Living Independently for Elders (LIFE) was developed to offer frail seniors the opportunity to remain in their homes and communities rather than be placed in a nursing home.  Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) and LIFE seek to reduce the health care costs and care fragmentation of frail elders by more effectively managing and integrating all of the care needs of those frail elders.

LIFE began in 1998.  The vision for the program came from a group of faculty from Penn Nursing, who saw the need for a program providing all-inclusive care to frail, elderly residents of West Philadelphia.  Today, the LIFE program has an active census of 335 participants with plans to grow its census to up to 500. LIFE is recognized as an important part of the Penn Compact for Improving Public Health of vulnerable and underserved individuals and families in the West Philadelphia community.

PACE began formally in 1990 when Medicare and Medicaid granted waivers to the first programs to operate, although its roots can be traced to the early 1970s when San Francisco Chinatown-North Beach community leaders formed a nonprofit corporation, On Lok Senior Health Services, to create a community-based system of care to address the pressing needs for long-term care for the community’s elders.  The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 established the PACE model as a permanently recognized provider type under both the Medicare and Medicaid programs.

Since LIFE is a health plan, they receive capitated payments from Medicare and Medicaid for the majority of their enrollees.  With this dual benefit coverage, LIFE participants incur no costs for their all-inclusive care. In addition, participants without Medicare and/or Medicaid can pay privately for LIFE.