Zemplee Podcast : Episode 13

Monte Coffman, Executive Director of Windsor Place, saw the writing on the wall years ago. Running a brick-and mortar facility, Monte also led his teams in early adoption of home care with Remote Patient Monitoring technology in the mid 2000s. Since 2022, he’s been leading “Nursing Home Without Walls,” a model that proves we can deliver high-acuity oversight beyond a physical footprint.

Monte is also a cornerstone of the Coffeyville community, where his commitment to local charitable projects- the local Hospital and founding President other Coffeyville Public School Foundation- reflects a broader mission: ensuring that ‘care’ is something you receive, not just a place you go.

Books:

• The Servant as Leader by Robert Greenleaf
• The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey 
  

Reports/Studies:

• 2026 Care Scout Cost of Care Survey
• KFF: Medicaid’s Home Care Support for Family Caregivers in 2025
• KFF: States’ Management of Medicaid Home Care Spending Ahead of H.R. 1 Effects

Ishanya Anthapur (00:09.174)

Mark my words, the traditional nursing home is going to disappear. Not because older adults won't need complex care and certainly not because operators aren't essential, but because the current model brick and mortar nursing homes, the fiscal math no longer works. I mean, according to the 2026 Care Scout cost of care skirt survey, the national median cost for a semi-private nursing home, so not even a fully private room,

has hit over $100,000 per year. And according to a 2025 Kaiser Family Foundation report, some states are covering 60 % or more of all these nursing home residents. So this is definitely a looming budgetary crisis, both for the states and Medicaid spending, but also just for individuals trying to send their family to a nursing home. Additionally, the cultural tide is shifting. I mean, we're all aware that older adults

just want to age at home too. They don't want to be sent off to a facility, to a nursing home, and a semi-private room at that one. Most importantly for our leaders, I hope you hear this message. Shifting care to the home isn't just a preference. It's a necessity for the future. This is AI-powered caregiving, and I'm Aishanya Anthapur, a product manager from Zempley.

Exemptly, we're building AI-powered tools that allow older adults to age and play safely and stay connected with their care teams, professional and personal. Today, I'm joined by an exciting guest, MonteKaufman, who is executive director of Windsor Place, based out of Coffeyville, Kansas. Monte saw the writing on the wall years ago. From running a brick and mortar facility from the early 90s, Monte's also led his team through early adoption.

of things like home care with remote patient monitoring technology in as early as mid-2000s. Since 2022, he's also been leading a revolutionary project called Nursing Home Without Walls, which is proving out a model where we can deliver high acuity care and oversight beyond a physical nursing home. Monte's also the cornerstone of the Coffeeville, Kansas community, where his commitment to local charitable projects like

Monte Coffman (02:16.222)

Cheers.

Ishanya Anthapur (02:30.892)

the local hospital, and being the founding president of the Coffeeville Public School Foundation reflects his broader mission, ensuring that care is something we receive, not just a place you go at the end of your days. Monte, welcome to the show.

Monte Coffman (02:48.415)

Thank you, Aashanya. Glad to be with you today.

Ishanya Anthapur (02:51.628)

We're excited to have you. I'm gonna dive right in because you are a fascinating, innovative leader in the senior care space. And I think a lot of operators are really gonna benefit from your knowledge,your shared knowledge. Can we start with a little bit of your background about Windsor Place? Walk us through how you navigated being executive director of this wonderful organization for so many years. What are some of the major transitions you've

how to adapt to.

Monte Coffman (03:25.355)

I think if I could make it simple, I would say observe the world around you and put yourself into the place of other people and say, what would they want? What do they want? I'm a big believer in Stephen Covey in the notion of beginning with the end in mind. And so that's what all we've tried to do in the last 30 years is

Ishanya Anthapur (03:30.094)

You

Monte Coffman (03:55.104)

put ourselves in the position of other people, ask what do they want, start with the end in mind and see how we can then build and deliver that.

Ishanya Anthapur (04:06.69)

When you say other people, do you mean like the older adults in question, the caregivers, the staff?

Monte Coffman (04:14.505)

Yes, all of those. I think we are talking about the older consumer themselves. I think we're talking about the children of older consumers. And certainly we are talking about caregivers as well.

Ishanya Anthapur (04:30.606)

Is that kind of what led you to start to look into providing home care and using technology to do that back in 07 or 06?

Monte Coffman (04:42.495)

Yeah. So in our journey, we knew people don't want to be in an institution. So our philosophy at the beginning was then let's not be one and change the delivery system inside the institution to deinstitutionalize it. But then by 1996, we had an opportunity to start Windsor Place at Home Care.

