When Caregiving is HURTING the Caregiver
Bradley Richardson - Advanced Adulting
Burned Out by Caregiving? What Every Caregiver for Aging Parents Needs to Hear (But No One Talks About) If you’ve found yourself saying, “What are we going to do about Mom or Dad?” — you’re not alone. In this powerful episode of The Advanced Adulting Podcast, I sit down with Neal Shah, CEO of CareYaya and dubbed America’s Chief Elder Officer, to talk real solutions to the growing caregiving crisis. We get into: Why Gen X and the Sandwich Generation are burning out What “aging in place” really looks like—and what it demands from YOU The loneliness epidemic (for both parents and caregivers) How to talk to your parents about help—without a fight Why med students might be the affordable answer to home care A shocking way to beat insurance companies at their own game And how staying connected could be the most powerful medicine of all 👉 Whether you're deep in caregiving or it’s just beginning, this is the episode you didn’t know you needed. 🔗 RESOURCES & LINKS: 💥 CareYaya (Affordable elder care): https://www.careyaya.org 💥 Connect with Neal Shah on LinkedIn: / neal-shah-careyaya 💥 Overturn denied insurance claims for free: https://www.counterforcehealth.org/about 🎧 Subscribe for weekly episodes tackling caregiving, reinvention, and real midlife talk. 💬 What are your biggest caregiving challenges? Drop a comment below! 🔔 Don’t forget to LIKE, SUBSCRIBE & SHARE if you found this valuable! 📺 SUBSCRIBE / @imbradleyrichardson 🆕 New PODCAST episodes every Thursday. New Videos throughout the week. 👊 If you’re in midlife (or beyond) and navigating this stage of life — “the real stuff we all encounter and were never prepared for, like caregiving, career pivots, aging parents, dating again, or just trying to keep it together and figure out your next move when life throws you something you never saw coming… 🧠 You’re not alone. You’re my people. 🙌 🎙️ I’m Bradley Richardson, a fifty-something, 5 x best-selling author, and host of The Advanced Adulting Podcast, and I’m trying to figure it all out just like YOU. Join me here and on YouTube for content and conversations for grown-ass adults trying to navigate midlife AND BEYOND. Getting older doesn’t come with instructions—so I built the next best thing. The Advanced Adulting Newsletter | A free weekly email for midlife & beyond. Join 300,000+ grown-ass adults getting smart insights, helpful resources, and no-BS advice—straight to your inbox. Every week, I send out real talk and real tools to help you navigate the messy, meaningful, and often unexpected parts of growing older. Think: career shifts, caregiving, dating again, aging parents, and figuring out WTF is next. 📫 Subscribe for free: https://advanced-adulting.kit.com/bb0... 📲 Follow @imbradleyrichardson on Instagram / imbradleyrichardson tiktok / imbradleyrichardson linkedin / imbradleyrichardson 💌 Contact: bradley@bradleyrichardson.com | www.bradleyrichardson.com 👇 Drop a comment if you’ve been hit with one of life’s midlife curveballs—or want more honest content like this. If you’ve ever said, “I need help with my older parents,” or “I can’t keep doing this alone,”—you’re not the only one. More and more Gen X adults are part of the Sandwich Generation, stuck between raising kids and caring for aging parents. This episode dives into what’s really going on with caregiving burnout, affordable home care options, and how to support your loved ones without losing yourself in the process. #CaregivingCommunity #GenX #SandwichGeneration #AgingParents #HomeCare #ElderCare #AdvancedAdulting #CaregiverSupport #RealTalkForAdults #MidlifeReality #Podcast
PODCAST | Advanced Adulting w. Bradley Richardson | Full Episodes
Bradley Richardson - Advanced Adulting
Transcript
if you have older parents that are still alive you definitely want to watch this video to the very end especially if you
or maybe your family are caught up in being Caregivers for your older loved ones on this episode of the advanced
adulting podcast we're going to be talking about an issue that impacts so many of us millions of us but we don't
talk about it it's the dirty little secret that's swept under the rug that nobody likes to talk about but many of
us regardless of background or income have to deal with and that is caring for mom or dad as they get older it's called
the sandwich generation and that's not just some cool buzzword that marketers put out there but this one actually has
some meaning and some teeth behind it because right now in America over 50% of
people fall into what could be this sandwich generation that means people who are in their 40s 50s or beyond the
jet xers out there who are caring for an older parent look the system is
dramatically broken it's problematic and figuring out what are we going to do with Mom and Dad where are they going to
live how are we going to provide care with them and how are we going to live our lives without breaking the bank and actually being able to care for
ourselves it's a tough one and that sandwich thing it falls right on us we are we are that Creamy Feeling right
there in the middle trying to care for our aging parents and many cases our
children who are younger or in their 20s just trying to launch and we pay the
price for it not only financially but also physically emotionally mentally and
in our lifestyle today we're going to talk not just about the the issue and the problem but we're going to talk about what to do about it what you can
do about it and see I think that's so important and this episode in the next few here on the advanced adulting
podcast we're covering this big issue that plagues so many of us Advanced
adults and that is what are we going to do for Mom and Dad how do we provide them with the care
that they need and that we want to provide them this is a burden but it's a burden that we lovingly accept but it's
a tough one for us today my guest is Neil Shaw Neil is the CEO of K Yaya K
yaaya is one of the fastest growing companies in America and the fastest growing Healthcare tech company Neil and
his team are one of the several leaders in the private sector who are changing how we approach home care and Care in
general for our older parents often called The Uber of Home Health they're using technology
and AI to dramatically transform the cost and the quality of care making it
easy and putting it in our hands look this is something that the government's not going to take care of it is the
private sector and its companies and people like Neil and others like Jubilee TV who are one of the sponsors of this
particular program who are leading the charge in developing ways for us to not
only be more connected to communicate better and to care for our parents and give them that feeling of Independence
as so many of them are choosing to age at home we talk about a lot in this episode and I encourage you to watch it to the end because this is not just
let's talk about the problems but in this conversation with Neil we talk about how you can actually take charge
