Dive Brief:
- A Medicaid-backed home care program run by Aetna regional program Aetna Better Health has partnered to begin supplying home care aides with smartphones.
- The smart phone pilot is a service of Illinois' Integrated Care Program (ICP), which is run by Aetna Better Health and Addus Home Care. The ICP has 18,000 members in five Illinois counties.
- To start out, ICP will select 85 seniors to participate in the pilot. Caretakers in the participants' homes will get smart phones with a special application which not only tracks time spent in the elder's house, but also contains clinical questions and assessments for caretakers to ask seniors. If the answers set off the trigger suggesting a possible change in health status, Addus will contact Aetna.
Dive Insight:
While this may be a small pilot, you can fully expect to see larger ones rolled out this year, which could truly turn out to be the year mobile medicine goes mainstream. Be it home care workers, office-based physicians, nurses, consumers, or other stakeholders in the healthcare value chain, specialized apps can help any participate care more effectively. Mobile devices (both tablet and phone) have reached a maturity level that puts them on the same footing as other important medical devices. Exciting times!