There is a new approach to senior health care on the horizon in the Traverse City area.

It’s what officials are calling a “feel good” option when seniors are faced with moving to a nursing home for a long-term stay and also looking at mounting medical bills.

“Comprehensive and coordinated services for seniors are more cost-effective and achieve better outcomes,” explains Kory Hansen, CEO of Grand Traverse Pavilions, which is overseeing the new program.

The program is called PACE, an acronym for Program for All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly. It’s a Medicare/Medicaid benefit for individuals 55 and older who are nursing home eligible – with a goal of keeping participants living in their own homes and receiving quality care.

The PACE program is designed to meet a patient’s social and medical needs through a blend of partnerships with local primary care physicians, specialists, rehab and recreational therapists, social workers and others. They meet each morning to discuss each patient’s status.

If further care is required in the hospital, at another medical facility or at home, PACE is responsible for making sure it happens.

The program also provides preventative care, nutrition services, transportation, 24-hour on-call service, prescription drugs and health-related equipment.

Nationally, 92 percent of PACE participants are dual-eligible, meaning they qualify for both Medicare and Medicaid. If an individual is not eligible for either, there is a private pay option at $3,500 a month.

While the Grand Traverse Pavilions is leading “The Power of PACE” capital campaign, the program will be operated as its own entity.

The home for PACE will be the former Grand Traverse County Health Department building on S. Garfield Rd. The Pavilions entered into a 20-year, low-cost lease with the county, which reduces the cost from $3 million if a new building had been added at the Pavilions, to $1.85 million to renovate the former county health building.

In addition to the renovation costs, the campaign is also looking to raise another $1.5 million for the first two years of operation. The Pavilions has already committed $500,000 to the project.

“PACE isn’t new, it’s been around for 40 years in the U.S.,” said Hansen. “There are 10 PACE programs in Michigan, but this will be the first one north of Grand Rapids.”

The program plans to employ 50 full-time workers at the center and do contract work with 100 to 120 service providers already in the senior care field. The program will begin by serving 10 people in the first month and adding more each month until the projected capacity of 225 seniors is achieved. Participants must reside within a 60-mile radius of Traverse City.

The goal is to have the PACE center up and running in the first quarter of 2017.

To learn more about PACE go to pace4you.org or gtpavilions.org/PACE.