you can take control and what are some of the resources tools and things that you can do not only to communicate with
Mom and Dad to meet with res because you're going to meet with resistance how can you give them that feeling of Independence how can you take care of
them and you yourself we're going to talk about the epidemic of loneliness we're going to talk about the
disconnectedness among generations and geographies and what you can do about that as well and this is really
important we're going to talk about insurance companies yeah I know that is they they are the the great devil for so
many people right now and you know what Neil and his team are doing something to lead the charge in combating denials and
appeals and helping you get what you deserve get what you paid for and if you
stick around to the end you'll learn more about that and how you can have an opportunity to take advantage of their new product for free that's going to
help you deal with denials and appeals for these insurance companies so this is
something you can use and that's really my commitment to you through advanced adulting here is we handle the issues
that really it's tough for all of us to deal with and we don't always talk about but today we're not just going to talk
about them we're going to figure out how we can deal with them and make your life and your parents' life better I'm
Bradley Richardson and this is the advanced adulting [Music]
podcast Neil Shaw welcome to Advanced adulting thanks for having me absolutely
I'm I'm excited to talk to you and I know that a lot of of people here a lot of our Advanced adults are because you
focus on something that every almost every single one of us is going to experience at some point in our lives
whether it's through our parents whether it's through a loved one and that's this idea of of caregiving uh one of the things that
that when I think people hear the word caregiving we think of it as a a nurse
someone in the health care industry something as a profession but really you the the stats are incredible right now
in terms of people in Gen X in midlife and Beyond we're called the sandwich generation and that's because we get
having to care for our kids who are just launching but also our older parents as well and caring for them
I agree I mean I think everyone's you everyone's going to be a caregiver everyone's going to need a caregiver you know I think if you were ever a baby
somebody took care of you you know and if you ever grow old enough where um you know you start losing some of your
functional limitations somebody's going to take care of you and then in between you're going to be taking care of other people you know whether it's kids or
parents so you're right I think it's like a you know caregiving is as old as people have been around um and I think it's now becoming a societal like almost
crisis if you will because the difference unlike long history is that now everyone's working and everyone 's
working for extended periods of time combined with everyone's living far away from each other so I think it really
creates like a change in the social structure you know like one thing we presented at a big conference recently was how many people only as recently as
two to three generations ago lived within 15 to 30 minutes of their parents it was like shockingly high number today
shockingly low number you know population is dispersed all over the country so I think that you know combined with how many people are like
both you know in the couple are working I think creates a shift in how Society needs to care what interesting it's it's not just the
uh the caregiving aspect but you're right is truly a sociological you thing because it's uh you live so far away I
mean how actively involved were so many grandparents in raising a lot of us yeah and now you're right they're dispersed
all over the place and when they're needing that care yeah um it it's hard to find or the burden and let's talk
about that about about what the act the realities of that burden now yeah are for for caring for some one who who
needs it yeah I think so one I think interesting statistic I think on on the burden of care is people physically are
living longer because of a lot of advancements in science and medicine right so like average life expectancy is
now pushing into the high 70s um but you know that hasn't hasn't kept up with
like neurological States so a lot of people are living their last few years of life in a situation where the body's
alive but you know they're living in some function of cognitive decline you know so dementia Alzheimer's Parkinson
Etc so there you have that Gap you know and many people call it kind of gap between like lifespan and health span if
you will you know I think there's different ways to phrase it but um you know that Gap as it grows requires now
many years of your life where you're going to need someone to help you which didn't used to be the case maybe as much 50 years ago um so I think that that
usually typically falls on if the spouse is alive um or the adult child um or
children um and I think that's a you know that's a notable um strain combined with our care system system in the
country being somewhat broken you know like you know Care Home Care is not able to address this without extremely high
costs there's consistent Staffing shortages facility based care has its own challenges Staffing shortages
affordability so you have kind of the situation where so many people across the country you know in our generation
um you know give or take are going to be dealing with this where I can't afford XYZ but I can't do it myself um if I
Penny pinch I might not get good quality like what do I do you know so um I think this is a big it's a big I think it's a
hidden crisis of our time well you're right and it's one of those things it's it's the the additional burden of not
just the the stress of you know seeing your your loved one uh need that care or
in pain or uh in their demise whether it was you know neurologically or
physically yeah but it is the um just the financial burden that that that my
my late mother um we we ended up uh my sister cared for her in her home okay
because the the cost I mean one just there's this stigma I mean the idea of Elder Care sticking sticking mom or dad
in the home is still that's a bad situation unfortunately that industry
you know there are people that do a great job and there but there's a lot that is just bad yeah and so you're gonna care for them at home and
that the stress of that the financial burden of that um it's tough on
everybody too not just not just the caregiver but the the family member as well right you're right you're right
okay so and and I'm I'm glad you brought that up you know I mean that's awesome that your sister was able to do that because you know what recent research
came out of Duke University on this and get this you know it's something we all know deep down if you move your mom and dad into a facility life expectancy goes
down by three years so it's a fact like you are giving somebody I hate to say it you know because assist living industry
