2020 Bay Alarm Medical Review

Get Bay Alarm Medical’s ultra-compact and lightweight GPS medical alert system at an affordable price. If you want prorated refunds, a price-lock guarantee, and the option to get a second pendant monitored at no extra cost, this is the brand for you.

Overview

Those who live alone, have an illness, are getting older, or just want peace of mind will benefit from a medical alert system.

Enter Bay Alarm Medical. This brand is a top choice in our annual best medical alert system review. Among other things, it has a price-lock guarantee, prorated refunds, and support in 170 languages. Let’s explore what the company has to offer in this Bay Alarm Medical review.

Bay Alarm Medical has three different types of plans: in-home, on-the-go, and in-car.

In-home plans are designed to work only in the home where the base unit is installed. On-the-go plans have a GPS function so you can take the devices on adventures or outings. In-car plans monitor devices plugged into a vehicle to track location and possible collisions.

All three of these plans have their benefits and drawbacks, so what’s best for you will be determined by where you need a medical device to work. You can also get different types of service plans bundled together at discount prices. If you need comprehensive coverage at home, on the go, and in the car, or any combination of those, a bundle could be the right choice for you.

Bay Alarm Medical’s in-home Basic Protection plan is affordable even though you’ll pay an extra $15 a month if you need to add fall protection. Out of our top picks, it’s one of the cheapest options, but it still has a large detection range, a long backup battery life in case of a power outage, and an app.

The other two plans are less well-priced, but both the Preferred and Premium Protection plans include some extra equipment, like wall buttons or lockboxes, increasing the plans’ value.

If you don’t want the extras, you can purchase an on-the-go package instead.

Getting on an on-the-go Premium Protection plan means you essentially have an in-home Premium Protection plan for less. You just don’t get the four wall buttons or the lockbox.

There aren’t as many in-car medical alert systems on the scene, so pricing in this space is less defined. Compared to systems like OnStar though, Bay Alarm Medical’s costs seem on point.

Most of Bay Alarm Medical’s equipment is pretty standard. It looks standard too—it’s not space age-esque, and the wristbands and pendants have nice, big buttons for easy pressing. It is a bit bulky.

These are a nice addition to the in-home Preferred Protection and Premium Protection plans. Each of the four buttons included is emblazoned with a big red HELP. Place them around the house as extra security in case you’re injured. For example, if you normally wear a fall detection device but take it off at night, you can place the wall buttons near the floor on either side of your bed. You fall out—you press a button—you get help.

One problem with medical alert systems is that sometimes emergency medical personnel have to break a door or a window to get into a home. This lockbox, which is included in the in-home Premium Protection plan, is a way around that. You can keep your key inside and guard it with an access code. Bay Alarm Medical will keep the code on file, and it’ll relay the code to anyone who responds to an alert at your home.

We’ve mentioned the prorated refunds, the price-lock guarantee, and the opportunity to add a second pendant for no extra monitoring cost. Here are a few other things that make Bay Alarm Medical stand out.

But the device might mistake some sudden movements as standing up. If conscious, the wearer can still get help by waiting 15 seconds before moving. If the device doesn’t go off after 15 seconds, they can press the button and ask for help.

Bay Alarm Medical has three call centers located in California, Utah, and Idaho. The California location is Bay Alarm Medical’s headquarters and where it handles day-to-day operations, customer service, technical support, consultations, and more.

The Utah and Idaho locations serve as emergency medical monitoring centers. Both are CSAA Five Diamond Certified and are available 24/7. (Being CSAA Five Diamond Certified means the brand follows a strict set of standards for monitoring services.) If one station goes offline due to a power outage or some other issue, the other station can provide emergency coverage.

Bay Alarm Medical makes sure your system is up and running by checking the medical alert device signal at the end of every week. It also recommends you test your system once a month by pressing the emergency button and waiting for a dispatcher to respond, then telling your dispatcher you’re just testing your system.

Medical safety is for everyone, so we like to see devices that offer more than one language. Bay Alarm Medical offers service in 170 languages, from English to Maltese to Yupik. The user’s primary language is kept on file so that the customer service reps can connect a user with an interpreter. Customer service reps are trained so that they can recognize an urgent tone of voice, even when they don’t know the speaker’s language.

Bay Alarm Medical has positive customer service reviews. We spoke briefly with a representative who was polite and helpful. We also noticed that on review websites, the brand answers each concern with a personalized message instead of using a form response.

In older reviews, customers pushed back against Bay Alarm Medical’s policies at the time, like a trial period of just 14 days and a refusal to prorate canceled service. Written responses to complaints were wooden, only making customers angrier. Since then, the customer service has undergone a transformation. Bay Alarm Medical increased the trial period to 30 days, began refunding service, and started leaving understanding and personalized responses on review websites. We’re impressed by the change!

Bay Alarm Medical definitely falls short next to the 1,300-foot ranges of Medical Guardian and LifeFone. Not every user needs that big of a range though. A thousand feet with 800 feet of fall detection may be enough for you if you have an apartment or a modest home or yard. The lack of a lifetime warranty is also a strike against Bay Alarm Medical, though protection plans are available for $5 a month.

Next to MobileHelp, Bay Alarm Medical is generally the better choice unless you need on-the-go capabilities in your basic package.

We think Bay Alarm Medical is a competitive option for anyone looking for a medical alert system device. For what you get, it’s a good price, and it holds its own against other top-ranked brands.

If you think Bay Alarm Medical is worth taking a chance on, visit its website to get the ball rolling.