Over the past decade, information and wireless technology companies, senior long-term care entities and colleges and universities developed and offer a line of products aimed at supporting professional home health care services and family caregiving.
Information technology applications and programs provide accounting and billing services and medical recordkeeping for home health care providers and biometrics, emergency phone calls, live customer services, medical alerts for patients and social activities coordination for seniors and their caregiving families.
The following companies, applications and programs have been touted by researchers and experts in the senior care industry and government policymakers and lawmakers:
- Acumen–In the last 23 years, this Mesa, Ariz.-based company provides financial management services for senior short-term care and long-term care facilities, states, counties and managed care organizations nationally, including billing, enrollment, payment processing, reporting and training. The company’s services are cited on its website at http://www.acumenfiscalagent.com.
- AT & T and Numera Libris–Both companies collaborate to blend wireless technology by AT & T with traditional emergency response systems by Numera to form comprehensive medical support for seniors with chronic conditions or transitioning from hospital care to skilled nursing or home health care. The result is meant to address personal safety and home health management. Called a “personal health gateway,” the system combines mobile emergency response, two-way voice, fall detection and location tracking. The company’s services are cited on its website at http://www.numera.com and https://www.pioneeremergency.com/product/numera-libris/
- Critical Signal Technologies (CST)–This Pittsfield, Mass. and Farmington Hills, Mich. company provides a suite of personal emergency and medical monitoring services that assist patients with dizziness, falling, mobility issues, muscle weakness and vision problems. CST provides adaptive switches for quadriplegia, care transition and vital sign monitoring, cellular upgrades, coaching, door/window contacts, lock box, medication management, motion detector, multi-lingual response with fall down detection, multi-tenant coverage, pillow switch to summon help, reminder messaging, sensor mats, smoke or carbon monoxide alarm, standard personal response system, strobe lights and wall communicators. The company’s services are cited on its website at http://www.CSTLLTL.com.
- CASOA—CASOA, which stands for The Community Assessment Survey for Older Adults, is a research survey program specializing in needs and preferences assessments of seniors offered by the National Research Center, Inc., a national survey research and evaluation firm based in Boulder, Colo. The program is meant to assist local governments, area agencies on aging, homeowners associations, senior short-term care and long-term care facilities and service providers to develop their social and medical programs for seniors. Its services are cited on its website at https://www.n-r-c.com/tag/casoa/
- Hamilton CapTel–This is a free, nationwide, telephone captioning service meant to make phone calls simple, clear and accessible for individuals with hearing loss. The company supplies phones with the captioning service in an app product that is compatible with and can be used with PCs, Macbooks, iPhone, Android, BlackBerry smartphones, iPad and Android tablets. The company’s service, based in Aurora, Neb., are cited on its website at http://www.HamiltonCapTel.com.
- iHealthHome–The Seattle-based company provides in-home monitoring and communications systems to enable care coordinators, family caregivers, home health care agencies, and; senior long-term and short-care facilities, including assisted living, congregate care and nursing homes. Services include assessments, biometrics, care management, communication between seniors and their caregiving families, in-home concierge system to order food and medicine by computer, medication management, messages for caregiver tasks, motion activity monitoring for safety, questionnaires, remote supervision, time and attendance tracking and video visits. The company’s services are cited on its website at http://www.ihealthhome.com.
- Intel-GE Care Innovations–The resulting personal response system is the result of a partnership between Intel, the computer chip company, and General Electric, the electrical services and government defense contractor. The suite includes a personal help button, emergency assistance, home base, medical alerts and 24-hour live response operators. The Nashville, Tenn.-and-Louisville, Ky.-based company’s services are cited on its website at https://www.careinnovations.com/.
- Panasonic HomeTeam—Panasonic, based in Newark, N.J., and Osaka, Japan, has developed an online service called HomeTeam meant to serve homebound seniors and their family caregivers that uses an video chat app for an tablet, laptop and computer to access interactive books such as Curious George and games such as chess and checkers with video calling. The app can be downloaded by grandparents and their grandchildren from the Apple App Store or Google Play and can be used with Androids or iPads. The company works with publishers such as Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing company, Disney and game developers to maintain children’s games and games on the company website. The company’s services are cited on its website at http://www.MyHomeTeam.com.
- SilverTreeHealth–This Chandler, Ariz.-based company provides integrated electronic health reporting and automated medical billing services that includes coding experts, software and efficiency controls. Service includes user-friendly interface, a boost of HIPAA compliance for senior long-term care facilities and other service providers; claim scrubbing; electronic resubmission of claims; payroll cost reductions; missed visit tracking; staff embezzlement reduction; accounting program integration; e-Eligibility; free live support; live, free upgrades; hourly backups; secure direct payments to bank accounts; real-time integration with thousands of insurance carriers; complete practice visibility; claims management tools; insurance practice profiling; accurate claim coding and tracking of contracted rates; patient scoring to determine likelihood to pay; scheduling of integration with billing processes; ePrescribe and eClaims; integrated credit card processing; experienced billing staff, and; weekly reviews of practice efficiencies. The company’s services, as well as an offer of a personalized demo and free profit analysis, are cited on its website at http://www.silvertreehealth.com and https://www.linkedin.com/company/silvertree-health.
But, if your insurance does not cover caregiving or home health, there is another solution for you. If you are taking care of your loved one Pill Pals Pharmacy offers a caregiving application called “My Care Pal”. My Care Pal is a desktop and cell phone application that allows caregivers to track updates on their loved one, as they share the responsibility of caregiving. Users can add family members and other team members to the application. Document sharing and expense management is also included. The app is available on both Google Android and Apple Markets. Learn more at www.mycarepal.co
