Lutheran Senior LIFE at Jersey City, a PACE Program

Do not be fooled. This place is horrible. The staff are very rude especially the secretary and some of the social workers. I thought this would be a good place for my parent to socialize as the recruits only mentioned that when she spoke to my parent and I about the program. She forgot to mention they have their own insurance and if you have insurance already they override it because they only accept their Lutherans senior Life insurance to pay for the services. My parent lost all their doctors that they’ve had for 40 years or more and was misdiagnosed twice and was given medications that caused them to get seizures. Those seizures were from the wrong medication and all the doctor did was give them seizure medication! This place is a very illegal. The amount of time I had meeting with two different doctors they both were very private and when I found out they were misdiagnosing my parent and giving them the wrong medication they became nervous and tried avoiding it or negotiating with me. Now my parent can barely breathe, walk, talk, or even go to the bathroom. Every other doctor that I’ve talked to said that this is terrible and this should be stopped because doctors are there to make a patient feel BETTER not WORSE. These doctors at Lutheran put a smile on their face but pressure you into surgeries you don’t want, and give you an overdose of medication. I’ve dealt with them for almost two years and this is a terrible experience that I have never ever seen before. Another important fact, they constantly offer you to leave the PACE program if you want to, but when you want to leave, they do not let you and say, “That wasn’t a good enough reason. We will try again later.” Any program you are in you should be allowed to leave regardless of a reason. I hope people learn from this and save their parents and not end up like the ones at Lutheran who were diagnosed with Parkinson’s all in the same week. Yes, a doctor there diagnosed 5 patients in a week with unconfirmed P

Do not waste your time applying to Lutheran Senior Life in Jersey City, unless: ALL of your ADL needs (bathing, dressing, eating, ambulating, transferring) are already being taken care of by others. If you are living alone, with no one to help you and you are having difficulty caring for yourself, they will deny you. If you can only bathe twice a month due to pain and disability, they will deny you. If you are not eating your Meals-on-Wheels because you are in too much pain and too fatigued even to heat up the dinners, so you live off of Ensure, bread and fruit, they will deny you. If you have to cancel last minute medical appointment after medical appointment because you are unable to bathe, dress and get yourself out the door to your medical transportation on time, they will deny you. If you have canes and stepstools next to your bed and toilet because you have difficulty sitting and standing, they will deny you. If you use incontinence products, but still have accidents because you can't make it to the toilet on time, they will deny you. In order to be approved, it must be IMPOSSIBLE for you to do ALL of these things 100% of the time. If that were true in my case, I would be dead, as I live alone with no assistance. Apparently for me to be approved, I would have to be crawling on the floor covered in feces, urine and maggots, living in an environment out of Hoarders and completely skeletal due to starvation. Lutheran Senior Life led me to believe I would be approved, receive the help I so desperately need and would no longer be alone in life. Then I was denied, despite all of my extensive medical documentation. They wasted my time and energy, neither of which I can spare. From that very first evaluation visit, it was clear I live alone and receive no help. They knew then I would never be approved because of this and yet they put me through so much more. Worst of all, they built up my hopes. Why didn't they deny me as soon as they learned I live independently with

I am enjoying my time at the PACE program. They are very responsive and have treated me well throughout the whole process.