Interview with Li Ying, co-founder of | Yidekang: The shortage of high-quality nursing management talents has become a pain point in the industry, and more elderly people are willing to "pay" for pension services.

21st Century Business Herald reporter Ding Yan Shanghai report Since the pilot in Shanghai on January 1, 2017, long-term care insurance has been explored for nearly five years, during which some leading brands of long-term care insurance home care services based in Shanghai and laid out nationwide have gradually emerged. Founded in September 2016, EasyCon has grown rapidly with the development trend of long-term care insurance.

Yidekang, known as the "returnee faction" by its peers, has only been established for more than 5 years, and currently occupies 5%-8% of the market share in the field of home care insurance home care, which has undoubtedly become one of the better samples for the development of home care institutions in recent years. Behind the rapid development of EasyCon, what confusion and difficulties exist? What kind of development blueprint will be outlined in the future?

In this regard, the 21st Century Business Herald reporter interviewed Li Ying, co-founder and chief operating officer of Yidekang, to elaborate the story behind the development of home care institutions for the elderly.

Li Ying pointed out that at present, Shanghai home care services are mainly based on basic life care, common clinical care, etc., according to the daily service process to understand, accumulate customer needs, can be appropriately expanded on the basis of existing service content on the basis of the diversity of projects. The first year of self-funded pension may start from this year, and now the consumption concept of the "post-60s" elderly and the "post-50s" and "post-40s" elderly is very different, and the "post-60s" generation of the elderly will be more willing to pay for the elderly care services.

For the difficult problems encountered in the company's current development, Li Ying frankly said that the lack of high-quality front-line nursing service personnel and management talents in the home care industry is a pain point in the elderly care industry. "We currently have a special training school, which is constantly cultivating high-quality service personnel for the frontline, and our company has spared no effort to cultivate talents in the past five years." However, with the prosperity of the pension industry and the continuous expansion and strengthening of enterprises, we find that even if we cultivate ourselves, we have exceeded the supply, because the cultivation of an industry talent is not three months can be achieved quickly, at least it takes 1-2 years to accumulate precipitation. ”

In terms of policy, Li Ying said that the early long-term care insurance pilot according to the local situation is almost "one city, one policy", which brings greater challenges to the company's business expansion and landing, and the State Medical Insurance Administration has also successively given some guiding and general direction opinions and suggestions after the second batch of pilot cities was introduced, hoping that each pilot city will implement in accordance with a unified guiding direction.

<h4>More elderly people are willing to "pay" for elderly care services</h4>

In 2017, Shanghai Long-term Care Insurance was piloted in Xuhui, Putuo and Jinshan districts, and after one year, the pilot was fully rolled out in all districts of the city. At that time, Shanghai decided to set a clear tone for long-term care insurance, led by the Medical Insurance Bureau, and coordinated by the Civil Affairs Bureau and the Health and Family Planning Commission and other relevant ministries and commissions.

"The predecessor of Shanghai long-term care insurance was the elderly care insurance led by the Civil Affairs Bureau, and at that time, the elderly care insurance was aimed at people over 80 years old and physical disabilities reached a certain level. In 2017, after Shanghai began to implement long-term care insurance, the government adjusted the service agency, service content, settlement amount and method, and supervision method, and we did long-term care insurance services according to the requirements of the State Medical Insurance Administration. Li Ying told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter.

Prior to joining EasyCon, Ying Li served as the Investment Director of Columbia Medical Group in China, responsible for columbia group's medical investment and pension investment business in China.

"Founded in September 2016, it is not too early for traditional home service companies to enter this industry, but it is time for us to enter the long-term care insurance industry." Li Ying said, "Since the pilot of Shanghai Xuhui District Chief Protection Insurance in 2017, we have joined in the pilot area when it was piloted on a small scale. At present, we serve more than 30,000 customers in the market, accounting for about 5%-8% of the market share. ”

For The further planning of Yidekang in the aspect of home care, Li Ying pointed out: "Our big goal remains unchanged, but the short-term strategy will be fine-tuned regularly, Yidekang has positioned the layout of the whole country from the beginning of its establishment, and when the Shanghai long-term care insurance pilot was fully rolled out in 2018, our layout in Shanghai has been basically completed." After 2018, we have successively laid out more than 30 cities such as Guangzhou, Chengdu, Chongqing, Tianjin and Beijing. ”

"Our customer sources are mainly divided into three levels, the first is the To G end, in the government business, we mainly do long-term care insurance, which is our most basic business; followed by the To C end, that is, our self-funded customers, a large part of our self-funded customers in the early stage is converted from the original long-term care insurance customers." Li Ying said.

