When now Community Care Chief Medical Officer Mary P. Gavinski, MD, first saw the PACE model in action, she thought to herself, “This is truly the way geriatric care should be done.”

PACE, or Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly, is an innovative model that provides a full range of long-term, primary, acute and preventive care to enable individuals who are 55 years old or older and certified by their state to meet a nursing home level of care. Through Community Care’s PACE program, today’s fragmented health care financing and delivery system comes together to serve the unique needs of each individual to help him or her live as independently as possible in the community.

Community Care in the forefront of PACE providers

PACE started in San Francisco in the 1970s as a long-term care demonstration project. It coordinates all services through an interdisciplinary team and often through adult day health centers.

Community Care operates five PACE teams in Milwaukee County and is the only PACE provider in Wisconsin. In 2003, Community Care was approved as a permanent PACE Medicare provider. We are also one of only four sites in the country authorized by the National PACE Association to assist in the implementation of PACE programs across the country.

Key components of the PACE model of care include:

• An interdisciplinary team that plans, delivers and oversees care across all settings, from the home to the hospital
• A day center where a broad range of service providers — including physicians, nurses, therapists and personal care aides — are readily accessible
• A flat, capitated payment that allows PACE providers to respond to the needs of each participant rather than the incentives of a fee-for-service system
• A transportation system that connects participants to services in their community