The Ideal Life remote monitoring system can be used with cell phones, phone lines, or the internet which will allow such medical data as glucose levels, blood pressure and body weight to be transferred to your doctor’s office, home health office or local hospital in case of emergencies. It's like having a portable doctor in your home!
Children with chronic illnesses like diabetes can save time and money with this new telehealth system. The Ideal Life has demonstrated up to $30,000 in savings for every hospital admission that doesn’t happen because of the monitoring patients received.
President of Ideal Life, Inc., Jason Goldberg gracefully answer questions about this new system:
Examiner: What products do you have and which conditions are they used to manage?
Jason: “Today, more than half of all Americans have at least one chronic condition that requires vigilant, ongoing management. IDEAL LIFE has developed affordable solutions for patients with diabetes, chronic heart failure (CHF), high blood pressure, obesity and other conditions that make remote health management a reality and empower individuals to play a more informed role in their health and well being. It also enables providers to help individuals better manage their conditions and better evaluate treatment and care plans. Upcoming products and programs also include Asthma, Weight Management, Medication Adherence, and COPD (Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). ”
“IDEAL LIFE’s patented FDA-approved monitoring devices communicate through a Bluetooth-enabled wireless gateway called the IDEAL LIFE Pod™ which can be plugged into a standard telephone line in a person’s home to become instantly ready for integrated, automatic, two-way communication with any of the remote health management products.”
Examiner: What is the actual cost of these systems? I know it's 20% less than other systems but not knowing what other systems cost, I'm not sure what this one might cost....
Jason: “Unfortunately we cannot provide specific cost or reimbursement information as the terms vary on a case by case basis. The real important factor is that if a technology solution is proven as cost effective in reducing readmission rates, ER visits and lowering cost of care for the provider or insurer, they are more than happy to pay for these systems and technologies.” We believe that a solution must be affordable to the patient/consumer, and the devices should cost less than $150, while the monthly communication service fee should be under $30. IDEAL LIFE’s systems are under these price points.”
Examiner: Is the price of the device and the service used by the device separate? If so, how much is the service - monthly or annually? I am wondering if the cost of the wireless/storage of information is separate from the cost of the equipment.
Jason: "As noted above, and with some groups we package both the cost of the equipment with the monthly or annual service fees."
Examiner: Can the costs be covered by insurance such as Medicare and Medicaid?
Jason: “The costs of a system like ours are covered by insurers on a case by case basis. Insurance such as Medicare and Medicaid do not currently have remote health monitoring reimbursement codes, although if a program is affordable enough, like the IDEAL LIFE platform, Medicare and Medicaid programs can utilize them.”
Examiner: I know the devices can report things such as glucose levels (important for kids with juvenile diabetes), blood pressure and body weight (growing concern about children' obesity)... is there other information that is monitored by these devices? For instance, can it be used to monitor medication levels for children on certain medications that require monthly level checks?
Jason: “One key area we wanted to focus on was full interactive communication. We not only wanted to communicate one way biometric or measurement reading data, but we wanted to to open up a truly interactive window of communication or interactive experience to the health consumer. So not only are the measurements communicated from IDEAL LIFE devices, but we can also send down to the devices questions, notes of encouragement and motivation to better educate the health consumer around their chronic condition in the hopes of guiding them towards self management.
Especially for pediatric patients we send down simple graphics and characters to further engage them. Later in the year we are going to be launching an innovative pediatric obesity program with our innovative wireless pedometer and wireless scale for an exercise and weight management program. So when you take the biometric measurements, then the subjective responses and put them together you have a better understanding of what's happening beyond the walls of the physician office (in between interaction "a" and "b" with the healthcare professsional) and as a provider become more knowledgable about what is going on with patients or health consumers in their natural environment.”
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