At the same time, Li Ying pointed out: "We will also dock some channels, such as personalized home services or hospital escorts for some high-net-worth individuals, etc., we have become a service provider of some high-quality cooperation channels, and we have a better understanding of the family situation of the elderly, nursing needs and pain points, and can provide third-party nursing services for partners." For example, the partner's high-net-worth customer is suddenly admitted to the hospital due to illness, and during the customer's hospitalization, EasyCon can send one-on-one nursing staff in the local city to accompany the hospital or home environment. ”

"At present, we are communicating with commercial insurance companies to discuss commercial long-term care insurance products, because long-term care insurance is currently paid for by the government in China, and can only provide basic nursing services for the disabled." Li Ying said frankly, "For the United States and other developed countries, their commercial long-term care insurance is doing very well, at present, some large commercial insurance companies also want to intervene in the blue ocean of commercial long-term care insurance, and when they design commercial long-term care insurance products, they are very much in need of high-quality nursing service providers with national layout and service capabilities." ”

Li Ying said frankly that at present, Shanghai home care services are mainly based on basic life care and common clinical care, which can further expand the diversity of service items on the existing basis. "At present, we are exploring the diversification of service products, but also constantly observing, researching, and tapping the needs of market customers, and the first year of self-funded pension may start from this year." Now the 'post-60s' elderly and 'post-50s', 'post-40s' consumption concept is very different, these 'post-60s' elderly people were previously more willing to spend on tourism, health care, etc., but after the age of 65, if a sudden illness is admitted to the hospital or life needs different degrees of care, they will be more willing to buy our services at their own expense. ”

Li Ying said: "The generation of 'post-60s' elderly people will be more willing to pay for our flexible and diverse self-funded elderly care products. At present, we are studying the market demand, constantly developing our new products, and also trying them on a small scale in different cities. ”

In the future, in terms of the training of new employees, Li Ying believes: "In addition to considering skills training, we have also gradually integrated humanistic factors into employee training. ”

In terms of management, Li Ying believes that "home care services and other services in pension institutions are different, and the duration, quality, authenticity, compliance, customer satisfaction and so on of the home caregivers of home care institutions need to be monitored and managed in real time with the help of scientific and technological means." ”

<h4>Cross-industry recruitment of senior care industry talents</h4>

With the further deepening of Shanghai's aging degree, Shanghai home care service practitioners are facing a large demand gap. In Li Ying's view, there has always been a shortage of nursing staff in Shanghai long-term care insurance for service institutions, but there are also some practical reasons behind the lack of nursing staff.

According to Li Ying, "The most basic business of our edex is the long-term care insurance business, and according to the regulations of the Medical Insurance Bureau, the nursing staff of the long-term care insurance must hold a certificate. The earliest Shanghai long-term care insurance nursing staff certificate for the elderly care worker (medical care) level five and health care certificate, but the training supply is insufficient, there are also some personnel training certificate, not necessarily choose the home care industry to work, which leads to although the nursing staff training has been carried out, the number of elderly people in institutions continues to increase, but the major institutions from time to time there will be a shortage of licensed nursing staff supply. ”

Later, the elderly care worker qualification certificate went through an iteration. The five-level training of elderly care workers (medical care) did not continue, and Shanghai experienced a 'vacuum period' of training for licensed nursing staff, when all nursing institutions were very short of nursing staff. Li Ying pointed out, "At present, with the normal training of elderly care workers and certificates, elderly care workers are gradually cultivated, but the original nursing staff who hold the five-level certificate of elderly care workers (medical care), do long-term care insurance service medical insurance settlement is 65 yuan / hour, but now the nursing staff who hold the fourth and fifth level certificates of elderly care workers do long-term care insurance service medical insurance settlement is only 40 yuan / hour, and the current price of Shanghai hourly workers is 40-50 yuan / hour, so although the caregiver holds the certificate of elderly care worker, However, it does not have a strong willingness to join the elderly care service institutions to engage in long-term care insurance home care services, which leads to a greater shortage of long-term care care personnel in the market. ”

According to incomplete statistics, the existing more than 500,000 elderly care workers in China are far from meeting the care needs of 254 million elderly people and more than 40 million disabled and semi-disabled elderly people.

In September 2019, the Ministry of Civil Affairs issued the Implementation Opinions on Further Expanding the Supply of Elderly Care Services and Promoting the Consumption of Elderly Care Services, mentioning that by the end of 2022, 10,000 nursing home directors, 2 million elderly care workers, and 100,000 full-time and part-time elderly social workers should be trained.

