Three reports studied costs of implementing the ACE program..... Counsell and colleagues reported that there was not a significant difference in the cost of care for ACE or usual care patients...... Covinsky and colleagues reported that it was more expensive to care for patients in the ACE program while patients are hospitalized; however.., the patients in the ACE program had a shorter length of stay (see Appendix A)..... As a result, there was not a statistically significant difference in the cost of caring for a patient on the ACE unit or a usual care unit.20 and 24 There was also not a statistically significant difference in total cost of care for a patient on an ACE unit or a usual care unit (see Appendix A)...... Therefore.., all studies examining cost appear to have an consensus that the ACE unit is not more expensive than the usual method of care and may indeed be cheaper than the usual method of care.