Literature Review

Sanction-free InnovAge faces new challenges in Colorado, California during fiscal Q3McKnight's Home Care; by Adam Healy; 5/14/24InnovAge posted a loss in its third fiscal quarter, but executives of the for-profit Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly provider said business will only continue to improve as temporary headwinds fall by the wayside. “The company’s third quarter results were largely consistent with our expectations,” Patrick Blair, president and chief executive officer, said during a third quarter earnings call last week, according to a transcript. “We continue to see ongoing performance improvement in every facet of our operations which is driving greater stability in our financial results and increased confidence in our ability to deliver high-quality care and a great participant experience while also growing our top and bottom lines.” During the quarter ended March 31, InnovAge lost $6.1 million. That compares to a $7.3 million loss during the third fiscal quarter of 2023. Revenues grew by nearly 12% year-over-year to $193 million.

Life Coordinated Commonwealth Pace holds ribbon cutting Marshall County Daily; by Staff Report; 5/10/24 Life Coordinated Commonwealth Pace held a Ribbon Cutting on Friday morning with special quest Governor Andy Beshear in attendance to launch the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the elderly in Western Kentucky. This is the first of three planned KY Pace centers which provide elders an option for in-home care versus nursing home care.  Life Coordinated Commonwealth Pace will serve qualifying PACE members in a six-county area in Western Kentucky that includes Marshall, Calloway, Graves, Hickman, Fulton and McCracken.

New dementia guide provides best Standards of Care from 100+ not-for-profit hospice, palliative and advanced illness organizations PR Newswire; by National Partnership for Healthcare and Hospice Innovation (NPHI); 5/9/24 The National Partnership for Healthcare and Hospice Innovation (NPHI), the national voice for not-for-profit hospice care, in collaboration with Aliviado Health and the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC), announces today the release of the NPHI "Dementia Care Resources Provider Guide." The new guide aims to improve the quality of life for patients with dementia, reducing hospitalizations, and easing the burden of advanced illness for families and caregivers. A dementia diagnosis poses substantial challenges for both patients and their families, impacting millions of Americans nationwide. Shockingly, the Alzheimer's Association reports that an estimated 6.7 million individuals in the U.S. currently live with dementia. 

Big Bend Hospice, Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare Partner on transformative approach to transitional careBusiness Wire; 5/2/24 Big Bend Hospice (BBH) and Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare (TMH) announced a partnership today to improve patient navigation within the healthcare system. This collaboration aims to streamline transitions between hospitals, doctor's offices, rehabilitation centers, and home care. The signing of the Affiliation Agreement creates a governance structure that will develop a transformative approach to improving transitions of care in the Big Bend community. Transitions of care involve a patient's movement between healthcare settings, such as doctor's offices, hospitals, rehabilitation centers, long-term care, home health, hospice, etc. This partnership establishes a network of connected healthcare services, creating a seamless patient journey regardless of specific needs.

TRU Community Care and St. Paul’s Senior Services explore strategic partnership to transform senior care landscape My Prime Time News, Lafayette, CO; 4/29/24TRU Community Care and St. Paul’s Senior Services are exploring affiliation as two well-established nonprofit healthcare providers in Colorado and California, respectively. Under the leadership of Scott Gresser, President and CEO of TRU Community Care and Michael McHale, President and CEO of St. Paul’s Senior Services, organizational integration would allow TRU and St. Paul’s to expand the serious illness continuum of care that each currently provides, including senior services from independent living to memory care, PACE (Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly), palliative and hospice care, and community support programs such as bereavement services. 

$1 billion class action settlement will trigger transition of 2,400 nursing home residents to other settingsMcKnights Senior LIving, by Kimberly Bonvissuto; 4/19/24The $1 billion settlement of a class action lawsuit has the potential to see 2,400 Massachusetts nursing home residents move into other residential and community settings in the next decade. The options include assisted living communities, although state senior living experts say that it’s unlikely many of those transitions will be to assisted living. The state agreed to settle the suit, initially filed in 2022 by six disabled nursing homes residents who argued that a lack of state resources “trapped” them in nursing homes despite their wishes to return to community-based care settings.

