Seniors

Seniors PACE Program: Helping Elders Remain In Own Home Instead of Nursing Home

Q. My husband has become frail, and his doctor says he may need to go into a nursing home. However, neither of us is happy with that plan. I want to keep him home. Is there a program that might help us?

By Gene L. Osofsky, Esq.

SPECIAL TO THE FORUM

A. Yes. The “Program for All Inclusive Care for the Elderly” (“PACE”) may be just the ticket.

The PACE program has been designed to help frail elders live independently as long as possible in their own home, which is exactly what both of you desire.

It is designed for those elders who would otherwise be at risk of nursing home placement.

Here’s how it works: several times each week PACE would pick him up at home in a specially designed van and transport him to a local community health center where he would receive all medical care, rehabilitation therapy, social services, recreation, socialization and hot meals with other seniors.

At the end of the day, he would be transported back home to be with you. It would also provide some in-home care services to assist him with his needs at home, and thus help relieve the burden upon you.

To be eligible for the program, one must be at least 55 years of age, have medical problems which require ongoing care, but yet be able to live at home safely (perhaps, with a spouse or other care person to assist), as determined by the evaluation team.

The level of care is designed to be comparable to the care received in a nursing facility. The senior must also live in a service area covered by the PACE program and, fortunately, you probably do if you reside in the Bay Area.

Once your husband joins the PACE program, all medical care will be provided by the PACE program, which unfortunately means that he will have to give up his own physicians and, instead, begin seeing the physicians at the PACE facility. However, the good news is that the PACE program provides a team of doctors, nurses, social workers, personal care attendants and dietitians who would be responsible for all of his care, and all of that care would be centralized at the PACE Center and supplemented by in-home and referral services.

In the event your husband needed hospitalization, even expensive surgery, PACE would pay for that without additional cost.

PACE is primarily paid for by Medi-Cal and Medicare, and most participants are covered by one or both programs and have either a modest flat monthly co-pay, or none at all.

The PACE program would also work if one or both of you lived in an Assisted-Living Facility, although it would then only cover medical costs but not room and board.

Also, if one of you needed PACE services and the other did not, the good news is that the Medi-Cal law – which includes provisions designed to avoid Spousal Impoverishment – would help protect savings and household income for the “well spouse”.

PACE enrollment can also work for a single senior, as the in-home services include personal care as well as some housekeeping, shopping, meals, and the like.

To learn more about PACE, contact the Center for Elder’s Independence at 844-319-1150 or visit on line www.cei.elders. org, or www.pace4u.org. For hotlinks to more PACE resources visit our website. To learn more about protecting assets under the Spousal Impoverishment Laws, contact an Elder Law Attorney.

PROGRAM FOR ALL INCLUSIVE CARE FOR THE ELDERLY: The PACE program provides some in-home care services to assist with patients’ needs at home, and thus helping relieve the burden upon family or spouse.

Gene L. Osofsky is an elder law and estate planning attorney in the East Bay. Visit his website at www.LawyerForSeniors.com.

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SENIOR NEWS LINE Seniors, Beware Of These Scams

By Matilda Charles

SPECIAL TO THE FORUM

Most scams keep repeating year after year. After all, the scammers are making big money doing those Nigerian grandson/auto-warranty scams, so why would they drop them? However, new ones keep popping up.

If you shop online, beware of acci- dentally typing in the wrong name. Scammers have created websites with actual information from real store websites, but with a slightly different name. If you shop at a fake store and put in your credit card, the scammers will have immediate access to it.

If you learned how to do Zoom or other online conferences to talk to your family, beware any emails or messages you get about your Zoom. Scammers have set up thousands of Zoom-related internet links for the sole purpose of getting you to click on one they send you. The instant you do, malware (malicious software) is loaded into your computer. From that point all your personal data is at risk. Ignore those emails or messages. If there’s a problem with your Zoom, go straight to the Zoom site and check it from there.

In a sign of the times, there are fake COVID contact tracers that ask for personal information and Social Secu- rity numbers. Hang up if they call you.

A big problem is that often we don’t report the scams. We’re embarrassed, or we’re afraid the scammers will retaliate, or we just don’t know where to report it. If nothing else, you can call the police. If the scam happened on the Internet, contact the FBI’s Inter- net Crime Complaint Center (www. ic3.gov). The center has logged over 6 million complaint calls — a big por- tion from those over age 60.

Scammers are everywhere, and it’s up to us to stop them in their tracks by being wary of phone calls, emails and the internet.

© 2021 King Features Synd., Inc.

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