is much needed and many people don't have a choice but it is really your accelerating death by three years you
know and and for a variety of reasons like social physical you know cognitive Etc so you know these are instincts that
people have had for obviously Generations or hundreds of years that I shouldn't put my mom or dad in that situation but now it's like backed by
hard science if that's what happens this is Baseline adjusted for everything right adjusted for race pre-existing health conditions income level
everything so and across spectrum of facilities so I think that is a challenge and I think if you kind of
combine that with uh societal preferences where if you think about the Assisted Living industry you know and it's like interesting like in our I was
born in the 80s right so it's like in my lifetime assist of living Concepts was like a startup right that then grew in
the 80s became a big thing then all these other companies emerged so the concept is only 40 50 years old and I
think with the Baby Boomers kind of having put their own mom and dad heavily into these places and with covid and
seeing what happened I think there's a growing desire in today's 70y old 75y old 80y old of like I will do anything
it takes to stay at home um you know and I think that so so you have this um shift in preference combined with
emerging research that it's not good for you to move so a lot of people are going to be dealing with Care at home and then
I think to your point it's like beyond the financial um impact the um mental
health and physical health stress on the family caregiver I think is notable when you take care of somebody at home there's another interesting statistic
that came out that within one year of taking care of somebody at home you as a caregiver have uh 25% chance or sorry
33% chance of having a mental health problem just from becoming a caregiver 25% chance of having a physic health
problem I mean that's nuts and we see that all the time in our platform like you have a somebody taking care of Mom
with Alzheimer's within a year it's oh I got some heart issues you know it's crazy I mean people you know it's a you
know Common joke a sad dark joke you know in the industry that sometimes the caregiver might die before the person
they're caring for but it's just the strain of caregiving is intense on the family caregiver right it's not it's
that in addition to the you know these are oftentimes your your Prime working your income earning years so the you
know your career is going to suffer not I'm talking about if you're on an upper trajectory you're just saying hey the amount of time yeah or when Mom's
calling you five times a day or hey I don't how to work the TV or whatever it is that that takes a toll because you
you can't be where you are you can't be present at work you can't be present at your own life or your own relationships
yeah and and that's a tough one what do you what do you see I mean and and again I'm not making light of this this just a
genuine concern that that that I've seen from first hand but also the conversations we have I know that um you
know my partner Shannon her her mother passed a couple years ago and I know
that you know she lived up the street okay we're fortunate in that now we had had people go in and care but it was
also that every day she's calling you know five times a day yeah and you love them you want to be there with them but
you're just like God mom being a pain in the ass I don't want to have to pick up this call you know I've had to tell you this five times yeah I mean what do you
what do you see or what do you suggest for for those that stress for caregivers yeah no great question I think that
there are emerging like Innovations and resources you know kind of available to people um so that caregivers can kind of
get a break you know I I I'm really um glad to be part of uh what a ARP is building with like the AG Tech
collaborative what they call it is like this huge Technology Innovation ecosystem where people are Building
Technology tools to help family caregivers kind of like keep an eye on their loved one give their loved one
like activities things to do safety home monitoring so I think that is a huge emerging field and I actually think that
you know as as that field advances a lot of like the benefits that currently might be marketed if like putting
somebody in a facility can be transitioned into okay these benefits are now available in a home setting so I
think that's like very encouraging I my kind of number one thing is like I would just like to encourage anyone out there to like join this ecosystem like I think
that we need more Innovation we need more entrepreneurship like there's so much Tech Innovation going on in America but like not enough going on in this
market and I think many people until they enter the market don't realize this is like a trillion dollar market you know it's like you know it's a huge
opportunity to do Tech and evision so I see that as like a big big positive but you know it's happening gradually and I
think I would like to see it accelerate well I'm glad I'm glad you mentioned I know I'm familiar with the the folks in the H Tech yeah H Tech Atlanta and and
those guys um there are so many people like you with Kaya with Jubilee TV who
sponsors this uh with really providing mechanisms and resources for people to
to take care of their loved ones at home and I think what you know one of the phrases I like in a lot of things is you don't know what you don't know yeah and
this particular idea of caregiving whether it is for uh your your older parents whether it's for a spouse or
someone else you you may know it's coming I think that's a big one for for your dealing with your parents we all
know it's coming we know Mom and Dad are getting older we know that they're going have to move out sometime but you don't want to think about it you don't like
talking about it if I kick the can down the road it's not it's not real yeah until mom falls in the shower yeah until
something happens and it's that oh crap moment when I have to do something and I don't know what resources are out there
available what be it technology be at AI be at a company like yours um yeah what
do you is there some sort of and I love the work you're doing is there any clearing house or what what would you
recommend if someone has that oh my God moment or they want to get ahead of the curve to look at this man that's a
million dooll question we all talk about that in the industry and like I I you know I love the guys at Jubilee TV I'm you know good friends with them and you
know I think they they you know they've built a great consumer awareness you know through their platform we've kind of built consumer awareness but it's all
kind of like these different points uh of innovation that people need the only comprehensive resource that I've kind of
seen as ARP I think they're trying their best to create this entire directory of like Innovations of you know that