Oaks sells nursing home to national operator The Times and Democrat, by Gene Zaleski; 4/13/24 The Oaks Healthcare, the nursing home segment of The Oaks of Orangeburg (SC), has sold its nursing home services to Cascade Capital Group, a Skokie, Illinois-based private health care real estate investment and asset management firm. ... The Oaks will become PACS' 25th nursing home in the state and will join over 220 other nursing homes that PACS operates throughout the country. ... [The Oaks of Orangeburg manager] Clay Fowler said the changes will enable a greater focus on the PACE program. The program was rebranded as the Orangeburg Senior Helping Center-A PACE Healthcare Program in February 2022.

Kaiser Permanente, Town Hall ventures to launch PACE Program ‘Habitat Health’ Home Health Care News, by Andrew Donlan; 3/27/24 Kaiser Permanente and an investment firm are teaming up to launch a Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) venture. Specifically dubbed Habitat Health, Kaiser and Town Hall Ventures will begin building out the program in California in 2025 – in Sacramento and Los Angeles. 

Fall prevention for the elderly: 13 strategies to keep them safe U.S. News & World Report, by Claire Wolters, ed. by Christine Comizion, MPH; 3/26/24Falls are the leading cause of injury in adults 65 and older – with reports showing about 14 million adults fall each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ... According to the CDC, falls are also the leading cause of injury-related death in the 65-and-older population – and the fall death rate is growing.Here's what to know about what increases risk for falls in older adults, and get familiar with fall prevention tips and safety measures that can help reduce the risk.Editor's Note: This U.S. News article primes the pump. Preventing falls matters especially for vulnerable hospice patients as their disease progresses, and as they and/or family want the person to be as mobile as possible. What do your Incident Reports tell you about falls? What falls-specific education do you provide for your interdisciplinary teams? On-call staff? Family caregivers? Volunteers? What QAPI programs have addressed falls? 

Eisenhower Health purchases Neuro Vitality Center in Palm Springs [for new PACE Center] InvestorsObserver, PR Newswire; 3/25/24Made possible through generous philanthropic support, Eisenhower Health has purchased the Neuro Vitality Center (formerly the Stroke Recovery Center). In partnership with Los Angeles Jewish Health (LAJHealth), Eisenhower will provide a Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) at the former Neuro Vitality Center location. After a renovation, the site is expected to open with a new name and focus in the next 12 to 18 months. "Eisenhower Health is committed to addressing the long-term health care needs for low-income seniors through this new Center and PACE program," says Martin Massiello, President and Chief Executive Officer, Eisenhower Health.

A Western Slope program is helping older Coloradans maintain independence The Colorado Trust, by Nancy Lofhholm; 3/20/24 [Case example of a 74-year-old widow, wheelchair, who can live alone in her home because of PACE.] ... The center houses the HopeWest PACE program, which delivers wide-ranging services for older adults. HopeWest PACE is a local fulfillment of a national Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services program known as PACE, which stands for Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly. HopeWest PACE is one of 150 programs nationwide that carry out the PACE mandate to keep qualifying older adults like Powell living in their homes by providing them with a holistic bundle of health care and social and emotional support. It includes primary and specialty medical care, prescription medications, physical and occupational therapy, recreation, dietary counseling, and mental health counseling.

Palliative Care Movement achieves significant progress in California California Health Care Foundation, by Claudia Boyd-Barrett; 3/19/24 ... Palliative care has taken root in California over the past 15 years, driven by hundreds of leaders within health plans, hospitals, clinics, home care agencies, advocacy and education organizations, and state government. ... Some of California’s greatest palliative care progress has been accomplished in programs serving people at the lowest income levels through the state’s Medi-Cal program and through public health care systems.