PACE - Program for the All-Inclusive Care of the Elderly After thirty plus years where to from here?

Lori A. Herbig

  Care of the elderly is expensive, thus the government continuously searches for ways to provide care that is deemed to be cost effective and maintains or achieves a higher quality of care. Different programs and or services have emerged that provide home or community based care. One such program is the Program for the all Inclusive Care of the Elderly (PACE). PACE evolved from a 1970 start up program in San Francisco called On Lok, meaning “peaceful, happy abode” (Greenwood, 2001; Clearly, 1994). This article looks at the history of PACE, its inception, development, growth or lack of, as well as overall cost effectiveness and delivery of higher quality care than skilled nursing facilities. To that end, we ask if PACE is less expensive with greater quality and if so, why it has not grown much over the past 34 years.