The Morning Show for Thursday 10/22/26 with PACE of Southwestern Michigan

Paula, no doubt that people have likely seen a little bus driving around with Pace of Southwest Michigan on the back of it or the side of it, and they've perhaps wondered, What is PACE of Southwest Michigan? Let's kind of dispel any sort of myths or otherwise and educate folks on what PACE does because it's pretty important, right?

Let's do that.

So PACE of Southwest Michigan is a program for all-inclusive care of the elderly.

We are a program.

People are eligible for enrollment at 55 years of age or older if they qualify for nursing home care.

So we provide a comprehensive interdisciplinary team to provide that care to continue to support these folks living independently and safely in the community.

So we have a team of primary care providers.

clinic nurses, a day center, social workers, a spiritual care coordinator, a therapy team, a home care team, dieticians.

And we provide that care.

We like to refer to ourselves as a one-stop shop.

So we provide all of that care.

Now in two centers, we recently opened a center in Niles, but we're able to provide that care in a more comprehensive way and in a more intensive way for our participants who have struggled in what I'll refer to as kind of the mainstream healthcare arena.

Okay.

So is this a service that primarily caters to the caretakers, the folks who are looking after their senior loved one or the seniors themselves or both?

Both.

In addition to providing that intensive management and care for our participants, we also are very focused on supporting the caregivers because we know that's one of the toughest jobs that are out there.

And so we are, particularly our social work team, work collaborate closely with the caregivers and our participants families to monitor their level of burnout or burden and provide them the support so that they have that balance with what their other life demands are and what the demands are in the care they're providing for their loved one

So as somebody is hearing this, they probably might be questioning, well, is this another thing I would have to pay for in order to get help? What exactly is this resource? And how do folks end up being able to utilize it?

We have an enrollment team who works closely with families when they're interested.

in PACE as a resource, and so they can work with folks.

It isn't anything, most of our participants are dual eligible, which means they have Medicare and Medicaid.

That does not mean if you don't have both Medicare and Medicaid that you are not able to be a participant.

But again, the vast majority of our participants are.

And so there are some details in the background, but it is not necessarily a service if someone is dual eligible that they are paying in addition for.

Okay.