GreatCall has acquired Healthsense, which provides passive remote monitoring services for the senior care continuum, to expand its portfolio of connected health services for senior living and healthcare.

“Acquiring Healthsense brings important capabilities in predictive analytics that dovetail with our deep customer knowledge, expands our offering, as well as increases our exposure in senior living and healthcare,” David Inns, CEO of GreatCall, said in a statement. “We are both extremely focused on the end user, and in keeping customers along the aging continuum safe and healthy. Our goals are so closely aligned that we expect the integration to be seamless. Healthsense has more than 20,000 lives monitored in senior living, managed care and home care. This acquisition puts us in the rare group of companies with validated data that proves technology reduces the healthcare costs of seniors.”

Healthsense uses wireless sensors to monitor everyday living activities such as eating, sleeping and movement. It gathers information to establish patterns, evaluate data and enable caregivers to act proactively when they spot changes indicative of early onset of a negative health event.

An independent 12-month study with Fallon Health found that using Healthsense remote monitoring in connection with Fallon’s model of care for seniors reduced total medical expenses by $687 per member per month — a nearly 16 percent reduction for pilot members as compared to a control group. The Fallon population using Healthsense demonstrated a 32.2 percent reduction in fees for inpatient hospital visits, a 39.4 percent reduction in emergency department costs and a 67.7 percent reduction in expenses for long term care vs. the control during the year-long study.

“GreatCall is the ideal partner to take the company to the next level,” A.R. Weiler, Healthsense CEO and president, said in a statement. “We know that older adults want to age independently as long as possible, and the technology and support that GreatCall can provide will allow more of them to achieve this goal.”

A year ago, GreatCall acquired Lively, a developer of a safety watch and a system of passive activity sensors to alert family members and share daily routines.