About this Episode

The aging population is transforming healthcare in America—and the aging population isn’t just a future concern, it’s a present-day crisis.

In this inaugural episode of Who Cares, hosts Elyssa Katz and Dr. Steven Landers confront the reality that our systems aren’t ready for what’s already happening. With demographic projections showing a tripling of the 85+ age group by 2060, it’s clear that business-as-usual in healthcare won’t work.

Dr. Landers, a nationally recognized leader in geriatric and home-based care, shares compelling data that shows why focusing solely on those 65 and older misses the real urgency. He and Elyssa Katz explore the surge in unmet needs—especially when one-third of hospital referrals for home health go unfulfilled. This gap has life-or-death consequences, increases readmissions, and places enormous pressure on family caregivers and our already strained hospital systems.

The conversation underscores how the aging population is changing everything—from Medicare and Medicaid financing to hospital capacity, emergency room backups, and workforce shortages. Elyssa and Dr. Landers cite recent losses from prominent hospital systems and expose the bottlenecks created by the lack of available post-acute care options.

Listeners will learn about the Four M’s of Age-Friendly Health Systems—Mobility, Mentation, Medication, and What Matters Most—and how these principles can create better outcomes and more meaningful care experiences. With heart and humanity, the hosts emphasize that improving care isn’t just about systems; it’s about deeply personal moments.

Elyssa opens up about the final six months she spent with her father under hospice care, illustrating how care at home transformed not only his quality of life, but her family’s ability to create lasting memories. Dr. Landers also shares personal stories from his thousands of house calls, where seeing patients in their environments revealed issues that would have gone unnoticed in clinical settings—from safety hazards to malnutrition caused by undiagnosed vision loss.

The episode wraps with a deep dive into the Home Health Value-Based Purchasing Model, which has successfully saved Medicare hundreds of millions of dollars by aligning provider incentives with outcomes. This model is proof that care at home can deliver higher-quality outcomes at a lower cost—what the hosts call a “win-win-win” for patients, providers, and the system at large.

Whether you’re a policymaker, healthcare professional, caregiver, or simply someone concerned about aging with dignity, this episode lays the groundwork for the critical conversations ahead. Elyssa Katz and Dr. Steven Landers bring data, empathy, and clarity to the challenges and opportunities of aging in America.

Join the movement. Care at home is the future.