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“Part of the startup costs is operating in those initial months when you don’t have a big enough enrollment to bring in the revenue that really covers all your expenses.”Īnother roadblock is the PACE application process, which requires the state to develop a rate-setting methodology for anyone who’s a Medicaid eligible PACE enrollee. “When an organization wants to look at developing a PACE program, it’s not just building the center, hiring the staff, having the right information systems, and leasing or buying the vans to provide transportation,” Greenwood said. One of the major barriers to furthering PACE expansion is how high the cost of entry can be for new operators. In total, there are 140 PACE organizations operating 272 PACE centers in 30 states, serving over 56,000 participants, according to the National PACE Association. They also tend to live longer under the comprehensive and interdisciplinary care model.ĭespite strong outcomes from many PACE providers, such as WelbeHealth, there is still room for expansion. You had no access to this program that increases quality of life and length of life.”įrance noted that PACE enrollees experience an 80% reduction in depression and generally have a higher life satisfaction. “None of these communities had any PACE services despite having a high need.
![pace program pace program](https://justiceaid.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/NDS_Pace_Logo-e1605809544640-400x175.png)
“We ranked California cities by highest unmet need, and started working on serving them, in order, beginning with Stockton and Pasadena in 2019, then Long Beach in 2020,” France said. The company added a Fresno program in late 2020 and will serve about 1,000 participants by the end of the year.
![pace program pace program](https://partnersadvancingclimateequity.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/pace-program-model.png)
Over the years, WelbeHealth has seen growth as the organization aimed to serve underserved markets in California. That was the nightmare context where we had these dramatically lower death rates.” The hospitals were full, and they had to fill up their parking lot pop-up units. “This is where paramedics were asked to start rationing care. “These were places where crematoriums listed their pollution caps because they had too many bodies piling up,” Si France, founder and CEO of WelbeHealth, told HHCN. WelbeHealth’s COVID-19 death rate was 2.4%, according to a recent case study conducted by UC Berkeley.įor context, WelbeHealth serves LA and Central Valley, which have both been COVID-19 hotspots at times. In fact, the national PACE COVID-19 death rate was 3.8%, compared to 11.8% in nursing homes. Overall, WelbeHealth and the PACE community had lower death rates than their nursing homes counterparts, research has found. If one provider exemplifies the performance success the model saw amid the public health emergency, it’s WelbeHealth, a Menlo Park, California-based operator of PACE programs. “There are many different kinds of providers - nonprofit, for-profit, housing - that are interested in PACE or relationships with PACE programs.” “The model just performs so well under COVID,” she said. While the PACE model has been attracting interest over the past few years, the COVID-19 emergency played a major role in ramping up this attention, according to Gong. “Having a capitated payment really helps the PACE model because we’re able to emphasize providing primary and preventive care over the things that are really expensive, which are emergency room visits, hospital visits or permanent placement in a nursing home,” Greenwood said. Typically, PACE is both payer and provider. PACE operators receive a set monthly payment for each participant. Based in Alexandria, Virginia, the National PACE Association is an industry advocacy group that focuses on federal and state policies to support the financial viability of the PACE model.īroadly, the majority of PACE participants are eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid.