little power couple they were. Right. And so we have an awful lot of somebody had a lot of brains at our place and threw things into boxes, history. And we've got a lot of great pictures, a lot of great history, Ohio connection has some of our stuff, but we're very fortunate, and we play off that all the time because it's been quite a little ride. Wonderful. Wonderful.

Well, life care alliance has changed dramatically over the last hundred and 20 years, of course, but the, you know, mission stayed the same. What's changed over the years in programs and services and Well, ultimately, what's happening in our community that prevents us from fixing the those situations.

product. With a quarter of the number of

Chuck, I know before pit the pandemic, you you always told us there was no waiting list. I'm I'm I just have to give you another pat on the back to not have a waiting list now, given all of the issues that we've had to deal with over the past 3 years. We're very proud of that. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Now I would tell you the agency lost a million dollars last year too, but -- Yeah. -- we're able to take care of that because of other years. But

so there's a place for those those homes and things. But a lot of people can stay in their own home with the help. Right. Exactly. And so this goes to my next question. I get very frustrated when I hear folks say, well, can't they go out and get a job. You know, when you're talking about your client base and all the people you're taking care of, These are not folks who can just go out and get a job or who can afford to pay for caregivers or or hatered meals or or open what is that? What's the group that Grubhub?

Whatever it is. Yeah. Yeah.

And and it's not that they didn't take care of themselves for a decades, and it's not that they didn't save. But there are limits on what

And this is what's scary, and I think why it's important that we have this conversation with you today on Meals on Wheels and the services for seniors is that this population is growing. And the the statistic I always use from script gerontology program at Miami -- Yep. -- is that in another 10 years, our population in every county but 2 will be

that that you have. However, it's not just about a meal. I'm meal saying there are more many more people receiving meals than we realize, and the service includes more than just dropping off a tray of food. Talk a little bit more about this great program who's receiving the assistance, the value of staff, and the volunteers, and the importance, of course, to the client in the end. It it looks to be that that human touch, which is really cool. Well,

Right. And

so they don't have that capacity. So the hot meal means something. Second thing is if you're getting a hot meal, 1 of our volunteers of paid drivers is showing up at your door at lunchtime every day, knocking on your door. And besides giving you the mail, they're talking to you for a few minutes before they go out and they're saying, they all say, how are you doing? Mhmm. And some of the clients, they know we see we get incident reports that I see all of them. All the time that, well, they found Joe on the floor. Joe's comment is always the same if my kids fell out find he might be fine. He just couldn't get up. Mhmm. If my kids find out I fell, they'll put me in a home. That's always the comment. It's always what they say. I'm not making this stuff up. We find people in distress. Well, my chest really hurts, but I don't think I should do anything about it. You know, you hear these things Are you going these houses a 90 degree day and the house is horrendous or in the wintertime cold? They set their thermostats at 60 because that's what they can afford. But they're happy there. Okay? But every day, somebody's looking at you saying, how are you doing? Well, what happened a few years ago? Because they wanted to have more choice at least the the funders did, is they went also to frozen meals. So some of our for profit folks had come into them. And I'm not being totally negative about them, but they do only frozen, which get delivered once a week. And what's happened lately that I think is the most horrendous thing I've ever heard of is their dropship in these things. So you are an elderly person who doesn't move well, who probably doesn't go out of the porch because it's got a step and you're afraid you're gonna fall. And here comes the box from the delivery company. And it's we we tried this a few weeks ago. We ordered 1. It was 28 pound box of food. So first of all, does your freezer hold a week a week of 2 meals a day is 14 meals or 14 meals if they a lot of them are delivering once every 2 weeks. So does your freezer hold 14 meals plus milks or juices, plus fruits. Do your bananas wait? Are they still good after 14 days? No. And things like that. And the person can't handle it. They can't pick up a 28 pound box. We take it into the house, so it's important. But that touch every day, Yet, you know, if you're the daughter or that you're the son, Brett, and you live in Kansas, but mom's here, And you're on our service. You know 1 of our people is in that house every day for a few minutes. How you doing?

Mhmm.

