Technology Systems Can Trim Health Care Costs For Elderly

by Terry Costlow

The aging U.S. population and dire predictions about the long-term health of Medicare and Medicaid are putting more focus on using technology to reduce medical costs. Some researchers propose using high-tech systems that would enable people to remain independent in their homes, saving substantial amounts of money on assisted living.

“Anything that delays the transition from family home to institutional care yields a cost savings,” said Beth Mynatt, computing professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

“The average cost of being in skilled assisted living is $60,000 (per year), compared to staying at home, which costs about $20,000,” said Matthai Philipose, a research staff member at Intel Research Seattle. “If caregivers don’t have to go to the home every day, going every other day provides a significant savings,” Mynatt added.

Potential Roadblocks

Technology that can monitor elderly people at home exists. Such systems remind people to perform necessary tasks and provide information to the health care workers who visit them. One such technology puts radio frequency ID (RFID) tags on pill bottles, kitchen utensils, pet food and other commonly accessed home products. These systems can indicate whether and when pills have been taken, reducing the chances of missed or doubled doses. Additionally, they help alert relatives and health care workers to changes in users’ behavioral patterns, such as when they forget to feed themselves or their pets. Such alerts can help caregivers adjust and respond accordingly.

The challenge is in getting such technologies to market. Many non-engineering hurdles face those pushing the technology forward. One significant hurdle is that that neither government nor private insurers will pay for these types of monitoring systems.

Many observers are calling for the government to take the lead, contending that overall savings will offset the costs of setting up the systems. Those expenses won’t be significant, promoters say. Wal-Mart and the U.S. Department of Defense have both begun RFID programs, which should drive consumer costs down quickly. “The RFID tags are almost free and readers are not very expensive now — and they haven’t even hit the mainstream market yet,” Mynatt said.

Another concern relates to liability, and the potential lawsuits that could come when and if a technology system fails, causing a medical emergency. “There’s great reluctance by a number of companies to move proactively,” said Russell Bodoff, executive director of the Center for Aging Services Technologies in Washington, D.C. “They’re concerned about liability.” Many in the industry believe this problem will be difficult to overcome without significant liability law reform.

R&D Funding Would Prompt Quicker Commercialization

A more likely area for help might come from government agencies that invest in R&D programs. “There’s research funding from the National Institute on Aging and the National Institutes of Health that we’d like to see flowing into universities for health care systems development and commercialization," Bodoff said.

An infusion of R&D funding could help firm up the timetable for getting these products to market. Researchers at Intel and Georgia Tech are gearing up for pilot programs that will help determine how users interact and give researchers more data they can use to explain their programs’ benefits.

Proponents say that health care assistance technology should mature in time to make a significant impact as more and more Americans age. “As baby boomers get older, it’s expected to cost billions, so shaving even a few points off will be significant,” said Sunny Consolvo, another research staff member at Intel Research Seattle. Those savings could help stave off the predicted failure of Medicare and other government health care programs. “If [these programs] collapse, it will be horrible for the economy,” Bodoff said. “One thing that can help is to use technology to help people stay at home.”

 

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Terry Costlow has written about the electronics industry for more than 20 years, covering a wide range of technologies and topics. He can be reached at todaysengineer@ieee.org.