Pieces Coming Together for GreatCall

(October 23, 2018)—GreatCall Inc. has announced a 5-year agreement with Senior Whole Health of Massachusetts, a Magellan Health Company, to provide in-home passive monitoring services for high-risk seniors through GreatCall’s Lively Home monitoring system.

Senior Whole Health, Massachusetts is a comprehensive health care plan for seniors with function deficits who have both Medicare Part A and B, and MassHealth Standard, the Senior Whole Health plan provides home and community-based support services. These services help persons who normally qualify for a nursing home to remain safely at home. In 2008, its health plan program was described as an innovation looking at the whole context (based on financial need) in which dual (Medicare and Medicaid) eligible seniors live.

Lively Home uses passive sensors to measure daily activities such as eating, sleeping and movement. It gathers information to identify patterns, then uses GreatCall’s predictive analytics to highlight any anomalies that could indicate a change in member’s health. GreatCall’s Care Team is trained to monitor behavior data, identify trends and work with Senior Whole Health experts to intervene when needed.

Eligible Senior Whole Health members who participate in the program will have GreatCall’s Lively Home monitoring system installed in their home, enabling Senior Whole Health to provide proactive care, support senior independence and increase member satisfaction, according to GreatCall.

As part of the announcement, GreatCall will offer users Lively Mobile, a Personal Emergency Response System (PERS), which features a “5Star Urgent Response” button allowing members to get help immediately when needed. Certified 5Star Service agents assist with a variety of situations and are reachable 24/7. This program will help manage care, deliver services and reduce unnecessary hospitalizations, said Senior Whole Health Chief Medical Officer Scott Latimer said via press release.

GreatCall is realizing the benefits of its late-2016 acquisition of Minneapolis-based Healthsense, maker of passive health monitoring products that log daily eating, sleeping and movements—and significant changes in routine, for notifying a caregiver. At that time, Healthsense reportedly had more than 20,000 lives monitored in senior living, managed care and homecare. GreatCall’s 2015 acquisition, Lively, started as an online software platform so caregivers could get alerts and share notifications from sensors built into pill dispensers and other common items.

“The integration of Healthsense’s remote monitoring and predictive analytics into GreatCall’s technology portfolio allows us to disrupt senior health care, changing what was previously thought of as ‘unavoidable’: lost independence and high-cost medical care, with an early, lower-cost intervention,” said CEO David Inns in a press release at that time. “Whether older adults are living at home, senior living or under managed care, we can help extend their independence and improve their overall health care experience.”

The use of passive monitoring for intervention is an area of study for reducing unnecessary hospitalizations.

GreatCall, led by Inns, has focused on helping seniors live independently since 2006 with its business-to-business and business-to-consumer approach. In June 2017, the company was acquired by Chicago-based private equity firm GTCR LLC, which announced in August 2018 a definitive agreement to sell GreatCall to Best Buy for cash consideration of $800 million. Meanwhile, Best Buy has developed “Best Buy 2020: Building the New Blue” strategy to address key human needs, including health and wellness. Investors Business Daily called the Best Buy-GreatCall deal a first-mover advantage in a segment of interest to Amazon and Alphabet’s Google.

A best-known product of GreatCall is its Jitterbug phone specially designed for seniors. Other products include smartphones, medical alert devices and pendants that have sensors to detect falls.