And You know, I the stories, stories, stories. People tell us we've saved their lives. We hear this constantly, and we're not patting ourselves on the back, but but that's part of the deal. But now it's gotten commercialized, and, oh, can we just drop ship meals? And gee, we'll make a dollar off this. But you know, we had a for profit purse company just give everybody 30 days notices. We do Marion County too. Mhmm. And Marion, they gave everybody all their clients 3 day note. You are required if you have a meal client. If you're not gonna keep servicing them, you have to give them a physical letter to address to them. 30 days notice. They gave everybody 30 days notice. Hey. Can't do it anymore. Not making any money. Yeah. Well, what a surprise. This is not a money making deal. McDonald's does not deliver to your house for 4 dollars. Right. Right. I don't know what you would get for nothing against McDonald's for them. But, I mean, they can't do it -- No. -- for what we're getting paid and stuff. So that's why we need volunteers, and that's why it was developed this way. And Meals, I'll give you a bar trivia here. So you can be real smartest person in the room. Mhmm. Neil's on Wheels. Really, the concept was developed in London, England during the second World War because the Germans were fondled bombing London, and the seniors didn't leave because they had nowhere to go. Right. And so they came up with this idea. Let's take food into them. And so the government of the United States under the older Americans Act when Johnson was president in the sixties said, oh, let's the survey said, let's try that, and it worked. Yeah. So that's that's the deal. Going back to to Brett's question,

what what you've mentioned is when there's a critical issue, somebody's sick, somebody's fallen or whatever. But over and above that, having somebody there in the house saying hello to you every day It's that notion of loneliness, of isolation. And just that little tiny bit may be what

keeps that person going. Apps, oh, there's no question. Every survey -- Yeah. -- says that. And 1 of the weird things we do that people may not be aware of, This the number 1 program that Meals on and we're local. We report to a local board. Everybody Meals on Wheels does not have a national controlling organization. It just happens to be a well known brand. But everybody's independent. It was started by county. But We well, there there we go. There. I'm having a senior moment as to what the heck we were talking about. But you know, with meals on wheels,

I don't even know. We were we were talking about -- -- edit this out, Brett. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's okay. That's alright. Oh, okay. I I had said about the touch, not only just when it's critical issue, but just the notion of isolation and -- Oh, thank you. Okay. 1 of the unusual programs that people don't even know we do.

That daughter cat is amazing. But logical if you think about it. It it doesn't even need a study if you think you know? And so the gearing study is official. Absolutely.

I we I wanna talk about. It's sort of a don't wanna say it's an offshoot of Meals on Wheels, but it's another look at meals with your friends. So you have Carrie's Cafe, and you had also mentioned that there are congregate settings at different areas. I used to volunteer for 1 of our other senior facilities up in Delaware County. I have to give it a shout out to Source Point. That's my my neighborhood. Yeah. And so I used to go and have lunch. Yeah. So tell us about Carrie's Cafe, which is named after Carrie Black. Yeah. We actually have about 25 right now. I think we just are opening our 26 dining center. They're generally in places where people

live, but ours is in our building, and we will transport people into it. But it provides not only the meal, but socialization. So they're doing activities, but they're meeting people. I mean, they're exchanging phone numbers and they're calling each other at night. I mean, it gives them a life. Right. And things like that. So it's a very important thing. And it is part of that. But I I was talking to a major city that had 22 dining centers. This is a West Coast major city shall remain nameless. And that 22 dining centers. And the executive director was saying to me, well, we've decided that when COVID gets done, we're just not opening them back up because they're too tough to run. They cost a lot of money. Well, yeah. Yesterday, at our place, we had the we had our client fashion show, which we do twice a year. We have other things. And some of the clients were modeling, and it was it's just the greatest thing you've ever seen. And we you know, we can hold 300 people to 400 people in our place, and we're very blessed to have that. But these congregate dining facilities are very important. And, actually, we actually hear, which is an unusual thing, we have the oldest Asian feeding program in the country, doctor Yong Chen Liu, Emeritus professor of statistics at Ohio State University, started this thing years ago, and he works a lot on the the Asian festival here in town has. But they started this program 27 years ago, so we actually use a couple of Asian restaurants. Here in town where the people can go. And sometimes we transport them in and get a very traditional meal. Fabulous. Seaweed soup or something like that. Very traditional so they can think about where -- Right. -- what they used to get. Mhmm. And we also operate with a few Somalia restaurants here in town because we have a lot of small immigrants, as you know. But, again, these programs, let me just say this for the 80 fourth time, if you go, don't think that this occurs in every city in the country. I get people call me all the time. Well, who's you getting in this city? Right. It doesn't exist. They there might be pieces of programs. There might be a Meals on Wheels program that's gonna tell you hey, it's 5 bucks a meal. And what we tell people, the area agency on agings -- Mhmm. -- there is 1 of those established by the government with the older Americans, Americans, wonderful people. There's 1 of those for every county in the country. Now ours here in Franklin is down on South High Street, but it covers Franklin, all counties touching Franklin. But they have people. You can Google. If you're 1 of the kids listening to this and you got parents aging, you Google area agency on aging dash whatever -- Right. -- city. Right. And they've got people that will sit on the phone with you and tell you what's available in that location. Right. And that's very important because if mom's somewhere else, you might have to bring mom to Central Ohio to get more services. There might not be services where mom is or ones that they get. And we started a program called I wrote something called how to take care of mom and dad years ago. And we've done that for hundred and 50 places. I mean, it's all major corporations, churches, whatever. And it's what do you do now to get ready for this? You know, I think that

