What a Medical Alert System Costs, and What It Compares To
A Help Now system runs $29.95 to $46.95 a month. Here is what every other kind of help for an older adult costs, so you can put that number in context.
What ours costs
Between $29.95 and $46.95 a month depending on the system and how you pay. The equipment is included at no cost, shipping is free anywhere in the country, there is no contract, and there is a 30-day money-back guarantee from the day it arrives. Veterans and Meals on Wheels recipients save $5 every month. See every system and price.
What everything else costs
These are national median figures from the CareScout 2025 Cost of Care Survey, the long-running industry study formerly published by Genworth, released March 2026.
Bars are drawn to the same scale, so you can see the difference rather than work it out.
Monthly figures are the survey’s annual medians divided by twelve. Costs vary a great deal by state, and CareScout publishes state-by-state tables if you want your own numbers.
What this is, and what it is not.
A medical alert system is not care, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. It does not cook a meal, help anyone bathe or dress, drive to an appointment, or remind anyone to take a pill. If someone needs daily hands-on help, they need it, and a button is not a substitute for it.
What it does is cover the hours when nobody else is there.
That is when most falls happen, and that is the gap this closes.
So think of it as sitting alongside whatever help someone already has, not instead of it. A daughter ten minutes away. An aide three mornings a week. A neighbour who checks in on Sundays. Almost nobody has someone there every hour, and this is what covers the rest of them.
The comparison that is actually fair
The useful way to read the table is not "this replaces that." It is that the button is a very small fixed cost sitting alongside whatever else someone needs.
One hour a week of paid in-home help is about $152 a month. At roughly $35 an hour, that is more than three times our most expensive system.
So the real question is not whether you can afford a medical alert system. It is whether having one might let someone stay in their own home a while longer, before the bigger numbers on that list start.
Nobody can promise that it will. What we can say is that the cost of finding out is about a dollar a day.
How that compares to the rest of the industry
We are not the cheapest medical alert company in the country and we are not trying to be. On the things that usually cost extra, we are well under the going rate. These are the national norms as of August 2026.
Two things that are NOT a difference between us and anyone else.
Most reputable providers now sell month to month with no contract, and most give a 30-day money-back guarantee. Expect both from whoever you call, and walk away from a company that offers less.
Where we are NOT the cheapest, since you should hear it from us.
On the entry-level landline system:
So it lands in the same place. And if you find a lower price anywhere, we will match it - that promise is the reason we do not need to play games with the list price.
Three more things that are simply our policy:
- No contract. Month to month, always.
- A 30-day money-back guarantee, from the day it arrives.
- We do not raise the rate on an existing customer. The price you start at is the price you keep for as long as you have the system.
Where the gap really shows is fall detection. It is the feature most people actually want, most of the industry charges $10 a month for it, and we charge $5. Over three years that is $180 back in your pocket on the same protection.
What we do not charge for.
- The equipment. It is included, and it stays ours, so there is nothing to buy and nothing to resell.
- Shipping, anywhere in the United States.
- An installation visit. You plug it in and press the button once to test it.
- Cancelling. Month to month, and returning the equipment ends the billing.
Ways the monthly cost comes down
- Veterans and Meals on Wheels recipients save $5 every month, on any system.
- Paying by bank account instead of card is cheaper on every system.
- Paying quarterly takes another $1 off each month; paying annually takes off $2.
- We match any competitor’s pricing, and we do not raise the rate on an existing customer.
Can I pay by check?
Yes, on an annual plan. We would rather you did not, and it is only fair to tell you why.
Paying by check means we post you an invoice, you post a check back, and somebody here enters it by hand. Which means:
- It is slower to set up than paying online.
- It is the one payment method that can go astray in the mail.
- It does not qualify for the lower bank-autopay rate. On an annual plan by check you get the annual discount but not the autopay one, so you pay more each month than you need to.
- If a payment does not reach us, service can be interrupted.
Almost everyone is better off on bank autopay, which is cheaper, and which you never have to think about again. But if you would still prefer to pay by check, call us on (866) 743-7348 and we will set it up for you.
Does Medicare or insurance pay for it?
Original Medicare does not cover medical alert systems. Three other things sometimes do:
- Some Medicare Advantage plans include one as a supplemental benefit.
- Some state Medicaid waiver programs help with the cost.
- Some Area Agencies on Aging do as well.
So it is worth one phone call to your plan before you assume you are paying the whole thing. We are happy to tell you what to ask them.
See what it would actually cost you
Answer a few questionsCall (866) 743-7348
Source: CareScout 2025 Cost of Care Survey, national medians, published March 2026. Help Now Medical Alert is the nationwide service of Bay Area Vital Link, Inc., answering emergency calls since 1981.