If you’re on a limited budget, medical alert systems can feel like an added expense, but in reality, it is more like insurance-a cost that seems expensive until you need it. The good news is that affordable options exist, which offer a real measure of safety protection without the added price tag some companies charge.
The primary focus here is understanding what features are valuable for safety as opposed to being just a nice to have feature. Many families end up paying for bells and whistles that they will never use while forfeiting the basic protection, partially because they feel all medical alert systems are expensive.
Finding the appropriate balance between costs and safety involves knowing where to look, asking the right questions, and determining which features are valuable versus marketing.
Understanding What Actually Drives Costs
Typically the largest cost driver when looking at Life Assure medical alert button cost is the monitoring service, not the equipment itself. As companies offer up to 24/7 monitoring centers who house trained operators, they incur a monthly fee which can vary from below $20 to $70+ a month, again dependent on their level of service and features offered.
Basic home-only systems generally run lower in pricing due to the use of landline connections and more simple technology. These systems will work well for seniors that spend most of their time at home and live in a succession of land line services. The monitoring process is direct; an individual pushes the button, a call goes into the monitoring center, the operator assesses the situation, then suggests response whether they will dispatch assistance or call someone from the designated list to take your loved one to medical assistance, if necessary. Mobile systems with GPS capabilities will cost more because they use cellular networks and require more complicated technology. The additional cost may be worthwhile for active seniors who drive, travel, or spend significant time away from home, as basic systems will simply not work.
Comparison of Service Models
Quality of the monitoring service is far more important than shiny features of the device in most emergencies. Some companies rely on third-party monitoring centers that monitor multiple brands and will respond to an alert, while others use their monitoring center with operators that are trained specifically on their system.
Providers will differ on their response protocols which will have an effect on safety outcomes. For example, some providers will triage their alert by attempting to contact the user to confirm that there is not a false positive, which may delay their response time when the user does need help. Whereas some providers dispatch emergency services immediately while attempting to contact the user.
Family notification procedures also vary. Some services have as a protocol that they contact family members for every alert, while others, instead, only contact a family member for verified emergencies. Familiarizing oneself with the policies for family notifications assists families in assuring the positive engagement in their family member’s safety.
Finding Affordable Alternatives
Medic alert systems can be financially accessible without sacrificing safety effectiveness, using below strategies. Shopping promotional sales can provide vast discounts on setup fees or the first year of service. The vast majority of organizations will have promotional sales during ‘National Health’ months or during holiday times.
Annual billing plans typically have a discount versus month-to-month bills, but this requires you to pay a large amount upfront, and may not be within your budget. Some organizations will also have ‘senior discounts’ for those on fixed incomes, or veteran discounts, but they may not be readily available on the website or advertised in the business, and are typically not available for yearly plans.
Group purchasing, to community/senior centers, churches/religious organizations or communities may offer savings by becoming part of a group to have volume discounts. There is some coordination required with a planning group, but it may work out for meaningful savings for a number of families.
Necessary Safety Functionality vs. Optional Parts
The core functionality for safety does not come at a premium. The functionality of emergency response — beginning with pushing the button, talking to the operator and dispatch to emergency services (if needed) — is the same if you are paying $25 or $65 per month. These differences are typically the additional features that may or may not be valuable to your situation.
Fall detection will have premium pricing, but efficacy will often not match expectancy in real life. The automatic fall detection sounds like a feature that would be valuable — yet, false positives are usual and sometimes leads to missing falls. For several consumers, just having an operator respond to you pressing the button is far more reliable than having an automatic fall detection feature. Although GPS tracking can be expensive, only active older adults, where the safety of GPS tracking is beneficial, have the capacity to invest in that service, and their appeals to others who may not travel far from home are not in service. In order to pay for a GPS tracking service does not impact safety for someone who rarely leaves the neighborhood.
Some families find an appeal in connectivity through smartphone apps, medication reminders, and wellness checks, but are not rehabilitation or safety impact indicators in regards to accessing emergency assistance in the event of a medical emergency. These activities may justify paying a somewhat higher monthly fee to families who prefer the ways these tracking services are offering them value, but for basic safety protection, families do not need this additional value.
Consume erroneous expense traps.
Long-term agreements with cancellation option traps families into always paying more money for service even if there is a life-changing event when they may not need access to the service. Month-to-month service agreements end up lending a small more expense with the added benefit of flexibility – if health or finances change it can save money.
Automatically upgrading services to a month-to-month billing practice without your approval is a surprise for many families. Know how specific companies who are present to transition handle increasing services as to protect against unapproved expenses.
Insurance or plans for protecting against broken equipment, seem reasonable, is usually more than just replacing it if it breaks. Replacement of simple medical alert devices are less costly to replace, and provide reliable medical alert service to older adults.
Finding Appropriate Compromises
In this article, we define an “appropriate compromise” as selecting systems that are for home use only, instead of mobile systems. These systems may save your senior a fair amount of money if they rarely leave the house, or maybe only leave if they are with family members! An appropriate compromise system is fine, but it is still essential to provide emergency protection in the areas it is needed most, and still uses only necessary paid features when possible usage is likely not to occur.
Some basic monitoring systems may or may not offer family notification features that may be appropriate if “adult children” check in with their family adults just because. Again, though when providing appropriate variability related to family communication, any potential emergencies could impact an earlier adult’s ability to still reach out to family members during the difference when emergencies happen.
At the same time some simple features, (i.e., basic abbreviation options like pendants or wristbands without additional sensors attached) keep fewer fees and still seem to perform functions for reliable communication when time may be an emergency too! Basic magnet and wristband devices are also by definition of their design provide more reliable service than multiple stationary viable options as potential functional or another reliable option.
Timing Your Purchase
Shopping for too much longer than a memory system would not be in immediate need of the assessment of a new system to try something, actually allow families to find differences in system versus another state of total options. Even though families don’t think about someone is in a medical crisis.
Shopping at the end of a quarter of a day when sales representatives are probably getting close to quotas with in store shopping. There might be a better sale, when through shopping! If recent research is needed, would not compromise the safety you have tried to achieve by purchasing.
Many companies now allow a trial to see if they can pay for a subscription. Don’t just assume everyone can pay for a access if there is expected acceptability when it is sold!
Smart shopping methodologies, better understanding differences in services, together, if using to avoid features or services when all families & urgent arrive are some that may seem focused on realizing a contribution families feel their after all investment into.
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