Ishanya Anthapur (04:50.268)

Mm.

Ishanya Anthapur (05:02.03)

Mm.

Monte Coffman (05:09.42)

with caregivers in the home to support people there. And we knew that that expansion is where our vision and mission was, even though we continued to deliver care through the institutional settings simultaneously. And what we tried to do during that period, Ishanya was to

Ishanya Anthapur (05:17.678)

Hmm.

Monte Coffman (05:32.981)

take lessons from the institution, the more formal lessons, see how we could strengthen the home and community-based delivery system, while taking lessons from the home and community-based settings and say, could we deinstitutionalize the institution? And so we did that until 06, 07. And I'm a little bit country and I'm a little bit slow, but we realized...

People have chronic disease conditions way before they come to see us. And so what can we do upstream in the home to help manage and monitor the chronic disease conditions? And in most people, chronic disease comorbid conditions, how can we help them be successful and support them in their home? And so that was the beginning of our remote patient monitoring.

Ishanya Anthapur (06:01.945)

You

Monte Coffman (06:31.275)

was in 06 and 07.

Ishanya Anthapur (06:35.687)

That's, mean, I think it's so interesting you're saying your country and slow, but I

do really believe that what y'all did and the vision is pretty advanced considering this is roughly 20 years ago and there are still home care agencies, many that haven't adopted RPM technology yet or haven't warmed up to this idea. They're kind of operating on the more traditional model. So kudos, kudos to you and your organization really. What was it like? Did you find that?

running a brick and mortar and running a home care was beneficial to your organization.

Monte Coffman (07:17.439)

We did for sure because as I alluded to earlier, we were able to lessons learned from each of them. We consider ourselves like a laboratory and what could we take from the other parts to strengthen the whole? And no, was very helpful and I think very beneficial to us.

Ishanya Anthapur (07:40.48)

Yeah, you've also been through many iterations of RPM technologies. Is there any kind of advice you'd offer someone looking to implement RPM technology into either home care, into a home care service? Any advice you can impart based on the lessons you've learned, especially in terms of deployment, sourcing and, and yeah, the organization of it all.

Monte Coffman (08:08.895)

Yeah, again, let's start with the concept of beginning with the end in mind. As an organization, what are you trying to accomplish? Who are you trying to support? Those are very important questions. And then I'm a big believer in field demonstrations, inviting people in, kicking the tires on the solutions so that you can truly pick one.

Ishanya Anthapur (08:25.902)

Mm.

Monte Coffman (08:39.177)

that best fits your culture, your human personnel, and your financial constraints. And doing that work upfront, and that could take six to 12 months, but that will set you up for the long-term success of selecting partners that will be long-term fits for you, your organization, and the project and program you're trying to put together.

Ishanya Anthapur (08:53.582)

Yeah.

Ishanya Anthapur (09:08.034)

I think that's a great point that the initial effort put in while it might be long, it's not a quick purchase online, checkout kind of a thing. Putting in that initial work is really what will set you up for success. And I do love the concept of looking at what you are trying to accomplish at the end of the day rather than trying to adopt a technology because it's going to give you certain benefits, certain payoffs, certain advertising incentives, things like that.

Monte Coffman (09:37.503)

Very much so. And I would add this, does, we've seen many organizations and I'm sure you have too, that the new fad is out, the new buzz term, the new buzz equipment is out. And so people go and grab it with no real sense of how does that fit. And we see a lot of displaced equipment along the road.

that gets put to the side. And I'm just a believer in that heavy work in that first six to 12 months in the selection and the identification of objectives and why, and then make a good selection for your organization.

Ishanya Anthapur (10:23.534)

That's great advice. Great advice. I want to switch a little bit into some of the other type of work that you do. You're an executive director, obviously, of a care and service providing agency. We also are really heavily involved in terms of advocacy and sort of the legislative side of care. And I think that's something that most home care operators and senior living operators don't really get the chance to always dive into.

One of my first questions is looking forward back to what I said in the intro about how traditional brick and mortar nursing homes are not fiscally responsible, sub being, not going to be supported going forward. What in your opinion is sort of the budgetary math behind this? How would state spending and Medicaid spending benefit from some rebouncing towards home-based care?

Monte Coffman (11:23.403)

Yeah, you know, and that's really a great question, Shania. So you are right with your early statistics that on average, institutional care, even here in Kansas in the Midwest, is over $100,000 a year. And it's right.

Ishanya Anthapur (11:40.526)

Hmm.

Ishanya Anthapur (11:44.118)

It's just unpayable. don't know who can... I don't know who can pay that. On either side.