In the face of the shortage of nursing staff in long-term care insurance, what channels and regions does Edcon recruit nursing staff? Li Ying said: "First of all, at present, Easycon has set up special vocational skills training schools for nursing staff in Shanghai and Kunming, Yunnan, and can issue certificates for elderly care workers. The nursing staff we directly recruit have been screened layer by layer, in our own vocational skills training school, after passing the training examination, we can get the certificate of elderly care worker, and then through a certain amount of pre-job training and on-the-job teaching, they can be assigned to service agencies in different cities. ”

"Secondly, we have recruitment bases in Shandong, Anhui, Guangxi, Yunnan, Northeast And other major provinces with large population transport, and conduct targeted recruitment and transportation according to the living habits of different cities and the needs of nursing staff. At present, the Yunnan recruitment base mainly supports our employment needs in Kunming, Nanning, Chengdu, Chongqing and other southwest areas; the Anhui and Shandong recruitment bases mainly support the employment needs of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai and other regions; the three northeastern provinces and Shandong recruitment bases mainly support the employment needs of cities such as Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei. "From the perspective of the national operation of Yidekang, there will be a short-term personnel transportation and demand imbalance in individual cities, but in the medium and long term, it is basically possible to achieve a dynamic balance of supply and demand."

It is worth noting that Li Ying mentioned, "In recent years, with the long-term care insurance industry and the home care service market receiving much attention, we are also looking at and selecting talents across industries, and after recruiting these talents, after our systematic training, guidance and teaching, they can do a very good job in the enterprise." Like our more core director level, there are several talents I recruited across industries, involving FMCG, automotive, food chains, education and training and other industries. ”

At present, the gap between urban and suburban, urban-rural and even rural long-term care insurance nursing services in Shanghai is still large, how should the elderly long-term care insurance service care in remote areas be provided? Li Ying said: "At present, we have also carried out the layout and setting up of long-term care insurance service institutions in suburban and remote areas. We are in the urban area with high population density, the nursing staff arrangement is mainly for foreign service personnel, but in the suburbs with a slightly lower population density, the arrangement of long-term nursing personnel is mainly locals, and the local residents of these suburbs and villages and towns are trained and certified to work, and they are arranged near their place of residence or the next village, etc., to provide services for local long-term care insurance customers, and the familiarity of these local nursing staff language, living habits, and geographical location is very high, and the service will be more convenient and appropriate. ”

Li Ying gave an example: "For example, a suburb in Shanghai spans a very large span, when the caregiver provides some home care services, from the site to the customer's home one-way 30 kilometers, the round trip is 60 kilometers, if the foreign caregiver rides a battery car to provide nursing services like the city, after going to the customer's home, the battery car may not have the power to return to the station or dormitory." ”

<h4>In the past two years, the operation of long-term nursing care institutions has encountered challenges</h4>

With the full rollout of the Shanghai long-term care insurance pilot and the prosperity of the home care service industry, what are the difficulties in the current development? Li Ying said frankly: "In the first few years of the pilot, long-term care insurance home care service institutions have flourished, and in the past one or two years, home care institutions have encountered many challenges. With the gradual tightening of supervision and evaluation of long-term care insurance in Shanghai, many long-term care insurance policies and interpretations have not kept up in time, so the spearhead and focus of many public opinions have focused on home care institutions. Li Ying said that of course, it is not excluded that some home care service institutions are fishing in muddy waters and doing not standardize in the implementation of policies, so the industry has become a mixed bag.

Li Ying said: "For example, a service elderly person was rated as moderately disabled before the adjustment of the disability assessment standard, but after the expiration of two years, according to Shanghai's new disability rating standard, it did not meet the conditions and could not continue to enjoy long-term care insurance services, the elderly could not understand and accept, found a third-party assessment company to ask for an explanation, and finally pushed the explanation work and comfort work to the nursing institution." Li Ying said, "For the commercial operation of our nursing institutions, we certainly hope that the elderly can continue to enjoy our services, but in response to changes in policies and evaluation standards, as a nursing institution, unilateral explanation and reassurance work does not necessarily convince and satisfy customers." In addition to our timely launch of services that allow customers to choose independently and purchase at their own expense, we hope that the government can collaborate with multiple departments and communicate with customers at multiple levels and angles. ”

For the specific suggestions, Li Ying said: "We first hope that the relevant departments can do more education for the public on long-term care insurance policies, and the official missions have a higher credibility and better implementation effect." Secondly, we hope that the supporting policies of long-term care insurance can keep up in time, such as the adjustment of nursing staff training and settlement standards, if there is a 'vacuum period' for nursing staff training, nursing staff cannot be connected, which is easy to make some newly assessed elderly people unable to enjoy services in time. ”