that is really what we try to get across here on the podcast. You don't know what you don't know. Mhmm. And here are our experts to tell you not only what's going on in Central Ohio, but to make sure that we provide the resources for around the country. So we will do that on our show notes when we post this this episode and talk about who you know? Okay. So you live in in Colorado.

stress cut. Maybe we'll do another podcast on that someday. Well and, actually, we have a podcast on that someday. Well and, actually, we have a podcast with 1 of our local lawyers that does elder law, and we'll get you guys together. Yeah. And we've talked about that. We do wanna do. Yeah. Well and and Chuck, Chuck,

too. That's how I sort of got into aging services is taking care of my parents. So, you know, I think when when you've been through it, it listen to the people who have been through it. They're gonna give you some really good tips. So -- Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. So take a break real quick. We covered a little bit of help at home right there that you covered right there. Maybe we just let it go if if that was the same answer, you know, in regards to For the next question. So how about if I jump to yours, Carol -- Okay. -- about the the programs you've you know, taken under we talked a little bit about that, but at the same time, I I do wanna focus on what has come into the the umbrella of LCA. So -- Okay. -- let me do that. So -- Okay. So LifeCare Alliance has taken on some new programs over the years. We touched upon it a little bit earlier in the podcast, expanding your mission and geographic location, of course, too. So talk about the other programs and the, gosh, the seniors senior farming partners,

CODA -- Yeah. -- wellness programs. My gosh. Let let's talk about that. Well, what we do, and we've always done this at least last couple of decades, is we look at the client and say, what do we need to do for you to solve the ultimate goal of life care alliance, which is to keep you independent in in your own home for as long as you are. What do you need to accomplish that. Why do you need a meal? Maybe you need a nurse once in a while. Maybe you need something else. So we've taken on some other agencies. To save money, basically, to get more services to more people at less cost. Because, again, there's only 1 building. There's only 1 accounting department, things like that. But the point is, these were all services that the clients needed.

So -- You know, with every program you added, when I heard it in the news, it did it made sense. Well -- Knowing the mission's like, well, that makes sense in the account. -- 1 diagnosis

of the meal clients is diabetes. And you just half the clients, half the meal clients have type 2. Type 1, you know, you get as a a young person. Usually, you're insulin dependent. Then type 2, you get naturally as you age because you're not exercising. You're eating poorly, things like that. So the half the clients have typed too. So over the years, we'd call people, hey. Can you come out and counsel people? No. Don't have the resources for etcetera, etcetera. So in Central Ohio diabetes back around 20 16, 20 17, they were having some financial problems said we're not a big agency. We ought to merge with somebody. They knew we were interested. They looked around and ended up with us. Well, now we've got all their people stayed, basically. And they're consoling our people, and they're having tremendous success at getting people off the drugs. Like, you know, if you get type 2 the first thing you watch all these and please don't run to the store to get Ozempic tonight and things like that because you're not gonna find it anyway. It's not weight loss magic, but it's not out there right now because people found its weight. It can help you lose weight, but it helps with type 2 diabetes and things like that. But the first thing I usually do is on metformin, which is this little 4 dollar drug pill you take. And but the way we stay off waiting list is is Oftentimes, as we tell people, is we prevent you from needing us. So our work, especially a lot of our nurses work, our dietitians work, is to keep you educated and help you through whatever you got and keep you off the pills and off type 2 diabetes, etcetera, etcetera. So that you don't need us. So our dietitians are counseling couple dietitians are counseling, like, a hundred and 20 people a month on average, and they're getting people healthier. And it's not rocket science sometimes. It's just you know? But my mom and dad, you know, we had meat and potatoes every night. Right? We didn't know any different, but, you know, you can't have pie every night. You can't do this. You and if you're sitting watching TV, do leg lifts while you're sitting in the bar collabs or There's little things like that that make humongous difference. So all these additions we did were designed to ultimately solve the mission of the agency, which is keep you independent in your own home and really prevent you from needing us and that keeps our numbers down and keeps you off waiting list. And I'm very proud I think our people should get get medals They've done a fabulous job over the years of keeping people healthier and not even needing our services. Maybe they thought they needed our services, but with a month of hell, Maybe they suddenly didn't need our services anymore. They could take care of themselves. So all this stuff is designed and taken on just that. The farmer's market -- Yeah. Because you you empower your clients, which is great. Yeah. Farmers's market is to just get access to healthy produce in the summertime. Mhmm. The wellness programs course, and impact safety helps with domestic violence and safety issues, which 30 percent of seniors have, and we could never figure out how to address that. So That's how we address it now. Mhmm. Wow. Good. Good. Wow. Just another break. The next question's on wait lists.