Monte Coffman (11:49.707)

It's rising fastly. It's rising quickly. We sold in 2022 our institutional business. And here in Kansas, the rates for institutional care have increased by 50 % since then. And it is unsustainable at that pace. We have found

Monte Coffman (12:18.543)

And our experience is that with the solutions that we have put together, we believe that we can provide an alternative to persons in institutional care for a third of that price, or the third of that cost of supporting a person in their home.

Ishanya Anthapur (12:32.43)

Hmm.

Monte Coffman (12:40.041)

Your question about advocacy, that's a big word and I try to reduce it down to storytelling. And if I as a provider and as I as a project manager can't tell my story, then who can? And so that's what we'vetried to do is to be active in our storytelling.

So it's clear and understandable and relatable.

Ishanya Anthapur (13:17.19)

Yeah, I think that's a, I love that concept that it's storytelling. You are trying to, you know, tell someone who is busy, who's got a lot on their plate and who has to make budgetary decisions, your story. Is there any advice for other operators or even like impassioned family members who

Ishanya Anthapur (13:39.04)

want to see some change in their own states or even in Kansas.

Monte Coffman (13:47.633)

Involvement. You have to talk to legislators. You have to talk to the leadership of the government agencies that oversee and support aging programs. Having said that, I have found legislators and even the agency leaders to be interested and to want to know. Everybody understands the cost of care is unsustainable. And people also know that it's the consumer's desire to stay home as long as possible.And it's also the payer's desire for consumers to stay home as long as possible. So I think the key to advocacy is just engagement. Tell your story.

Ishanya Anthapur (24:26.399)

So Monte, you mentioned one way to think about advocacy is by thinking about storytelling, as if you're trying to tell someone who's busy, who is getting a lot of requests and who has to manage budgets about a story or why they should believe what you're saying. Does that sound right?

Monte Coffman (24:51.119)

Yeah, you have to understand the audience you're talking to and that you are giving them a solution to a problem or a challenge that they are faced with. And in this, our particular case, we're trying to tell our story and provide a solution to legislators and policymakers who have financial constraints that they're trying to manage.

but also consumer expectations. And we think that on both of those fronts, our story is relevant and one that needs to be telling and who better to tell it than us.

Ishanya Anthapur (25:37.195)

That makes a lot of sense. When you say consumer expectations, can you elaborate on what that means a little?

Monte Coffman (25:44.495)

Well, consumer expectations. I think people want good care and good care outcomes, but financial considerations and financial costs are a huge issue for people to commit to and done in the place of their choosing. People want to be home where their stuff is. People want to be home where their memories are. And so I think those are the customer expectations.

that we focus on and try to answer for.

Ishanya Anthapur (26:16.759)

I think this is really valuable because when, for example, say if you're working in age tech or you're working in older services as an operator, as a caregiver, your story is more about improving care, improving someone's life, maybe even improving outcomes. But it's important for people to realize that when you're going to talk to large state officials or large...

Medicaid representatives, the story does have to shift. You're still committed at the end of the day to providing great care, to adapting with the times and taking care of this population. you know, if we want to make effective change, you've got to tell an effective story. So I think that's really valuable advice from your experience.

Monte Coffman (27:03.536)

That's crack.

Yeah, and one of the other dimensions and approaches we've taken is we involve family and or consumers in the storytelling so they can tell their story in their experience. And we've also invited and have taken legislators and policymakers into the homes of consumers so they can see it, feel it, touch it and talk to the consumer. So

there's a variety of avenues and mediums that we're using in our storytelling.

Ishanya Anthapur (27:46.231)

I see. Are there any policy changes that you're looking forward to or would be excited about to help change the way care is delivered for older adults and their families?

Monte Coffman (28:02.422)

I think one of the biggest policy changes is that they're become permanent funding to some of our technologies and our interventions. To this point, we've had some grant fundings. We've had pilot fundings. But for true widespread policy implementation to happen, we need permanent funding streams.

And again, we think the solutions we're bringing forth make great fiscal sense from a policymaker standpoint in that we're saving net cash, net dollars for claims being processed. But to get the adoption, there needs to be permanent public funding.

Ishanya Anthapur (28:57.333)

Yeah, that makes sense. And agree that it does make more fiscal sense because even according to like a KFF report and it was on Medicare spending itself, but transitioning and rebouncing a little bit more to home care based services, weather technology, and mostly with the support of technology, they were able to care for I think like three times as many people. So.

the same budget for one person being in a nursing home for a year was covering like three people in this case. So yeah, we're excited as well and hope we see some changes. And I think everyone is cottoning on, at least on the consumer side. So hopefully we'll see that drive some policy change coming forward. Do you have any idea of or any ideas creative or more?

literal of what would happen to the brick and mortar nursing homes. What's going to happen? That might be something that officials are worried about or other people are worried about that, you know, we've built that infrastructure already. What's going to happen to it? So I wonder what you think.

