Question; In my Medicare & You handbook, it found something called PACE. Do we have a PACE locally?

Answer: When talking about Medicare, the PACE you are referring to is an acronym and stands for a Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly. PACE is a program that provides comprehensive medical and social services to certain frail elderly individuals still living in the community. The community is defined as their own home or home of a family member. Most participants who are enrolled in the PACE are usually Dually Eligible, meaning they qualify for both Medicare and Medicaid.

These PACE programs provide a wide range of services, including but not limited to: Adult Day Care, Emergency Services, Home Care, Meals, Nutritional Counseling, Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy, Primary Care, Social Worker, Counseling. Transportation, Hospital Care, Outpatient Medical Care, Specialist, Nursing Services, and Prescription Drugs.

This PACE program becomes your Health Insurance AND your service provider. It incorporates the features of Medicare and Medicaid as well as those services provided in a Skilled Nursing Home. But it does this while the individual lives in their own home. This means you have an interdisciplinary team that includes the individual and all the professionals we just mentioned who work together to develop a plan of care to keep individuals healthy, stable and safe as possible in their home environment.

There are not PACE programs in every area of the country. We are lucky to have a well-established PACE program called Total Senior Care and it is based in Olean in Cattaraugus County. The Total Senior Care program has started to expand into Allegany and Chautauqua County as well.

Total Senior Care enrolls individuals 55 years and older who qualify for both Medicare and Medicaid and the services offered by the PACE program. Not every individual qualifies, but if you feel you or a family member needs the services we mentioned and wants to stay in their own home, it is worth looking into Total Senior Care.

An individual who does not have Medicare and Medicaid could still qualify for the PACE program by paying the portion of the program cost that their health insurance does not cover.

When enrolled into the PACE program, the individual attends the Day Program for one to five days a week. This gives the individual an opportunity to meet with staff, receive appropriate therapies, have assessments completed, and socialize with others.

The PACE program in our area is Total Senior Care and as I said the main office is in Olean, but this program contracts with and provides services in three counties, Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and Allegany. So the individuals that can enroll in this program must live in those three counties. Total Senior Care has multiple locations to meet with you or their staff can come to your home to assess your individual situation. Total Senior Care staff will then determine if you could qualify for this comprehensive care model.

Why not reach out to Total Senior Care today to see if their services fit your situation? Their number is 866-939-8613 and they also have an interesting website with lots more information at www.totalseniorcare.org.

This PACE program, Total Senior Care, may be one of the biggest secrets in our area. Very few people seem to know about it and few understand what a PACE is, so I appreciate you asking about it.

Janell Sluga is a Geriatric Care Manager helping seniors in our community access services and insurance. To reach her, please email editorial@post-journal.com.