Senior Citizen Medical Alert Systems and Fall Detectors

If you are looking for a medical alert system to protect an elderly loved one, be sure to do your homework.  There are a lot of companies out there that offer personal emergency response systems with a number of features and benefits that are very useful and others with serious limitations.  For example medical alert phones may be a practical solution for your elderly loved one if they are comfortable with the technology and you believe that they are not in a great risk of falling in becoming incapacitated. A medical alert phone is more or less a wireless phone that you can program with an auto dial feature.  It allows the user to carry the telephone around and be able to present auto dial button and be connected with friends, relatives or emergency response professionals but it does require them to be able to access the telephone, operate the telephone and communicate with the person that they're calling.

The trouble with these medical alert phones is that in the event of a sudden illness, fainting or slip and fall the elderly user may not be able to find, use or even remember that they have the phone.  On the plus side, these systems are cheaper than medical monitoring systems as there is no monthly monitoring service to pay for.  By getting your senior citizen a reliable mobile phone and preprogramming personal contact numbers into autodial you pretty much accomplish the same effect. We're not knocking these phones we just want to point out that while they give the user access to a telephone service remotely the system is only as strong as its weakest link.

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When an elderly person falls chances are they are going to be disoriented.  If they are too confused to find and operate a remote medical alert phones they will not be able to use this system to summon help.

A more practical solution is a medical alert system that can be activated using a pushbutton that is worn around the neck as a pendant or on the wrist like a watch. These medical alarm systems will allow your parent to maintain an independent lifestyle because you'll have the peace of mind of knowing that they can get help simply by pushing a button.

A typical medical alert system has a transmitter which is worn by the user and receiver located somewhere in the house.  The range on these devices generally will cover the interior of an average home but they will not provide any protection once you go outside their radio range. Some systems will alert the monitoring station when the signal is lost in the call will be placed to the home to determine if everything is all right.

The basic system operates under the scenario that the elderly person falls and is unable to get up to reach a phone to call for help. By pushing the panic button on the pendant or wristwatch transmitter a coal box is activated in the house which connects the caller to the monitoring station. The monitoring agent speaks with the user to determine how to best help remedy the situation. If the user is coherent and able to give instructions to the monitoring station those instructions will typically be followed. If the caller can't be reached or understood, the monitoring station will then follow a predetermined emergency call protocol which may include calling 911 responders, relatives, friends and next-door neighbors.

The worst-case scenario is that an elderly person falls and becomes unconscious, or they suffer a stroke. In this state they are unable to push a panic button. That's where an auto fall detector can be the difference between life and death.  A senior monitoring system with a fall-alert feature should, in theory, create an alarm at the monitoring station which will prompt an operator to contact the user to see if everything is all right.

Other more elaborate monitoring systems can actually provide richer detail and true fault detection. Sometimes when people fall they don't fold face down and make a loud thump on the ground.  Sometimes they simply slumped down slowly to the floor or chair.  Most fall detection systems are only activated if the device is violently jarred. A more subtle and advanced system will be able to detect the positioning and inactivity as well as changes in body functions to alert the monitoring station.

These more advanced monitoring systems that are able to monitor heart rate, skin temperature and mobility are slightly more expensive but offer much more protection. The downside is that the device that monitors bodily functions must be worn around the chest and some users may find this too invasive.

There are no simple solutions to providing total safety to a senior citizen living at home.  All medical monitoring and emergency response systems for aging people have their pluses and minuses.  A system that may be right for your grandmother may not work for your grandfather. It's important that you study the features and benefits of all the top brands to decide which features you can live with and which ones are not worth paying for.

If you've had personal experience with a monitoring service that you'd like to recommend or suggest that we take a critical look at please get in touch by leaving a comment below.

Lifestation - Senior Monitoring Service

myHalo - Medical Monitoring - True Fall Detection and Medical Monitor

VRI Medical Alert Systems

Freedom Alert - Medical Alert Phone

Wellcore Personal Emergency Response

Philips Lifeline with AutoAlert

Brickhouse Alert Fall Detection Device

Response Link Medical Alert

Life Guardian Medical Alarm System

Connect America Medical Alert

Senior Citizen Medical Alert Systems and Fall Detectors

Find support and discover how you can give your elderly loved one the care they deserve - without burning out or going broke - by visiting ElderKind.com. This site will help make caring for that special senior citizen less stressful. Get fast, free and easy access to elder care resources at ElderKind.com

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Health Care Reform - How Does It Affect Senior Citizens?

Quite rightly, a great deal of our senior citizens are going to be worried about what the effects of the new health care reform bill are. It's true that seniors often use the health care system a lot more often than most young people do, and so they probably have a bigger interest than most. The frightening thing is, for any senior citizen with a fixed income, there is going to be little room for maneuver in their budgets should the cost of health care rise.

So is the new health care reform bill brought about by Barack Obama going to have any direct affects on senior citizens? The answer is "yes".

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However, there are also a lot of complications to this answer, and whether the new affects are good or bad for you will depend much on your individual circumstances.

Let's take a look at some of the specifics concerning older citizens:

Cuts in Medicare

One of the biggest changes that we'll see is that under the new bill, the federal governments regular payments to the Medicare Advantage program are set to be cut over the next 10 years by 2 billion. This has been justified by the government who say that people under these plans typically receive more from the government than those who are under regular Medicare receive.

It's true that there are often additional benefits on offer to seniors in a Medicare Advantage program, which aren't available to seniors under a traditional Medicare program. It's likely that there extra benefits will be cut from Medicare Advantage plans once these new cuts are felt.

This reduction is to be phased in during the next 3 years in most states, beginning in 2011, though there are a few states where this will take more time.

The new healthcare reform bill doesn't introduce any cuts to the traditional Medicare program however. Despite this pledge though, Medicare contributions towards home healthcare are set to be cut by billion from 2011 until 2019, and there will also be reductions in payments to hospitals over the same period, totaling billion.

Enhancements to Medicare

Medicare's existing prescription medicine's benefit is set to be bolstered by the new bill however, as it addresses its "donut hole" problem.

As it stands now, a senior citizen who spends up to 00 on medicines is covered. However, once passed that mark, coverage stops. If that same person manages to spend up to ,154 on medicine, coverage will begin again, hence the nickname "donut hole".

Starting now in 2010, anyone who falls in this donut hole will be eligible for 0 aid from the government. Afterwards, the bill states that the US government will make annual increases to the amount of medicinal costs it will pay for anyone who falls in this "donut hole". By the year 2020, the government will pay for 75% of medicine costs for senior citizens who fall into this ,700 to ,154 gap. As well as this, annual Wellness visits by senior citizens are set to be provided for by Medicare.

Medicare Payments Board

The new healthcare reform bill will also see the establishment of an Independent Payment Advisory Board for Medicare, one that is made up of 15 members. It's principal task is to submit ideas and proposals for legislation in order to cut the per capita spending of Medicare, if this spending starts growing too fast and becomes unsustainable.

The "Too fast" designation will be defined as anything that exceeds the Consumer Price Index's growth rate during a 5 years period ending in 2013.

If this happens, then the board will meet in 2014 to discuss and submit proposals to be considered by the House of Congress and the US president.

Many critics have claimed that this board will be the tool for future Medicare reductions. Some of the legislative wording in the new bill states that the Independent Payments Advisory Board is prohibited from proposing an idea that would raise taxes, ration care or alter benefits.

Health Care Reform - How Does It Affect Senior Citizens?

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