Li Ying said frankly: "I hope that through rational supervision and support and guidance, we can give our home care institutions, especially standardized, large-scale, chained development of nursing institutions a better business environment, only by standardizing home care institutions and regular nursing personnel practitioners can we support them, so that the future home care service market can prosper and develop sustainably." ”

In terms of long-term care insurance policy, Li Ying frankly said: "At present, long-term care insurance is piloted in the country, and we have indeed invested a lot in some cities in the early stage, and each city's policy is different, which will put forward relatively high requirements for the adaptability and business landing ability of our expansion team and management team." Li Ying pointed out, "We can understand that with the gradual expansion of the cities of the long-term care insurance pilot, I hope that the State Medical Insurance Administration will give some guiding and general directional opinions, and each city can do it in a guiding direction." ”

In August this year, the trial version of the unified disability level assessment standard, which has been studied for more than a year, was released. The Office of the State Medical Insurance Bureau and the General Office of the Ministry of Civil Affairs issued a notice on the "Evaluation Standards for Long-term Care Disability Levels (Trial)", which uniformly stipulates the assessment indicators, assessment implementation and assessment results of long-term care insurance disability levels.

In addition to the pilot "one city, one policy" for long-term care insurance, the lack of talents is also a pain point in the elderly care industry. Li Ying pointed out: "The nursing industry is not like a high-tech industry such as finance, which can attract a large number of talents, and there are too few outstanding talents in the home care industry at present. Only by continuously cultivating and retaining talents can the company itself and the industry develop benignly. ”

"It is worth noting that after some companies find investors, their financial strength has been significantly enhanced, and they have begun to focus on 'digging' excellent elderly care talents in their peers, which is also a test of whether enterprises can retain talents." Li Ying said.

<h4>Have the funds for long-term care insurance been earmarked? </h4>

According to the 21st Century Business Herald reporter, the Shanghai Yangpu District Audit Bureau has conducted a sample survey on the management and use of special funds for home care in 2009 for 50% of its streets (towns), and found that the management and use of the funds still need to be improved, one is that the accuracy of the annual budget arrangement of the home care service subsidy fund and the timeliness of settlement need to be improved, and the second is that the management measures in the process of cash receipt and distribution of home care service subsidies are not strict enough.

For the long-term care insurance services provided by the government, the question that the industry is also concerned about is whether the long-term care insurance funds can be earmarked. Li Ying said frankly: "At present, at least in the long-term care insurance cities we are stationed in and know, it is specially used, and the supervision of the use of funds by medical insurance is very professional and strict, but the main problem at present is that the services purchased by long-term care insurance funds are uneven and the quality is uneven. ”

"Whether the supervision of long-term care insurance funds is spent on the cutting edge, whether the real nursing needs of the disabled people are understood, whether the service content is compliant and appropriate, and whether the service quality and service effect are continuously tracked and evaluated, it is also worth our further consideration." Li Ying said.

It is worth noting that according to the 21st Century reporter, at present, some nursing institutions may have some false punch cards, false settlements, illegal services and other behaviors, is this phenomenon reduced at present? Li Ying believes: "The supervision of long-term care insurance in Shanghai has been gradually strengthened, and the supervision capacity of departments at all levels has been continuously improved. At the beginning of its establishment, Easycon attached great importance to quality control supervision at all levels, as well as service compliance and authenticity management, and constantly upgraded civil air defense and technical defense methods in supervising violations such as false nursing. But even so, false services and over-range services also occur occasionally, mainly related to the weak awareness of nursing staff themselves, and the industry cannot be said to be completely eliminated. ”

For the service specifications of nursing staff, Li Ying frankly said: "In recent years, our institution has repeatedly educated home care workers, and cannot make false services, empty punch cards and other illegal red line problems, but they trample on the medical insurance red line and almost no mistake costs, according to the relevant department management regulations, our company can not arbitrarily deduct the wages of nursing staff." For regulators, there is no direct punishment for nursing personnel who have found to be in violation of the law. We call for some very core contradictions in the elderly care business, and the next step can be to establish or set up effective measures such as nursing institutions and nursing staff blacklists to enforce industry norms and the principle of access and elimination for institutions and service personnel. ”

At the same time, Li Ying said: "We are also vigorously calling for strengthening the education of long-term care insurance customers, some home care institutions are worried about customer loss, but all the requirements put forward by customers are vigorously satisfied, but this can easily lead to the breeding of violations." Over the years, through WeChat public accounts, paper publicity materials, household education, public training, etc., we have continuously publicized knowledge such as long-term care insurance policies, safe use of medical insurance funds, and fraudulent insurance behavior to long-term care insurance customers and families. ”

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