Health tech company GreatCall has launched a partnership with long-term care insurer CNA, a commercial property and casualty insurance company.
Through the alliance, certain CNA policyholders who are still living in their homes will gain access to a few of GreatCall’s solutions: Lively Home (an in-home remote monitoring tool) and Lively Mobile (a medical alert device).
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Lively Home seeks to let seniors with chronic conditions live independently at home. The solution relies on sensors to track a person’s activities such as sleeping, eating and moving, then uses predictive analytics to detect changes that could indicate health issues. When necessary, case managers can intervene to prevent problems.
Lively Mobile is a Personal Emergency Response System (PERS). It allows users to press a button and get connected to an urgent response agent, who can call emergency services, get roadside assistance or contact a family member.
“While the number of older adults continues to escalate, the growth of professional caregivers remains stagnant, putting a strain on these caregivers and the aging population as a whole,” Bryan Fuhr, GreatCall’s vice president of connected health, said in a statement. “This partnership provides a technology-based service that arms professional caregivers with tools and data-driven insights that help older adults maintain safe independence.”
Last year, Best Buy purchased GreatCall from private equity firm GTCR for $800 million. In addition to the Lively products involved in the CNA partnership, GreatCall offers other solutions to older adults, including wearables and the “Jitterbug” phones. In 2015, the San Diego company acquired Lively, maker of a home health platform for seniors. It also bought Healthsense, a home monitoring startup that places wireless sensors in living spaces to monitor patients, in 2016.
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