Aetna Better Health of Illinois and Addus Home Care will conduct a pilot study on the impact of providing smart phones to home care aides who assist Illinois residents served under the state's Integrated Care Program (ICP). ICP provides assistance such as meal preparation, bathing, housekeeping and transportation to seniors and adults with disabilities who qualify for Medicaid. The pilot study seeks to demonstrate the benefits of smart phones to help home care aides report changing health conditions of members in real time to supervisors and to the members' primary care physicians.

Addus Home Care aides are in consumers' homes on a frequent basis, observing changes in the physical, mental and environmental conditions of their clients. In the ICP pilot, Aetna Better Health and Addus expect to leverage home and community-based services to provide similar results with emergency and acute care services. Aetna and Addus plan to conduct an outcome study on the program in 2014.