Assisted-Living Regulation Issues: A Business Case for Action or Creative Destruction

This paper examine whether state law regulating assisted-living facilities in United State is sufficient or underdeveloped and inconsistent. As the U.S. population ages, legislatures and courts need to address the growing need to develop comprehensive and consistent law in this area, and the industry must be fast to anticipate threats and changes from all directions. The paper’s methodology includes reviewing the statistics that indicate the growing demand for assisted-living facilities and researches and reports variations of regulation regarding assisted-living facilities across the United States. Findings include extensive inconsistencies in regulation exists across the states; and there is a great need for either more uniform industry standards, or for federal regulation if the industry is not willing or able to self-regulate. We also find that regardless of regulation or self regulation, increasingly demanding and better-informed consumers who have greater access to more information will push the industry to change. The assisted-living industry must find a proper balance between offering a good product and doing so at a reasonable cost – a necessary goal for most businesses.