Okay. Any I think we've covered that. Oh, yeah. You run it out of time? Okay. Well, no. I'm fine. Yeah. But you said 45 minutes. Oh, yeah. We're we're good. Well, we don't wanna we don't wanna

answer the same question we've already did earlier, which happens a lot in our podcast. We do this all the time. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Go right well, you want me to jump into staffing then? Is that what we're talking about? Out,

exacting programs -- Can I give sure? -- volunteers? Is that 1 -- Sure. Sure. Sure. Or am I missing something? -- great if you did volunteers.

Yeah. Right? Go ahead. Okay. I think. Yeah. Okay. So so staffing your programs and you've got either paid staff or volunteers has to be a continual challenge especially well, COVID, I'm sure, was major, but seemed to now we're kinda coming out of that. But, you know, tell us about your great staff. I you're volunteer driven. You've talked about already. What do you do to retain a good staff, and and what's the role of volunteers?

who are volunteers because my cousins on the board -- Who's that? -- and Earl Leveer. Oh, gosh. Yes. I know that. Yes. And and who's And Earl Levere's mother is also another Carol of interest. Oh, that has the same name. I have I to give a shout out to Earl, and I can't wait to send him the link to this to tell him that I talked about him. But but again -- He's our board treasurer.

I saw that. -- and a large attorney in town. He's a big time not large physically, but a big time attorney in town, and he's very helpful and been on our board for a long time. And as I just talked to him today, and he's very helpful to us. Yes. He is. He's a wonderful, wonderful person.

And but as with boards, They are critical in in the structure of a nonprofit. So for our listeners, maybe Volund cheering as a Mealson Wheels driver is not an opportunity, but your local nonprofit

may need critical board members. So always keep that in mind. Or committee members or whatever and things like that. And it's it's just yeah. Call. And if you don't get an immediate boy, I got an opening for you because sometimes we don't have opening. But, you know, we'll get to you. Trust me. And there's something you can be doing. Right. Like our the front desk at our cancer clinic is run, which is when you come in by volunteers. And, basically, you come in, here comes the client. It's like, I need you to fill out these 3 sheets of paper. You're at a cancer clinic. You know? You're might have a screening or something with a professional. So you need to fill out something, and they handle that kind of stuff. And we have volunteers that run the dining centers. We have volunteers everywhere. The

majority of them by far are in Meals on Wheels. Well and for all of those job seekers out there -- Yeah. -- volunteering is an credible way to gain

some experience that you may not have had before or hone some skills or update your skills. So And we -- -- consider that. And we see some boards that are really asleep at the wheel. It's really it's not about your resume. Sometimes it's about, do you really wanna help and provide advice? And by saying token, if you have a an executive director like me, and I'm telling you, well, I don't really need to listen to you or I don't need your advice. Don't worry about it. We got it handled. Probably find somebody new -- Right. -- to that job. Champagne and Logan that I just talked about a minute ago. Let me that quick story is the date and paper because they're out there that way, and they followed up with the board chair who was a business guy and just kept pow asking him, well, how did you not know you were gonna go broke this week because it was Wednesday. They found out they couldn't make payroll on Friday. How'd you not know? He finally says this is the board chair, and I'm sure it was embarrassing to him. Well, we hadn't seen financial statements in 18 months. Oh. If if my board did not see financial statements for 18 months, you wouldn't I would have been gone after 2 months. Oh my gosh. Yes. And, I mean, as board members, they need people who have those skill sets, and you don't have to be you know, number 1 is CPA to figure out the financial statements. A lot of them are very simplistic, especially smaller groups. So smaller groups need you badly, and they just need your brainpower. You know? Boards are more than just giving money to the organization. We need I always tell the board members, we need your brains. Right. And we try to throw at the meetings into discussion topics and try to throw things at them and say, you know, what do you think about this? Mhmm. What would you do? And and you get good responses. Exactly. And that goes right into my next question. What are the future plans? What's life care alliance got

