Olera Receives $3M Grant to Transform Senior Care Affordability
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The Senior Care Crisis: A Growing Concern
Senior care is unaffordable for most.
According to the U.S. Census Data, nearly half of Americans between ages 55 and 66 have no retirement savings.
Yet the average annual cost of home care is roughly $62,000 per year— and 7 out of 10 people will require long-term care like this in their lifetime.
Clearly, we have a big problem on our hands.
Olera's Plan Moving Forward
We are proud to share that Olera has received a $3 million Phase 2B Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Grant to from the National Institutes on Aging (NIA) to tackle the challenge of senior care affordability head on. Specifically, Olera will be building AI Agents to help families find and apply for senior care benefits to improve senior care affordability.
From Navigation to Affordability: Our Journey
“When we started our journey in 2020, we initially focused on helping families navigate the fragmented senior care space—helping themfind the right care for their specific needs. After assisting hundreds of families, we learned that finding care was just one issue.
Arguably the bigger issue was PAYING for care and other types of professional assistance.
It’s the elephant in the room, and most other players in the industry turn a blind eye to this” said CEO, and Former Pfizer biomedical engineer, TJ Falohun.
He went on to add: “Improving senior care affordability will undoubtably be a hard problem to address, It’s a topic that involves the rising costs of labor, inflation, understanding state specific benefits and eligibility criteria among various other factors. However, by being laser-focused on this problem, and thinking outside the box, I am confident we can find ways to help families better pay for care. It’s worth a shot!"
A Medical Perspective on Care Affordability
Dr. Logan DuBose, co-founder of Olera, who teamed up with TJ while perusing his MD/MBA degree from Texas A&M University, offers additional insights:
"As a internal medicine physician, I've witnessed the lack of regard in the medical community for the affects of healthcare costs and financial issues on patients' health. The strain that unaffordable healthcare places on families and patients is not just a financial issue--its a health issue. When families fear seeking medical care due to the financial implications or families can't access or afford proper care, health outcomes suffer for individuals and society as a whole. Our mission at Olera isn't just about making care more affordable; its about improving the quality of life for all of us, especially those who often need care the most like our seniors and their families. By focusing on initiatives that lower the costs of care, we're not just saving money--we're saving lives."
Join the Movement: Be Part of the Solution
But we aren’t just here to just here to share our success, but to spark a movement that addresses the critical challenges in aging care.
We are allocating a portion of these funds towards creating a community of individuals passionate about contributing to this cause.
We want to build this together. If you are any of the following, please we would love to hear from you:
- Caregivers to share their experiences
- Social media experts, marketing experts, and video producers
- Community champions to organize events involving older adults
- Senior care experts to tackle industry challenges
We literally can’t do this alone. If you are interested. Please complete the form below :)