The Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) model delivers comprehensive medical and social services to nursing-home-eligible seniors living in the community. It is one of the most operationally complex care models in the United States: a single PACE participant requires coordinated input from physicians, nurses, social workers, therapists, dietitians, and transportation staff—all documented and reconciled through an Interdisciplinary Team (IDT) process. As PACE enrollment has grown—now exceeding 72,000 participants nationally according to the National PACE Association—the administrative load on PACE coordinators has intensified proportionally.
Virtual assistants (VAs) trained in PACE workflows are providing the operational backbone that keeps enrollment moving, IDT schedules intact, and transportation arrangements tracked across Netsmart, PointClickCare, and Salesforce.
New Participant Enrollment Document Collection
PACE enrollment requires collecting a substantial document package: medical records, insurance cards, Medicare and Medicaid eligibility verification, signed enrollment agreements, power of attorney documentation, and the Level of Care determination from the state. Missing or incomplete documents delay enrollment and hold up capitation payments. A 2024 National PACE Association operational survey found that document collection delays were the leading cause of enrollment timelines exceeding 30 days—the target window for most PACE organizations.
VAs manage the enrollment document checklist by maintaining a real-time tracker for each prospective participant, sending templated document request emails and follow-up reminders to families and referring providers, uploading completed documents into Netsmart or PointClickCare, and alerting the enrollment coordinator when the file is complete and ready for review. For participants with limited technology access, VAs coordinate fax and mail receipt workflows and log receipt dates for audit purposes.
IDT Meeting Scheduling Coordination
The IDT meeting is the clinical and administrative core of PACE. Federal regulations require that each participant's IDT meet at least every six months, with additional meetings triggered by significant health events. Scheduling these meetings—coordinating the availability of six to ten disciplines across a calendar that includes van runs, day center programming, and off-site medical appointments—is a significant logistical challenge.
VAs build and maintain the IDT scheduling calendar, sending meeting invitations to all required disciplines through Google Calendar or Salesforce, confirming attendance, preparing agenda documents with participant status summaries pulled from PointClickCare, and circulating pre-meeting materials 48 hours in advance. After each IDT meeting, VAs transcribe action items into the tracking system and send task assignments to the responsible disciplines—keeping follow-through accountable without requiring the IDT coordinator to chase responses manually.
Transportation Arrangement Tracking
PACE transportation is both a benefit and a compliance obligation: participants must be able to access the PACE day center and medical appointments, and transportation must be documented to demonstrate service delivery. Coordinating daily van runs, scheduling specialist appointments that require separate medical transportation, and tracking no-shows consumes hours that clinical coordinators rarely have available.
VAs maintain the daily transportation schedule, confirming participant pick-up and drop-off times with drivers, tracking appointment transportation requests in Salesforce or Netsmart, and logging completed trips for billing and compliance purposes. When participants cancel or have medical changes that affect their transportation needs, VAs update the schedule and notify the day center team in real time—preventing wasted trips and billing discrepancies.
The Scalability Case for PACE VAs
PACE organizations looking to grow enrollment face a staffing paradox: adding participants increases administrative complexity faster than it increases clinical revenue at the margins. VAs break this constraint by absorbing enrollment and scheduling overhead at a fraction of the cost of additional coordinator FTEs.
Organizations working with Stealth Agents access VAs with familiarity in PACE operational workflows and the documentation standards required by CMS and state PACE oversight agencies, reducing onboarding time and compliance risk.
As PACE enrollment continues its national growth trajectory, programs that build scalable administrative infrastructure now will be positioned to serve more participants without proportionally expanding overhead.
Sources
- National PACE Association. PACE by the Numbers 2025. NPA, 2025.
- National PACE Association. 2024 PACE Operations Survey: Enrollment Bottlenecks. NPA, 2024.
- Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. PACE Regulations: 42 CFR Part 460. CMS, 2024.
- Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC). PACE Participation and Financing Report. MACPAC, 2025.