kind of in the in the trenches and working towards

for a new goal. Well, staying in business was always a good 1. For another hundred and 25 years. We're a hundred and 25 years old. But what's gonna happen in 20 23 is it's you're gonna see it around the country before you see it here, but you're gonna see it here at the end of the year, this Medicaid cliff. Mhmm. So when president Biden announced on May eleventh that the co COVID is no longer a national health emergency. That triggered in Medicaid. And, you know, there's Medicare folks which is the insurance for seniors, but then there's Medicaid that covers people who are basically low assets for people. That triggers in Medicaid that you had to get Rita authorized. Because what they did during COVID, they kinda opened it up a little more and took in some people that maybe we're on the border, maybe wouldn't have qualified. But now because of COVID, they couldn't get out. They'd lost their supports. They needed to help. Well, now it's coming back to reauthorizing you and seeing how you are. Because we have to reassess clients depending on the funding source at least every 6 months sometimes every 3 months. And because people get better. If they're on our meals and they learn how to cook for themselves, they might not need us after so many months. And we see the especially with hospital patients all the time. They come out of the hospital. They might be with us for 8 to 20 weeks, and then they don't need us anymore. So that's great. And so this COVID cliff is happening. So I we had a lot of people in for an event yesterday, and clients and I was talking to some of them, and I said from the stage, I went up at the end, and I said, remember, if you're getting Medicaid, you have 90 you have till August seventh, to re or August ninth, I think, to reauthorize yourself in Medicaid. And I got more questions after that. Well, how do I do that? Well, how does that work? Mhmm. And I said, do you have somebody? They all have case managers. They all have somebody they talk to in the Medicaid office. You need to call them. And get reauthorized. It's not automatic, and frankly, the volume is too great. They're not gonna get to everybody because on in that second week of August, you're gonna get cut if you're not reauthorized, and they don't know maybe you don't need it anymore. And and I think we all want in the country. We hear about this all the time. Hey. If you don't need the services, it's not welfare. Let's get off of them. Right? And sometimes people do get better, especially people that had temporary issues. And I hate to call cancer a temporary issue, but cancer something, if you get through the treatments, OSU and Ohio health can fix a lot of stuff anymore. And and you know, you get through your 4 to 6 months of cancer treatments, maybe you're good then. And off your run, well, you don't need us anymore. Right. So you don't need those services and things like that or rents paid or utilities paid. So this cliff is coming. You're gonna see it around the country You're gonna see people, and there was money that came out through the American Rescue Act and care's money to and we had some of it to pay rents and utilities for people. That stopped that's stopping after this year. I can tell you here in Frank, there just didn't any more money coming out. So people suddenly are gonna have to cover all these costs. Good luck. What's changed for them? Now maybe they've got a job at a good employer that suddenly is paying them more money, and they're making a nice wage now, and they're good. But maybe they're not. Right. And with rent having taken huge leaps -- And utility prices go up, I mean, everything costs more. Right. So and, you know, they're not buying as nutritious of food maybe at the grocery store because it costs more, so they buy something cheaper that's You know? Right. Yeah. You can't all be college students living off ramen noodles. Right? Right. Exactly. And and, you know, we did that because we were 20 years old. You know, when you're 80, it's not the same deal. Yeah. Exactly. So you gotta have this. So you're gonna see this cliff coming. So that's the near term. Not happen. Long term is endowment. From my perspective, we've done an endowment campaign recently and been able to put a little bit of money in the bank are not we are not Ohio State University, and they're wonderful people. I'm a grad. But we are we don't have an endowment like they have. We have a few bucks in the bank. But you've got to have some bucks in the bank to be able to take these extra people -- Mhmm. -- as we go forward. So long term, we'd like to build that up and just make sure, you know, I'm not gonna be around forever. And, you know, not that I'm anything to write home about anyway. They probably wanna get rid of me. But, you know, I'm not gonna be around forever. We gotta make sure we're set up for the future. We got the right staff there to to manage. This is a complicated company. Let me just tell you, I've worked in for profits. This is about the most complicated place. I work for Anheuser Busch, and this is a more complicated place. I think a lot of days than Anheuser Busch. And and it it's just a lot of tentacles out there, a lot of different geographic areas, a lot of different needs. And it's a complicated deal, and we've gotta make sure. And we've talked about this in Columbus. We have a group of some of the larger agency leaders who get together ever, ever couple of months. And the big thing we're talking about is how are we training the next generation? If you've noticed when the person retires, they often hire outside the agency why don't we have people inside that can be trained to take over these jobs and properly trained and off your run? Right. And so there's a lot of work to be done in that area. It's all stabilization stuff, and sustainability is the word we hear all the time is how can we are these programs we have sustainable?