Monte Coffman (30:12.239)

Yeah, my beliefs are that there will always be a place for brick and mortar institutional care. Having said that, though, I believe that we can have much less reliance on those facilities as the delivery point of care. It does.

conditions do change for people and circumstances evolve where people do need 24 hour care immediately available to them. And in the congregate living in those cases, it would be less expensive to deliver that in institutional setting, but.

I think there are still a great number of persons inside of skilled nursing facilities whose needs could be met for a fraction of the cost in home and community based environments.

Ishanya Anthapur (31:19.825)

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. So that there is still space for these brick and mortar places, especially for like high acuity and care involvement. But people who can manage a little bit at home with a caregiver with technology supporting them aren't going to be taking up as much of the space in those nursing homes or those skill.

Monte Coffman (31:21.072)

Thank

Ishanya Anthapur (31:46.579)

skill-based facilities. So that does make a lot of sense. I want to ask a few quick rapid-fire questions just to end this, but are there any pieces of media like books or TV shows that you're currently consuming or highly recommend for people in your position or people looking to get involved?

Monte Coffman (32:09.967)

Well, currently right now, you may be disappointed in this answer, but I am currently revisiting some old favorites at this particular season. And one is Robert Greenleaf's The Servant is Leader. I'vealways loved his essay. It certainly helps keep me grounded as an organizational leader. And the other one,

Kind of similar to it is Stephen Covey's The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Again, I just think it's so pragmatic and it keeps me grounded in this season of immense change. And so that, as an older provider myself, that's where I'm at this time.

Ishanya Anthapur (33:03.617)

Yeah, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. mean, I think if you're going to be in this industry, coming at it with the sort of generosity, service oriented leadership is really key. It is really key. then obviously, yeah, Stephen Covey, wonderful management techniques all around. Have you ever used a Covey planner? I looked into it earlier this year, but they're really, they're quite expensive.

Monte Coffman (33:33.968)

They are, I don't use a Covey planner, but I am absolutely a planner with a alternative type of system. I'm a big believer in it.

Ishanya Anthapur (33:46.715)

nice, yeah you've got your own. That was my takeaway. I was like, I'm gonna, you know, create my own system that works for me. I think that's the way to do it. Awesome. Any TV shows that you'rewatching?

Monte Coffman (33:58.255)

You know, and I think that's just a lesson. I think that's just a huge lesson, as Shania, you referred to as whatever tools, whatever approaches, whatever model, you've got to make it yours personally and you have to own it. If you're trying to be somebody else or trying to do what somebody else, it's it's not going to go well. And I don't think it's sustainable.

So you can learn lessons, but you got to personalize it, bring it home, own it so that you can keep it going.

Ishanya Anthapur (34:34.263)

Yeah, so that it works for you and you're invested in it too. Yeah, thanks, Monnie. Thank you. Any fun TV shows that you are watching?

Monte Coffman (34:52.142)

You know, I watch some shows with my wife that she likes to watch. There's a there's a number of shows on Brit Box that are her favorites that she drags me along on. So, yeah, we have some of those.

Ishanya Anthapur (35:08.619)

that my gosh does she kind of dictate the TV what's going on on TV in your household

Monte Coffman (35:16.209)

She will share. I'm more of a news, current events, and sports guy, but she gets me to fun stuff too.

Ishanya Anthapur (35:31.041)

Gotcha, gotcha. What do you watch on the football when it's off season for football? What sports are you following?

Monte Coffman (35:40.33)

Well, I like college basketball and then certainly the golf season. So certain golf tournaments get our attention. And who doesn't love the Olympics that we just finished? I mean, what wonderful personal stories behind so many of the events and the athletes.

Ishanya Anthapur (35:44.165)

nice, yeah.

Ishanya Anthapur (35:53.334)

Yeah.

Ishanya Anthapur (36:01.355)

Yeah, found athletes are so inspiring. So I do, I love hearing about their stories as well. But yeah, at the time of filming, we'll be getting ready for March Madness, which is upcoming. So that'll be really exciting.

Ishanya Anthapur (36:23.831)

Well, thank you so much, Monte, for being on our little show. We were so excited to have you, and I'm so glad that we got to hear your insights. You are an innovator. You are a people mover and a policy changer. And so I hope a lot of people can take these lessons and apply them in their own life, in their own spaces, and move them forward.

Ishanya Anthapur (36:56.759)

Bye money!