they're kind of backing bringing them into their wing um you know we and jubile TV and others were out at
Consumer Electronics Show this year um so kind of demoing at the ARP booth and I think that's been kind of a cool
resource list otherwise I think most people kind of get their resources usually from their doctors you know Primary Care geriatric Etc when they're
taking somebody in for visit they're asking and I think that the healthc care system needs to better integrate into kind of aging and caregiving you know
right now caregiving is like this thing that's outside of Health Care you know if you go to kind of like whatever you know Mass General Hospital in Boston and
where you're taking care of your mom or dad they do everything health care but they View homebased Care as like
something slightly different you know and that's on you you know and I think that that's been like that for the last two or three decades but I remain
optimistic that it's about to change because you just saw the first step where Medicare rolled out this program
called the guide program for people dementia would change some of the incentives from the clinical care system to start focusing on support for the
family caregivers and it's the first time where now big hospitals like Mass General and others if you go in and you
say mom or dad or spouse has dementia they're going to now start helping you
you as the care partner they're going to say here's resources where you can get you know Care Help here's care
navigation um virtual guides to kind of help you people to talk to on the phone here's respit care where we'll pay up to
2500 bucks to just get a caregiver to your house so you can get a break it's the first time I've ever seen kind of like the healthc care system step up and
I think there's kind of emerging efforts like that because I think people realize like with aging population like you need to give resources to family caregivers
because 95 or less perc of the Care work is going to be happening outside the hospital yeah well I know that you've done a lot of work in this and other
people as well it's not just you know look this is an emic it's a crisis and and it's something that it would be
wonderful if the government would be able to to take care of that but like a lot of things yeah uh it's it's driven
through the private sector yeah and uh I think that's you know it's it's folks like you and others and Health Systems
certain Health Systems but um I think that's the one thing that I know from from personal experience yeah is look
you have to there are a lot of options and you need to find the right one for you and your family member and your what
works in your life right there yeah no I agree and I think that you're right about the private sector it's like the
government tries but like there just simply is not enough money you know I hate to say it right I mean we wish everything was free but um you know if
you look at the math on how much home care costs for people and how many people you know baby boers are one of the largest population cohorts in the
country and they're just starting to hit their late 70s you know kind of like the earlier ones that were born right after World War II are just turning I think 78
you know 79 this year so you have this like huge wave of people that's going to age into that demographic and the reason
I mentioned late 70s is that's really when functional limitations uh things like dementia Alzheimer Skyrocket right
if you're lucky to live that long 25% chance you're G to get it if you live into your 80s 33% chance you're G to get
it so like you're gonna have this huge wave of population enter that age GNA need a ton of care and at the same time
you're met with cost of Home Care let's say annual cost of Home Care in the country 60,000 a year right now per
person I mean good luck right the annual cost of facility based care you're probably pushing 90 to 100,000 plus so
like and forget dementia care I know you know I've had a a family m in that that's incredible it's incredible it's
unfordable so you're going to need private sector Innovation to step up you know like and I think that's kind of the cool opportunity the market signal is
there you know like the market signal from private sector from Tech entrepreneurs broader entrepreneurs is like there that there's a huge unmet
need the demographic is in your favor so it's a huge Tailwind government is getting ahead of the problem where they
realize like hey this is happening and let's create incentives organizations like ARP and other advocacy organizations are getting ahead of it so
I think that's like a huge signal and I think that's been like helpful for us because it's accelerated our Innovation so you know I'm pretty excited about
that we talk about Healthcare and the the physical needs and you know the the
um the neurological needs and of a lot of folks but one of the things that that
um I know you've talked and written about I I know is important and talk a lot about this as well is this idea of
the loneliness epidemic yeah and it's not just for not just for older folks
but for people in midlife as well I mean you know you know I I do a lot in the the men's mental health area you know of
you suicide and depression yeah and that has just extrapolated out you know with the burden of caregivers and on people
who are older and that idea of of a connection yeah um let's talk a little bit about that about the importance of a
connection and staying connected with with folks and and how how we can do something about that yeah sure so I mean
I think that and thanks for bringing that up I didn't even kind of give an introduction of myself but I think that's a good point you know so what we
run we initially kind of socialized as a caregiving platform but it's actually the biggest use case is a social
connection and companionship so you know for for starters we run a online platform which is many called The Uber
of caregiving where we connect over 28,000 college students across America most who are going to the healthcare field to be companions for older adults
in their Community most of whom are living with Alzheimer's and Dementia and you know started it because a lot of families needed caregiving Break um you
know needed support and and you know I'd observe through my own care Journey that students make exceptional caregivers many of them are doing this for
experience before Medical School physician assistant school nursing programs Etc and you know so we've scaled that all over the country we're
in you know California Texas Florida you know New York Etc and we realize the number one reason people are using it of
course the family caregiver wants a break but it's really for that social connection and companionship for the older adult and the number two benefit
we're seeing is actually it's actually benefiting the students too if you think about America as a barbell the two biggest populations that are having um
loneliness and social connection issues are older people and I think that really EX cated during Co because of the health
