Aging-at-Home Tech: Ready for Prime Time?
Jan
14
Written by:
1/14/2010 2:14 PM
Affordable home-based monitoring technologies emerge as an alternative to skilled nursing or assisted living.
In a previous blog I suggested that long-term care is moving in a more “cost-realistic” direction. It has to. Skilled Nursing and assisted living are way too expensive for average folks as it is. Meanwhile, private long-term care insurance is still struggling to get out of the box, and government programs are quaking before the onrushing tsunami of the Baby Boom.
It’s simply cheaper to stay at home and, besides, that’s what most people say they want. The question is, how safe is it for aging men and women to do that? How accommodating are their homes to diminished mobility, fading hearing and vision and increasing social isolation?
Well, it’s very early days yet, but the good news is that home-based monitoring technologies aimed at keeping aging people safe and healthy at home are continuing to emerge. Companies like GrandCare and Healthsense are offering monitoring systems that work with traditional technologies like phone lines and TV and, increasingly, common Web and Wi-Fi bases. Perhaps the biggest news in recent weeks was the purchase of aging-in-place pioneer Living Independently and its home-monitoring sensor system QuietCare by corporate giant General Electric. GE’s decisive move in this direction, along with its developing partnership with microchip king Intel, shows that things are heating up in this market.
But, as I said, “early days.” Even though these monitoring systems are relatively cheap — at around $100 a month, only a tiny fraction of the out-of-pocket costs of Skilled Nursing or assisted living — they’re still a personal expense. Neither Medicare nor most insurers reimburse for them yet. Reliable installation in the home is still another issue; reportedly only one of the companies, GrandCare, has a dedicated installer network. Finally, even though one doesn’t see identifiable human beings moving about with any of these systems, the idea of sensors keeping computerized track of one’s visits to the bathroom or refrigerator can be off-putting to seniors valuing their privacy.
Bottom line, though, is that these systems can be very reassuring to family members who may be anxious about their loved ones not eating properly or moving about safely in the home. What’s more, the technology is out there and available in the marketplace. For more information, I would suggest googling QuietCare, GrandCare, Healthsense and Intel. And for a one-stop shopping center for information on aging-related technologies in general, I recommend dropping in on www.agingtech.org, an arm of the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging. Known as the Center for Aging Services Technologies (CAST), they make it their business to keep track of developments in this field.