A nonprofit hospice and healthcare program is helping elderly Floridians age in place.
The Program for All Inclusive Care for the Elderly, or PACE, funds medical and other services for seniors who need extra care but don't want to be in an institutional setting, such as an assisted-living facility or a nursing home. To qualify, seniors must reside in the county where they're seeking care and be dual-eligible for Medicaid and Medicare.
Millions of dollars in state funding for new PACE programs across 14 counties were vetoed by Gov, Ron DeSantis late last month.
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Nicholas Joseph, the senior vice president of the complete care division for Empath Health in Tampa, oversees the sole PACE program operating in Pinellas County. It's called Empath LIFE, or Living Independence For the Elderly.
Joseph said the vetoes do not impact funding or operations for pre-existing programs.
"We can accept patients...we can continue to provide all the care under the PACE umbrella. There is no change to our daily operations," he said.
After hospice and home-care organizations, like Empath Health, receive PACE funding in Florida, they must also obtain contracts with both the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA). This allows the organizations to receive a monthly capitated rate — or a fixed, upfront payment from Florida Medicaid per patient enrolled in the program — as well as a risk-adjusted payment from CMS, or Medicare.
That's why, Joseph said, the June vetoes won't affect their current funding. It does, however, impact the future growth of PACE services in the state.
"Those were for competitive companies to come in and set up a program that would compete directly with our program," Joseph said. "Because Florida's so PACE-friendly, a lot of people want to move into the state of Florida to continue to expand the PACE model, since it's such an effective program."
Empath LIFE is currently serving roughly 500 seniors across Pinellas, Hillsborough, Manatee and Sarasota counties. Find more information about home-health care at empathhealth.org.
Gabriella Paul covers the stories of people living paycheck to paycheck in the greater Tampa Bay region for WUSF. Here’s how you can share your story with her.