risk of going out and interacting with people so people got more and more isolated and lonely and then younger
people for different reason because they really crave connection and a lot of stuff went over virtual or zoom and
people in college and all that didn't get as much chance to socialize so these two you know by bringing these two demographics together we're really
seeing kind of huge mental health and even physical health benefits from that social connection but yeah I think it's
really been lacking in society over the last few years and I think to your point on the downstream Health implications
you know there was a research paper that came out about a year ago saying if you self-report as um lonely and you're
above 65 it's worth than smoking 15 cigarettes a day in terms of likelihood of premature death um it triples their
chance of getting dementia shocking shocking stat right 37% of people report
that so you know I mean you have like this um epidemic of loneliness and I think that in other countries like the
UK they now give you social prescriptions they've recognized it's a health issue so I think the US is like a
little bit behind on that but I think it's going to start shifting where like I wouldn't be surprised if five years from now your doctor gives you a
prescription that I prescribe you do social stuff if you're physically able
or we will get you a social companion to kind of hang out with you because we know it's impacting your health it's
it's important across the board I mean regardless young old in the middle it doesn't matter I saw something um
several months ago I saw something in a grocery store and is a priv for a private sector this a great great tip
but you know inevitably you're in a hurry you get stuck behind someone someone much older who's just talking
chatting at the clerk and you know you're you know you have somewhere to be so you're aggravated but I saw a store
that they had one off to the side it was a special Lane it was like hey this is your talker aisle and it greatness right
so for people that wanted to go and they really you know it was a slow aisle and you go and you can chat up and they had
one of their clerks there who was really good with everybody and you show pictures or talk and it's just it's the
small things and like said we don't know we don't know yeah but those those tiny bits those tiny touch points are so
important yeah right you're right and I think on you know to add to that there was even another study out um and I'll
send this in the notes if if you're interested where he suggested it's not even how many super close friends are
keeping in touch with you know the biggest contributor was if you had six to eight light touch social interactions
with different people throughout the day so kind of like old school stuff where okay your mailman comes to deliver and
you chitchat for 2 minutes go to the grocery store and talk with the person behind the counter for a minute or two
go to the cafe and chitchat like if you have those light touch interactions with several different people it is a
tremendous benefit to your perception of I'm not lonely even if you're not in depth spending hours and hours with one
or two people so it doesn't take a lot you know but but I think people need that and people and that's what's taken
the most hit during covid you know where people well and you're right and we we became we we fell victim to this this is
okay but that doesn't that is no comparison media is not is not you know
it's not the [Music] same hey we'll get back to this in just
a second but first do you have older parents whether you care for them across town or across the country you need to
know about Jubilee TV it's a great way to be able to stay in touch with your mom or dad to help them out with any
crazy technology and remote issues but also is a great way to keep track of them and to communicate with them
through your TV regardless of location look it's another way to show that you
care and to give them and you some peace of mind check them out at get Jubilee TV and use code adulting at checkout for 25
bucks off it's definitely worth it and we're happy to have them as a sponsor of advanced adulting and the advanced
adulting podcast now let's get back to it want to talk about communication for
a second because I think it goes hand in hand with connection but communication specifically let's go back to the caregiver themselves I know I use my
myself as example so my my late mother um we she had lived in West Texas where
I grew up I was in Dallas my sister was in Atlanta yeah and we knew we knew her health was declining she was fiercely
independent the whiskey and the teacup you know I'm okay I'm okay until she's not yeah and my sister and I for
honestly you know sadly for a couple of years had those conversations of what are we gonna do about her what are we gonna do about keep pushing it down it's
an unpleasant conversation because you have a an a family member that's fiercely independent that doesn't that
doesn't want to to give in yeah you don't know who's GNA who's G to take that burden of mom yeah what do you see
and and what what advice do you have for for caregivers or families to have those
conversations amongst themselves or with with a family member no great great question I mean we see this all the time
from people that are trying to use our care platform of like the struggle of like the adult children taking o you
know starting to take care of Aging parents and most of the time I think if people frame it positively you know it's
it's a big impact in just kind of framing right that that and and people use our care platform where it's like okay you're getting a pre-med college
student to help you so let's say if you're in you know Dallas it might be somebody at TCU that's like Premed right
active there or in UT Austin or whatever if you're in Austin and you know if people phrase it as hey we're getting
you like this person's going to be your companion you're going to Mentor them they're going off to you know physician
assistant school MD school so a lot of people are like you know where I realize like older adults where they deep down
know they want to help but they don't want to be a burden so if you phrase it as it's mutually beneficial and that's
why like I think a lot of our Care Program really benefits where people are able to sell their parents that you are
helping out this kid who wants to go be a doctor who wants to be a nurse practitioner Etc you're going to Mentor
them you're going to give them an opportunity to help you now the older person feels like I'm adding value in
this not that I'm being Babys set and I think that completely changes the dynamic I would say the same thing with
like you know people that um uh bring technology for their parents and try to install things it's like if it's framed
in a positive way not that I need to keep an eye on you through these kind of cameras but oh this is GNA help you do
blah blah blah um I think that those those you know it's kind of positive framing helps people um accept and
