Notes from the Hearo team

A medical alert system waits for someone to press a button. Remote supports notices on its own: sensors pick up a door opening at night, a missed dose or a fall, and reach the right person even if no one asks for help. It also goes well beyond emergencies, with reminders, routines, smart home controls and two-way video calls built around the individual’s plan, and a care team that sees the whole picture.

Not at all. Remote supports is built to fit into someone’s life, not to make them learn a new system. The sensors work without anyone touching them, the tablet responds to voice, and when someone needs to check in, the call comes to the individual. Staff and family handle the technology side through the Care Console.

In many states, yes. Remote supports and assistive technology are covered services under a number of Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) waivers, including the Missouri and Ohio developmental disabilities waivers where Hearo is used today. What’s covered, how much and how it’s authorized varies by state and waiver, so our director of remote supports works with individuals, families and agencies through authorization and billing.

The individual’s plan decides who responds and how. When a sensor, watch or emergency button signals trouble, the alert goes straight to a trained remote support specialist, who can see what triggered it, call the individual’s tablet or watch, turn on the lights and unlock the door for responders. At the same time the call tree reaches on-call staff, family or 911 as the plan sets out, and everything is logged with times and outcomes.

No. Remote supports is assistance on demand, not surveillance. Most of a Hearo home runs on sensors that report simple events like a door opening, not video, and the remote support team steps in only when something in the individual’s plan calls for it. The individual and their team decide together what goes into that plan, and it changes as they do.