Bay Alarm Medical Review

Bay Alarm Medical Review

If you’ve been shopping for medical alert systems, you’ll probably have noticed that they all follow a common pattern: they involve a wearable signaling device (either a wristband or pendant) that either on its own or through a central base station alerts a call center that there’s a problem in the home. While there are a lot of variations on this system, and a lot of extra features, this basic arrangement is standard across the industry. Prices for such systems can vary widely, however. If you’re looking for the most economical option in medical alert systems, however, Bay Alarm Medical is worth a look. Their basic tier is one of the lowest priced medical alarms on the market, but at the same time, they offer a high quality system that includes all the essentials for peace of mind in the home.

Equipment

Signaling Devices

As with most medical alert systems, the first essential component of the Bay Alarm Medical is a small device with a prominent and easily manipulated button that allows the user to signal for help. For Bay Alarm’s in-home medical alert, this means a pendant that sends a wireless signal to an in-home base station; for the mobile option, this means a hand-held device about the size of a pager that sends a signal directly to the call center via a cellular connection. To have a two-way conversation via the in-home medical alert system, you need to be in speaking distance of the base station. If you’re using the mobile system, however, you can speak to the call center using a speakerphone function—communicating your needs and situation directly through your wearable device. The mobile device lasts 72 hours on a single charge, making it convenient and useful; the pendant for the in-home system lasts far longer on a single charge, and has a 1000 foot range. For an additional monthly fee, all wearable devices can come with fall detection—a function that will alert a call center in the event of a fall, prompting them to either make contact with you or get in touch with your caregivers or local emergency responders.

Base Station

If you use Bay Alarm’s mobile service, you won’t need a base station, but their in-home medical alert system comes with a base station that allows you to contact their call center in the case of an emergency—both with your wearable button and by using an extra-large and prominent help button located directly on the unit. The base station also doubles as a speakerphone, allowing the user to contact people by phone without using a handset or headset.

Extras

For areas of the home where the user is unlikely to have their wearable signaling device handy, Bay Alarm offers wall mounted buttons that, like the pendants, communicate wirelessly with the base station to indicate that there’s a problem. These are available for an additional fee; lockboxes, which store a house key outside your door so that responders can gain entrance to your home without breaking in are also available for an extra charge. Finally, Bay Alarm offers an in-car medical alert device that will alert authorities if it senses an accident—and also allows for manual signalling in case of a medical emergency.

Call Center

Like many of its competitors, Bay Alarm maintains multiple call centers, and as an added bonus they operate a third call center dedicated solely to customer support and other technical problems so that the other two centers can focus on medical emergencies. These call centers are five-diamond certified by CSAA, the nation’s leading certification organization for emergency call centers, and reviewers routinely mention how pleased they are with the call centers’ effectiveness and quick response times

Costs

We’ve selected Bay Alarm Medical as our most affordable option among available medical alert systems largely on the strength of their basic In-home Medical Alert package, which offers all the essentials of a home medical alert system and one of the lowest prices on the market. Even if you opt to upgrade this basic package with a specialized fall detection pendant, the additional monthly charge still puts Bay Alarm Medical at the low end of the medical alert price range.

What’s more, Bay Alarm Medical offers a lot of the flexibility consumers need to ensure that they’ve gotten the system that’s right for them, including a 30-day risk-free trial for all packages, no activation fees for its equipment, no long term contract or cancellation fees, and—a rarity—free monitoring for spouses. At its upper tiers, Bay Alarm Medical does require an $80.00 equipment fee, but even this is relatively small compared to the competition, and the charge doesn’t prevent those two tiers from being an excellent value give the features on offer. Finally, Bay Alarm Medical offers AARP and USAA member discounts, which could cut your monthly plan charges even further.

What Customers Say

Economy isn’t a good thing if it means a sacrificing quality. Fortunately, however, Bay Area Medical’s reputation among its users indicate that it provides quality service and provides its users with quality equipment. To begin with, they offer near complete transparency about pricing and packages on their website—always a good sign—and users praised the company for its effective call centers and for the ease of use of their equipment. Some users noted having difficulty in setup and some issues with shipping, but once these initial issues were past, consumers gave the company high praise, making their lower price points all the more remarkable.

Bottom Line

Bay Alarm Medical doesn’t offer the fanciest systems or the widest variety of options, but it does offer a high-quality medical alert system and a highly responsive, professional call center at an industry-leading price—without requiring a lot of additional fees or long-term commitments. And online reviews indicate that the company can boast a large number of satisfied customers. For all these reasons, we’ve selected Bay Alarm Medical as our choice for the the Most Affordable Medical Alert System for 2022.