Office of Long-Term Care to Request Additional $100,000 to Expand Home Care for Frail Elderly

The Office of Long-Term Care today plans to ask Senate and Assembly budget subcommittees for an additional $100,000 to expand PACE, the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly, a federal-state program that allows the frail elderly to reside in their homes rather than in nursing homes, the Sacramento Bee reports. Although California law allows 10 PACE programs statewide, the long-term care office has only established programs in Sacramento, San Francisco, Oakland and Los Angeles. The office lacks the funds to increase staff to administer additional PACE programs, Carol Freels, acting head of long-term care, said. She said that the long-term care office could use the additional $100,000 in state funds, as well as $100,000 in matching funds that the federal government would provide, to hire two additional staff members to help launch three new PACE programs statewide. Each new program would save the state about $1 million per year in the cost of care for frail elderly residents, she added (Teichert, Sacramento Bee, 4/27).