Best/Worst Medical Alert Companies |
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Thursday, 19 February 2009 16:09 |
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I used to be in the business for years so I have plenty of knowledge.
There are great companies and terrible companies in this business, just like everything else.
Companies to AVOID: AlertUSA (Also known as Companion or PASS) of NY,NY. They have over 120 BBB complaints mainly for poor billing practices.
Another one to avoid is Rescue Alert: No medical alarm company should have a 3 year contract requirement. That's ridiculous.
Here are some questions to ask: 1. Do you have your own call center or is it a 3rd party? Many companies have "their" name on the boxes, but it's really another company performing the 24 hour service. Now that's not totally bad, as some of the monitoring centers are VERY good.
2. Does the medical alert system check in every day, and is that monitored? A good system should perform a self-test at LEAST once a week, if not every day. And the monitoring company should be checking to make sure the systems that don't check in properly (I.E. telephone line unhooked, machine is malfunctioning etc) should be doing follow-up calls to inquire what the problem is.
There is absolutely NO need to have a salesman/woman come to your home to install these machines. Many companies offer them via them mail which is perfectly fine. They are easier to hook up than an answering machine. So never pay for it.
The current leader in the industry is Philips Lifeline. But do you feel safe in a company that's monitoring nearly 800,000 customers at once? There simply isn't people available to answer that many possible calls at once. Look for a smaller company is my recommendation.
The IMD2 machines are great, IF they are live monitored. |
