A new program will offer a team approach to help keep elderly residents in their own homes and out of nursing homes as long as possible.
PACE Central Michigan will be located at 1750 E. Bellows St. in Mt. Pleasant, on the southwest corner of Isabella Road and Bellows Street. It is run by equity partners Michigan Masonic Home and Presbyterian Villages of Michigan.
The building previously housed medical offices, so it is not new construction. Instead they have been busy with remodeling, according to Tim McIntyre, executive director.
“PACE is a health plan. People enroll in it somewhat like an insurance program. The benefits we provide are all-inclusive. Everything that’s provided here, all the medical care that’s provided here, the activities, the therapy, is all-inclusive. We provide home care. The benefit covers all of their prescriptions medications, anything that’s medically necessary,” he said. “Our goal is to keep them in their own homes and avoid institutional placement as long as possible.”
PACE stands for Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly. There are several in the state, and PACE Central Michigan will serve Isabella, Clare and Gratiot Counties, part of Midland County, and some smaller parts of Gladwin, Roscommon, Montcalm and Clinton counties (based on zip codes).
Mt. Pleasant was chosen because it is centrally located for the three main counties.
“For me, (it’s) the ability to take these individuals and keep them with their families,” said Cindy Bosley, chief executive officer of Michigan Masonic Home. “There are a lot of really nice nursing homes out there, there’s no doubt about it, but there’s no place like home. So if someone wants to be at home, that becomes the focus of this entire program.
“And it also provides an opportunity for those families or caregivers who are with the individuals in the home, for respite…. During that period of time when they are here, those families have an opportunity to have a life as well. That becomes, I think, probably one of the biggest benefits for the home environment itself.
“Those people that dedicate themselves to their family members, taking care of them, that don’t have something like this, they never get a break. This gives them that support system so that they can honor their family members and keep them closer longer,” she said.
The center will be open five days a week, although some people might go there only two or three days a week, or however often they need to.
To be eligible, one must be at least 55 and qualify for a nursing facility level of care. The program allows for higher levels of income than Medicaid traditionally allows for someone going into a nursing home.
The program is approved by the state to serve 150 people.
Preet Grewal has been hired as quality director and center manager. They also will hire a medical care director and primary care physician.
In all, McIntyre expects there to be a staff of about 30 in the first year, with 60 or 70 people employed with the program by year four.
The building will have a doctor’s office, a pharmacy, and an observation room for if someone isn’t feeling well.
A day room is set up in a large room, with numerous tables and chairs, a fireplace and TV, and large windows. A patio will be built soon.
Breakfast and lunch will be served.
The program aims to meet the needs of people whose health issues will vary drastically from person to person. Laundry is on site, in case someone soils their clothes.
A bathtub and shower are available for those who are at risk of falls or have other concerns that make it difficult to take baths or showers at home.
Physical therapy also will be done on site.
They will have drivers to help with transportation needs, such as trips to the center or a doctor’s appointment.
A big issue facing the elderly is loneliness and isolation and the center aims to help with that through group activities and the day room to socialize and hang out in.
“How often they come depends on a lot of different things,” McIntyre said. “One is their preference. Or if there is a health episode that the clinic wants to see the person every week, or they are in therapy three times a week. There are people that just don’t have anything else going on, and so, we will want them to come every day, even though they will be coming here for the most part just for the social activities.”
McIntyre said that over 90 percent of the people they will serve will be enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid. The Medicaid income limit for PACE is higher than the traditional Medicaid limit.
As an example, someone living in his or her own home who applies for Medicaid, has to have somewhere around $950 or $970 a month in income or less. With PACE, that amount is closer to $2,100 a month.
“It opens the door a little bit to let more people come in,” McIntyre said. “If I’m outside of PACE and am going for Medicaid, and I’m over that income amount, every month I have to spend down to get into the Medicaid program and the services available to me in my home are very limited. There is almost no in-home care. You get into the PACE program, it opens up all of the services we’ve talked about. We can do home modifications, build ramps, widen doorways, anything we can do to support independence.”
To get into the program, a person would undergo an assessment at the center with a physician, and a home team would do an assessment at the person’s house. If they don’t already have Medicaid and are eligible for it, the staff will help them get in the Medicaid program.
“This is my first time in all my health care career, that I’ve seen an interdisciplinary team so fully developed as it is in a PACE program,” Bosley said. “This truly is the entire team coming together, including the bus driver. If this participant is doing X, Y, and Z, they become part of that team to make sure it gets done. It is fascinating to me to watch this process.”
PACE programs must first be approved by the State of Michigan and then the state recommends them to the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services for the final approval.
The center is scheduled for a Readiness Review with the state on May 14 to see if work on the center is done. All of the service policies must be in place and some of the core staff also must be in place by then.
They expect the center to be opening in the fall.
“The PACE model is based on the idea that it’s better to keep people at home as long as you possibly can,” McIntyre said. “There also has been a lot of research over the last 10 years or so about PACE that proves that it works. PACE participants use the hospital less frequently than their counterparts that are not in the program. Even though they qualify for nursing home placement, they are actually at low risk of a nursing home placement because of the comprehensive services we provide.”
They will develop a provider network, and will contract with hospitals, home care agencies, meal providers, etc., and they plan to work with MidMichigan Health and McLaren Central Michigan, as well as the Sparrow Health System.
Bosley said they are not competitors for programs like Commission on Aging, as they may utilize their services as well.
“PACE helps support those,” she said. “Commission on Aging when they’re providing services to those individuals, they truly are seeing individuals that are moving in the direction of needing nursing home services. They could qualify for PACE and still be a part of the Commission on Aging services, the PACE services, and that whole thing keeps the people at home instead of in that nursing home, which takes them out of their entire operation. So we’re committed in PACE Central Michigan to utilize as many services as absolutely possible within the counties that we’re going to be serving.”
The Bellow Street building previously housed a doctor’s office, which has moved to a location on Broomfield. An urgent care center and a couple of other offices in the building will stay there as tenants.
More information on how to be a part of the program will be available closer to the center’s opening date.