CellTrak is an example of the kind of technology being used in the Aetna Better Care/Addus Health Pilot.

Illinois' Integrated Care Program (ICP), a Medicaid-backed home care program run by Aetna Better Health (a regional Aetna Medicaid program in Illinois) and Addus Home Care, will begin equipping home care aides with smartphones in a small pilot.

The ICP was launched by the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services in 2011 to help manage the home care of Medicaid-eligible seniors with disabilities. The program provides seniors with meal preparation, bathing, housekeeping and transportation, while also keeping tabs on the state of their health so they can get treatment as soon as problems arise, which should lower hospitalization costs for Medicaid. The program has 18,000 members in five Illinois counties.

Aetna spokesperson Walter Cherniak, Jr. told MobiHealthNews in an email that 85 seniors in the program will be selected for the pilot. Caretakers in the homes of pilot participants will be given smartphones with a special application. The app will track the amount of time the caretaker spends in the house, which will be used for billing purposes. It also contains clinical questions and assessments for caretakers to ask seniors.

"The answers to those [questions] are relayed back through the app to the Addus offices where there is a trigger based on the answers," Cherniak wrote. "If the answers set off the trigger, indicating a possible change in health status, the Addus representative will contact the Aetna care manager, as well as the member’s physician. The member will receive the appropriate level of follow up care and attention as needed."

Aetna did not disclose the vendor for the app. After the pilot concludes, Aetna and Addus will analyze hospital admissions rates in the pilot group and the non-pilot group. This outcomes study will be completed this year.