Senior care provider InnovAge started trading today under the ticker "INNV." InnovAge CEO Maureen Hewitt joins Yahoo Finance live to discuss the company’s IPO and what’s in store for 2021.

Video Transcript

AKIKO FUJITA: Well, senior care provider InnovAge raising $342 million in its IPO today. That stock up about 10 and 1/2% after pricing well above its initial range. The Denver-based company provides health care services to those 55 and older, specifically targeting those who want to live independently outside of nursing homes. Let's bring in Maureen Hewitt. She's InnovAge's CEO. Maureen, it's great to have you on today. Congratulations on the listing. Walk we through the timing of this, why you decided to come to the market now.

MAUREEN HEWITT: There's over 2.2 million PACE eligibles, nursing home eligible seniors across the United States. And we were just ready to take this next transformational change in our organization, and to begin serving even more seniors, and we're just so excited to be here, and thank you so much for having me.

ZACK GUZMAN: I'm also curious, when we look into the numbers on the IPO, it's interesting to see the growth here, considering this aging demographic, and really the independence that I think a lot of people who are retiring or aging into those decisions right now. You guys are across, what, 16 centers in five states? Talk to me about what the growth story looks like. As we know, boomers are really having to start to figure out what they're going to want to do at that time.

MAUREEN HEWITT: Yeah. PACE is really a value-based health care program. It's combining the medical care with social determinants of care, and bringing it together, being 100% globally capitated, fully at risk model. There are many seniors across the United States, and the consumer wants to age at home for as safely and for as long as possible. And I think InnovAge and PACE programs demonstrate that ability.

BRIAN SOZZI: Maureen, it's so interesting with your company. You have an all-female management team, from top to bottom. Talk to us about how you built that team.

MAUREEN HEWITT: It's really important, I think, when you're a leader to represent who you serve at the end of the day, and also just to have the experience and breadth. What you see with the team of InnovAge and the leadership team are experienced operators, experienced caregivers. I myself had to care for my mom and dad all the way to the end of life. This is a difficult, challenging journey, and I think the best way to represent leadership in a company like InnovAge is to hire people that really have that experience.

Diversity is key. Look at who we serve. We represent the community, and as leaders, we need to walk the talk, and I think that's what we've done here.

AKIKO FUJITA: Yeah, no question InnovAge has led the way on that front at a time when there's so much discussion about diversity on the board. Maureen, I'm curious about your growth prospects. What you're looking at right now. No question the demographics are in your favor, and yet it does feel like during the pandemic, there's been a reassessing of nursing homes, and just elderly care overall. What have you seen specifically as a result of what's played out over the last year, how maybe some of the demand in the market has shifted?

MAUREEN HEWITT: I think so many of us in the PACE industry, and particularly with InnovAge, have learned so much during the pandemic, and what we've learned about the PACE model is its flexibility and its agility.

We took center based care, and during the pandemic, rolled it out within one week into everyone's home, and augmenting it with Telehealth. I think if there was a silver lining here around a pandemic, it really demonstrated in our organization just the importance of being flexible, being agile, being able to deliver the care that these frail seniors need, while keeping them safe. And I think you're going to see more of that going forward as an impact of the pandemic.

ZACK GUZMAN: How does the decision to go public now maybe change the investment horizon for you guys at InnovAge? Because just looking at profitability here, adjusted EBITDA growing 27.6 year over year, 51.7 million, 65.9 million. How much does that grow as you build it out beyond just the states you're operating in now?

MAUREEN HEWITT: I think InnovAge absolutely has an opportunity, regardless of being a public company, which is so important, I believe, from an awareness standpoint, we're going to focus on our business at the end of the day, caring for people, and implementing the plans that we've stated in the S-1, and how we're going to move forward with scaling InnovAge. There is a large TAM, as I mentioned. There are over 2.2 million pay eligibles, and one thing I want to point out too, just the importance of senior health care and value-based care going forward is that by 2034, older Americans will outnumber children under the age of 18. So I think there's plenty of growth and opportunity going forward for InnovAge and for the Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly.

BRIAN SOZZI: Maureen, Jeb Bush is on your board of directors. What type of advice have you gotten from him?

MAUREEN HEWITT: Look, we have developed a bipartisan board. We represent what the rest of the world should do, and that's called working together. We have a bipartisan board, we have two former CMS administrators on our board as well. And this is the thing. I believe that if you love your mom and dad and your grandparents, you're going to love this program. And I think that's why I have quality people like Jeb Bush, who are very experienced people, helping us with this initiative.

AKIKO FUJITA: Maureen Hewitt, InnovAge CEO, it's great to have you on today. And our thanks to Yahoo Finance's Brian Sozzi as well.