Nursing Home Care at Home, the Secret is Out

Senior LIFE Lehigh Valley Talks About a Relatively Unknown Program

Katie Briggs, the outreach coordinator for Senior LIFE Lehigh Valley, spoke to the Lehigh Valley Military Affairs Council on 19 August about a little mentioned, twenty-eight old, aging-in-place program offered through the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services using various contractors. Senior LIFE Lehigh Valley serves about 500 residents from Lehigh and Northampton counties.  What makes it rather unique is its extensive offerings.  The result is nursing home level services in a stay-at-home environment.  This program, called PACE in other states, consequently provides wrap around services to many senior citizens, allowing them a measure of continued independence in their own homes.

What you pay for LIFE depends on your eligibility under Medicare and Medicaid. If you are eligible for Medicaid or dually eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid, you don’t pay a monthly premium for LIFE. If you don’t qualify for Medicaid, but you do have Medicare, you’ll be charged a monthly premium for LIFE. We were led to believe that monthly premium is quite high, like in nursing homes.

While there is interaction with the VA, it became apparent that the VA has not been particularly proactive about revealing this option generated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).  It has its own initiatives to do the same which do not reduce the user’s income and assets as this program generally requires, but its efforts are not available to all veterans.  Therefore, the LIFE program needs to become better known, regardless..  In summary, the briefing given was eye opening. 

For more information, see the slides used in the briefing below and this insert.  If interested in using the program or suggesting it to another, contact your county’s Department of Human Services or the serving county contractor revealed at the bottom of the page in this link, the state’s main webpage for this program not typically known to the general public.