And if they're not, some agencies are saying, well, we can't keep them anymore. Well and I I, you know, I've I've been in private industry. I work for government. I worked for the university and for nonprofit, and I have to say nonprofit work is the hardest but the most fulfilling in terms of knowing that every day you make a difference in your world. Absolutely. 1 of the things that we've looked at is in in the aging agencies is how do we convince young people that going into an aging career path is a good idea.

And and something that they can really make a great career with. Well, it it's interesting, the modern generation. I've got 4 kids and 10 grandkids. That are that are the oldest grandkids is just 11, though. So it got a ways to go, but I am encouraged by kids in school nowadays. Mhmm. There's a lot of kids we hear about the bad stuff. But there's a lot of kids that really wanna make a difference. They really do. You know? And my father's way he made a difference, he got he went into the army and fought in the second World War. I mean, that was their contribution. Hopefully, we don't have that. Right. But there's a lot of kids that are looking. And kids, I mean, people 25 and under, really. I mean, they're pardon me for calling you a kid, but There's a lot of people out there looking for something different in their life. They wanna make a difference. And we are you know, you're not gonna be the wealthiest person in the world, but we pay competitive wages. Mhmm. And, you know, if I hire an accountant tomorrow, I've gotta pay a reasonable amount or nobody gonna come. Right. So it's there are ways out there to help, and it's worth exploring. I mean, I never thought I'd be sitting in this chair ever. But 22 years of this at LifeCare Alliance. And I can't I am so honored and privileged to do this job every day, and I'm just luck. I work very hard at it because I don't wanna mess it up. And because there's too many people counting on us, and we are but if you're out there, you can make a huge, huge difference as a young person, whether it's Maybe you just volunteer. Maybe 1 Saturday a month, you go out and deliver meals or something. I mean, that makes a difference because we package you together with a whole lot of other people, and good stuff happens. So There's a lot of people looking, though, for jobs in that in our world now, and I think that's great. And,

hopefully, they'll continue to come out and do it. Great. Right? I think he just gave us our words of wisdom right there.

I don't know. Chuck may have more words in wisdom. But you wanna leave us with. Anything else you wanna make sure our audience remembers from today? Well, if you're here in if you're listening in Central Ohio,

Know that Life Care Alliance is here to help you. If you're somewhere else, call your area agency on aging and get ahead of the problem. You know, if you've got parents or even for yourself, for yourself, you need to get prepared for this. Unfortunately, we're all gonna die. We're all getting old, and we're all gonna die someday, which I know is a real downer to end this on. But you've got to prepare for this, and you gotta let people know what's going on and get your paperwork in order and get your plans in order. Let people know what you want and and figure that out and start planning it's more than buying a long term care policy. Mhmm. Yeah. And those are expensive anyway. It's how do I and I know we all are trying to retire early and things like that, but you know, you can make such an incredible difference in your I am not a I could not go to Africa and be in the bush and help people in darkest, poorest Africa. I just couldn't do that. I don't think. But I'm able to do this. And I I the saints that are doing that work right now are as a whole another story. But I can't go to some third world country. We're not asking you to do that necessarily. You can do something in your town or area to in the third world countries. Trust me. They need a lot of help too. But, you know, you can just go in your town and deliver a meal on wheel on a Saturday. I mean, it's not rocket science. It's not hard, but you will change somebody's life. Absolutely.

Oh my goodness. Chuck, thank you. I we can't thank you enough for this wonderful conversation. Listeners, you know, this is been an amazing experience. Make sure that you check the website when we publish this episode. You are gonna have resources locally and nationally that you'll be able to use in your particular area. But first, let's thanks to our guests Chuck Gehring, who is the president and CEO of LifeCare Alliance, for joining us today. Listeners, thank you for joining us. Don't forget to check the website for show notes at looking forward hourway dot com. It'll give you all the information and resources that we discussed today. And we're looking forward to hearing your feedback on this episode and all of our episodes.