welcome help but I think oftentimes if the framing is done is in like um you
need help I think immed immediately people push back uh because they're like I don't want to be babysat and it really
kind of makes them come to terms with like the fact that they're like losing their ability so I think often times it's about Framing and framing it in a
positive way um you know excellent yeah excellent um I want to talk about K AA
for a second so you this is you know completely unsolicited you know but I love what you guys do and there you know
there are lots of um home care or caregiving Services I mean granted more that are popping up all the time you all
are a little unique in that uh you you do use college students there so it
benefits both people yeah um and it's not it's not a nurse it's not a health
care professional but it is more of a home care type of thing but one of the things and correct me if I'm wrong but
you know your your pricing model yeah is pretty unique isn't it I mean it's it's really no little if no charge am I right
no there's no charge yeah so there's a sustainability question long term which is on me to figure out but currently
currently the thing is completely free in terms of you book using our technology and you pay the student
directly and I kind of did that after you know I started to car after my own experience is a caregiver you know both for my grandfather um through dementia
and you know the whole phase of end of life care and then for my wife three years of cancer and in both situations I could have like really used care help
and every interaction with the care industry I just felt like you know and maybe those were just those instances but I didn't feel like the quality of
the Care was that good so you end up feeling guilty and doing a lot of the care yourself so I kind of wanted to build something that was like not only
high quality but really affordable and really convenient to use so we've been
rolling with kind of this free thing where it's like use the booking technology like uber schedule great
people to help you weed all the costs on the back end of all the college students are background checked verified
enrollment at the universities we only partner with select universities around the country then they're interviewed they're rated and reviewed not just
initially but every session they're thereof and all that is offered to the family completely for free through the
technology the family just has to pay the student directly and that is like a very strong part of the social mission
that um Home Care in America is way too expensive in most big cities you know I think if you're in the San Diego or LA
area it's pushing north of $40 an hour but that's not going to the person right less than half is going to the
individual caregiver so you have this like markup structure where and I I get it you know these local franchisees have
to operate and make money but the markup structure is insane so I kind of thought okay what if you build it through
technology you have economies of scale you get it all over the country and you have no markup structure so now all
these wonderful students like let's say you're a student at UCLA Premed you're making now 22 an hour going and helping
people in your community and the family is paying 22 an hour and they're like wow this is like 30 40% less than I would pay anywhere else and you've
streamlined a lot of the operating cost and overhead we don't do any kind of paid advertising we don't have like much
of like a sales and marketing effort it's all just Grassroots so the offset is like we don't have the budget that
like the traditional Care Agency industry would do it's all organic and Grassroots but the product is awesome
and it's very affordable and I I really say we don't even really compete with the agency based industry because if you want white glove service you might want
to use those organiz but for many who I I feel like are in this forgotten Middle where they don't
have 60 Grand a year to drop on care but if they piece things together they might have 15 20 30 you know they kind of like
ration the shifts and everything for those people um this is like a home run um and then from the student side it's an awesome experience too where like
you're getting um flexible hours experiences making income uh and getting really good learnings for your future
graduate education and clinical career so it's kind of like win-win on both sides awesome and and in the show notes
there we'll put how you can can access Kaya and learn more about it and and use that as well um it's more of a tactical
question for some how someone may use it I'm sure it may be different for every every individual but you know what do
you see as the Norms on how often they use it how often somebody comes and what types of tasks do they do they do for
the person sure and that that's a great question because it's it's different from what I thought when I started it um on average people are using it between
20 to 30 hours a week so it's like way more usage than I thought um some of the interesting new wants usage is that
because it's students and the students are full-time students right so they are available during the day but we're seeing heavy usage of the platform on
evenings overnight care believe it or not and weekend care so a lot of times people with dementia the son or daughter
doesn't want to leave Mom or Dad Alone by themselves overnight because they're like worried that they might fall if
they walk get up and go to the bathroom might wander off Etc um so those have been surprising usages and in those
situations the traditional care Market has even higher s charges because they can't find workers to do overnight
sessions when your traditional middle-aged care Workforce because those people have families so in this case like the price Advantage is even 40 to
50% lower than traditional care so people are using it for that but I say yeah 20 30 hours a week on average
people are using um people are typically getting matched with like the same two or three students kind of over and over
because people do like consistency and the students also like consistency so even though we call it like uber it's not really Uber in the sense of there
are reliable relationships building um and then the usage is like everything from just stay and keep m dad's safe so
like make sure if they get up to go to the bathroom help them if they need a glass of water to everything during the day prepare meals for them take him for
a walk play board games with them so it's heavily focused on like the social companion side subclinical you know so
the students aren't going to do anything like insulin injections or anything like that but a lot of the population with Dem Mana just needs like somebody around
um to engage them and really um brings peace of mind um to the son or daughter
so that's been kind of like really interesting to see but yeah people are that's great and I can than this is for anybody out there that that has College
