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The Aged Care Association is urging the government to establish a taskforce to alleviate pressure on hospital beds.
A government report says that by 2043, nine out of 10 hospital beds will be filled with someone aged 65 years or over if the care model does not change.
ACA chief executive Tracey Martin said the report showed what had been said for decades - that New Zealand has an ageing population and it is growing.
Changes needed to be made as to how that population's physical needs were addressed.
"We're just asking for the opportunity to help the government address what has been a problem that several governments have known about," Martin said.
Martin said her organisation could assist the government with designing a better model for seniors in New Zealand that could see more people living at home for longer, before they transition into residential care in their 80s and then into palliative care.
It was about a continuum of care - and there was concern the government allowing granny flats to be built without consent would be its answer to the aged care accommodation problem.
Martin said she wanted to make sure seniors are "not left in small granny flats at the back of somebody's section".
"But are acknowledged and recognised and have their needs met out in the community as they age towards residential care."
Martin said the organisation wanted to be "at the table" for such discussions.
Health New Zealand director of Ageing Well Andy Inder said Martin was right in the fact that the country had an ageing population.
"In the next 15 years, a number of people over the age of 85 is going to double to almost 200,000 people and we do need to set the health system up to manage demand that will come with that."
There was currently a number of different care settings for older people - and hospitals were included, Inder said.
More than 38,000 people were in facilities today, but more than 80,000 people were receiving home and community support services in their own homes.
There was also "really high" enrolment numbers for over 65s in general practice.
"I think we have to acknowledge that in the large part, the system delivers for many people today and we have clinicians and support workers across the whole country in hospitals and in the community that are delivering for New Zealanders, but we do have to adapt the system so we can cope with the demand that's coming in the future."
For some people, hospitals may be the best place to receive care, but Inder said evidence showed the best place for older people to recover was in their own homes.
The health system needed to make sure it gave people the choice of where they would like to receive care - but said it also needed to look at how it adapted community-based services to support the health system as a whole.
