PACE comes to VA
Posted by Patti on October 12th, 2007 / Print This Post
Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly- AKA PACE- has set up services in the state of Virginia. This is very good news.
Kirby Turner uses a walker to get around, but that didn’t stop him from doing a spirited dance to celebrate his 66th birthday recently.Turner, who also has a mental disability, might have ended up in a nursing home, away from family and friends. But he’s able to live with his nephew, thanks to a day center that provides him with transportation, home care, meals, doctor visits, and yes, even a birthday cake.
The center, called Sentara Senior Community Care, has been around since 1996. Next month, it will become Virginia’s first official site for PACE - Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly.
There are 40 other such sites in the country.
The federal designation will mean expanded services for the 130 people at the day center, and will help Sentara Life Care Corp. launch a second center in the region next year.
The second center could provide as many as 130 more people with an alternative to institutional care.
The PACE model is considered to be the wave of the future, as interest in “aging in place” grows among the elderly and the baby boomers coming behind them.
“Our research shows that 80 to 85 percent of older Virginians want to stay in their homes as long as possible,” said C.D. “Tony” Hylton III, communications director for AARP Virginia, which advocates for people 50 and older.
The participants at PACE centers are frail enough to qualify for nursing home care. But rather than pay for services in institutions, government funds the necessary tools - transportation, health care, home-health aides and recreational activities - to help participants stay at home.
Riverside Health System is awaiting approval for a PACE center to open in Hampton in January. The health system also plans to open a center in Richmond in late 2008. Three sites in the western part of Virginia are in line to become PACE centers next year as well.
The programs are funded by Medicare and Medicaid, government’s two main insurance programs for the elderly, poor and disabled.
There’s lot more to read HERE.