age kids I mean my kids are are just out of college all they 20s now yeah but I mean what a what a great job and
opportunity for I mean I won't say easy at all yeah but what a you know look
college kids need to work all the time you need the income what a great way to actually give back and get and and have a job agree I think that's the most fun
part of doing it I think that you know that just like seeing like inspiring all these college students to do this instead of you know many of them would
otherwise do door Dash or work at their like local coffee shop or things like that it's like we've made it easy enough
and flexible enough for them to do that they wouldn't have naturally gravitated in this but then they do it and they're like hey this is awesome I'm actually
making income by helping people in the community and I you know I like to say like just given the way you know our society has gone like in the last like
five 10 years how many times do you think the average 20-y old in America interacted with somebody above 70 that
wasn't their own Grand right probably close to zero so I'd like to say like if there's one good thing we've done is like we've now facilitated tens of
thousands of intergenerational relationships between college students and older people who aren't their direct blood relatives all over the country and
I think that like benefits both sides and I think for the college kids it actually you know many of them are going to go become doctors we've already had
people and I I love writing letters of recommendation for people so I've like recommended so many of them to like med school physician assistant school Etc
many of them are now on their way to being doctors like we've been around for three years now so some of them are in first or second year of med school and
you can just tell that this person's like formative life experience in this Healthcare Journey started like this and
it really changes their perspective brings a lot of empathy to the needs of older adults brings a lot of empathy to
the struggles of family caregivers I think that many of them when they do clinicals at the hospital get like in
and out in and out you're seeing somebody for 10 15 minutes you don't you see everyone as a patient you know patient but like now you see the person
living with dementia for six months you saw them once or twice a week you really got to know them you really got to know
what their son or daughter was going through what their spouse was going through you know and like I think that when you get that like really empathetic
view from being inside what life is like all the joys and Sorrows like I think it makes you hopefully a much better
healthcare provider down the line I love that it goes back to what we were saying earlier it's about connection yeah you know that's it it's just every Everybody
Wants To Be Connected somehow some way and this is just another great way of doing it yeah um one more one more thing
I'd like to talk about you have uh uh you got a lot on your plate but you have a new initiative that you are are
working on right now that is is somewhat related and important to a lot of people in in the insurance industry and dealing
with claims and such and things of that nature right yeah yeah I do so I mean obviously it's a hot button topic now
Nationwide after the United Healthcare tragedy and you know kind of what happened with the CEO and like I think
that you know it really highlighted the topic to the National Forefront of like so many people are experiencing denied
healthc care claims and I think it's like an absolute travesty of what's happening I've been in the situation
myself like I I took care of my wife three years of a cancer journey and there were just so many claims denied
and like myself and my wife were like fighting for hours to kind of get some of these claims paid to get access to
treatments Etc and I've observed so many people on our platform dealing with this so we thought okay if the insurance
companies are like using Ai and these other tools to you know kind of like deny like crazy programmatically we can
democratize access by building AI tools to help patients and providers fight back so we're launching counterforce
Health which is a suite of AI tools that effectively makes it as close to one as possible to appeal denied Healthcare
claims the unmet need there is um about 250 billion of healthcare claims per year are being denied um so something
like 49 million of them off of those 0.2% of them are appealed like shocking
statistic right if you bother to appeal you have a 45 to 50% chance of winning
the appeal at certain insurers you have an even higher percent chance of winning the appeal so you know sometimes pushing
north of 80 90% so the insurance compan is kind of like taking advantage of the fact that if we deny you and no one
bothers to appeal we're off and we just pocketed the money and it's profit right so I'm like okay why not do it the other
way we're like you know the average person like let's say you appeal us incorrect billing the two biggest reasons are incorrect billing code and
medical necessity these are things you have to look up in databases if you're not a healthcare person or your brother
or sister is a doctor you're like intimidated and you're like all right they deny me $300 for that blood test I get scared and I pay it or I don't pay
it I wait and it goes to collections and then I get scared and I pay it or worse it goes to collections and it hits my credit score right for medical necessity
it's even harder because you have to like write and cite different Literature Like cite medical journals and say why
should something be done so the average person has no chance on this so the benefit here is with counterforce health
we launch these AI tools again fully free to use to individuals um you know and we're just eating the cost where you
upload your denial letter upload any other docs you have you know from your physician or your Healthcare System and
within two minutes it spits out a very detailed appeal letter fixing all the
incorrect billing codes uh fixing and citing in-depth medical necessity references that are clickable so no
chance of hallucination and empowers you with a anywhere from three to eight Page Letter that you can then just literally
print and send to your inure and we've had doctors use this tool we have like the section chief here at Duke use the
tool and he was fighting claims for his mom's cancer uh for the last couple years and he was like this is equivalent
of me spending six hours writing a letter myself and he was like that's him doing it right and he's like in the in the field and he's like imagine an
average person right like doesn't even have a chance so this is kind of like what I view as like the power of AI if
like you can make a lot of impact you can train the models well and then of course the more and more people use it the more and more the model trains and
becomes better um so yeah we're like launching that it's like in open Beta right now if people want to use it they
