A few weeks ago, USA Today ran an article entitled, “No need for nursing home if PACE handles senior care” that discussed the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE). The program was started in the 1970s as a community project designed to keep seniors living longer in their homes by providing medical and transportation services for senior in the area. The program seems to work extremely well in the immediate areas that it is offered but lacks large scale potential based upon the cost and revenue structure of the program.
One of the most interesting concepts is that the program really encourages the staff to make sure that patients are as healthy as possible and providing consultative and preventive medicine. Can the program act as a model for reforming medicare and medicaid in the US? Probably not but it doesn’t mean that successful ideas and concepts can’t be used on a larger scale where possible.