can go to counterforce health.org um but also you know we're like reaching out and partnering with clinics now we're
actually realizing there's 400,000 independent physician practices acoss the country and those guys are also screwed because denials is a revenue
cycle management issue for them you know of all the denials that happen you have about a 15 to 20% denial rate of claims
across the country right of all those denials something like 10 to 15% of them just don't get paid at all it just goes
to collections so each month per physician the practice is losing somewhere between 5,000 to $10,000 a
bucks a month of stuff that should have been paid out by the insur that ultimately the patient didn't pay so I think and then most of these practices
can't deal with it because even you have a billing person on staff the average cost to process a denial letter uh and
and fight an appeal is $43 so people have to calculate and think do I want my staff to spend $43 of their time if it's
a $100 thing a$2 200 of course if a $10,000 thing everyone will do it right these small small claims people are just
saying I let Let It Go so now through AI we've gotten this C our version 1.0 the
cost was down to 12 cents now this deep seek models came out and it's like crazy now that now version 2.0 the cost is
down to like Cent and a half and I think the way we're going we're going to get it down to like less than a penny so I'm
like hey I'll be processing like millions of denial letters you know just like appealing everything yeah what what
that that's a treasure right there I mean I tell anybody watching this just I jump all over that it it's funny so you
know little side note I spent uh almost 15 years as head hunter executive
recruiter specializing in healthcare Executives so Healthcare C CFOs yeah yeah and revenue cycle and it I left
that just amazed at the inefficiencies not only just you're talking about with
the insurance side and the billing and collections all that but just I mean look it's so complex if they can't even
figure it out on how do we get money in the door how do we bill for this yeah and it just trickles down it is the most
confusing thing on Earth and I love the fact you're doing something to help using technology to to help simplify it
that's thanks you know and and I didn't even tease the beta but I guess since we're on the topic the coolest magic of
the technology that it's about to be dropped we have it in private beta right now is we built an entire conversational
voice agent and the dream is you don't have to call the freaking insurance company the thing will just do it for
you because that's my my biggest pain point was I hated when my wife is going through cancer treatment and like there
were some really um tough times during that when treatments were failing and we were like panicking and then I was
wasting two hours on the phone just dealing with these insurance companies and you're dealing with somebody who's just going to be antagonistic and you
have to go through all this stuff you have to remember everything on the fly but ultimately if you spend enough time it gets the job done and you do get the
claims kind of like officially adjudicated so we built a voice AI agent and and this is the hot thing for 2025
these agentic AIS that can do the work for you so we're like testing that and that's the dream that one click not only
the denial letter but it reads all your info calls the insurance company and just deals with the Billings and claims
department on your behalf talks to them and voicei is getting pretty good now so if you train with all that background
info like it'll do a better job than you as an average individual who doesn't have a full train set up all the billing
codes and all the medical necessity kind of like reasons of appeal so that's that's going to be the version 2.0
that's coming but I I really hope that we can just be lighting up these insurance companies phone with voice Ai
and then it's like at that point they don't have a choice you know because like stuff is regulated like if enough people appeal um you have to adjudicate
it or we can force an escalation to an independent um external third party review and you know these insurance
companies will lose so um that's that's real help that real people can that's that that's it right there
because I mean that's making a big impact that's not that's not just hey how can I do something you know something cool and neat that's like that
is that's impacting your life yeah good stuff hey two more two more quick questions is something I ask I ask every
guest sure so what are you most excited about right now it could be anything
anything in your life business whatever what are you most excited about right now okay I guess since we're on that
topic my most excitement is I want to see a United Healthcare earnings call
where they blame the 100 million charge they took that quarter due to counterforce health just like jamming so
many appeals letters like I like that's my goal for 2025 I want to get the shout out on their earning call of like this
thing is becoming a pain in United healthcare's ass you know that would be that's that's a motivating you I I like
disrupt solution to what is a huge problem that people are just getting away with unchecked you know
so that's good good I I hope that happen um hey last question so we talked about
Advanced adulting here and about how to navigate midlife and Beyond the stage of life so I'm GNA ask you if you had a
time machine and you could go back 20 30 years and and have two minutes with your
younger self yeah what would you tell yourself about how to to better navigate
the stage of life oh man that is a really interesting
question wow let me think about that for a sec my
younger self how to navigate the stage of life I'd probably
say be grateful for your health you know I think that I've had like you know in
in my close obviously my grandfather passed you know and when I was in my um late 20s early 30s um and I saw how
suddenly that whole journey went but then I've subsequently in my not even mid-30s right before my mid-30s my wife
became severely ill and went through years of uh extreme cancer treatment and I think that it I realize like in your
20s and even in your 30s you take your health for granted you know and and um yeah I think that my perspective is like
you never know you know kind of what's going to happen so you know be very grateful you know for what you have um I
think that's something that yeah I've like learned through my career experiences like sometimes people get stressed out now when like things happen
like I've had a couple other family members go through health issues and I think I kind of like view it as more gratitude for the good times that you
had rather than fear and panic over what may happen wonderful you're a good man
doing good work and uh I appreciate a lot of other people do as well so you sh thank you for time yeah thanks so much
Radley I really appreciate it and thanks for the opportunity [Music]