GeckoSystems' CPT codes increase the cost/benefit ratios of personal robots

Aug 27 2009

GeckoSystems Intl. Corp. (PINKSHEETS: GCKO) announced today that the new Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes recently approved, for physicians only, will further enhance the cost/benefit ratios of personal companion robots for family care. These new CPT codes will increase physician productivity and revenue by billing for activities that have previously been considered unpaid administrative time for non-physical consultations such as telephonic or on-line consumer care using home monitoring medical devices. GeckoSystems is a dynamic leader in the emerging Mobile Service Robot (MSR) industry revolutionizing their development and usage with "Mobile Robot Solutions for Safety, Security and Service™."

"While a home monitoring medical device may be stationary, as in GE/Intel, Philips et al offerings, or on a mobile personal companion robot such as our CareBot™, we believe the ability to monitor throughout the home with only one set of robust sensors to be more cost effective than incurring the cost and deficiencies of various fixed sensors with multiple installations per room. Due to the ability of our CareBots to automatically follow the designated care receiver using GeckoNav™ and GeckoTrak™, GeckoChat™ can verbally remind the care receiver of medication events, and enable vital sign taking of the care receiver. This new home medical appliance provides all the benefits of fixed, stationary monitoring systems, but with significant additional benefits such as surrogate companionship and easier video monitoring and conferencing. This, and other desirable benefits such as easy expansion to incorporate more vital sign monitoring subsystems (such as blood sugar and/or blood oxygenation levels), further reduces the total cost of ownership and increases personal robot demand for new home monitoring medical appliances, such as the CareBot," observed Martin Spencer, President/CEO, GeckoSystems.

When it comes to developing devices to help doctors monitor patients' health remotely, we're talking multibillion dollar potential. This professional telehealth market is predicted to grow from $3 billion in 2009 to $7.7 billion by 2012. And with the 65-and-older demographic estimated to be more than 71 million people by 2030, telehealth, especially cost effectiveness in the home, promises to be huge.

The substance of this tremendous scope in home telehealth marketplace has been illustrated by significant investments by major international companies such as GE, Intel, Philips, and others. So when GE, the world's 12th-largest company by revenue ($176.6 billion in 2008) according to Fortune magazine, announced it is joining with the world's largest chip maker, Intel, to develop home-based health technologies, it signaled the continued transformation of an American icon to emerging 21st century marketplaces. The financial commitment by both companies is big -- $250 million over the next five years -- and so is the market potential.

Philips Healthcare -- which restructured and rebranded in 2007 -- is made up of multiple product sectors, including: Imaging Systems, Clinical Care Systems, Home Healthcare Solutions, Healthcare Informatics and Patient Monitoring and Customer Services. Philips claims that Home Healthcare Solutions is the largest in the market. They compete with the GE/Intel offering.

GE's QuietCare technology is a suite of motion sensors installed in multiple location throughout the home that relay information about the activity of care receivers in a way that allows long-term tracking of their behavior. This can include everything from if and when the person opens their pill collection to indications that they are experiencing erratic movements that may precede a fall. (This can be done more cost effectively by a personal companion robot that can automatically follow the designated care receiver such as GeckoSystems' CareBot.)

What do GE, Intel, Philips, GeckoSystems, and others know? ...that these new billing codes are beneficial for the care receiver and the physician while increasing their potential market size. The new CPT On-Line Service Codes allow payments to the physician such that a consumer can e-mail messages to a physician and/or they can receive payment for their review of medical information sent via a "home monitoring medical device."

"The new Medicare/Medicaid payments for physicians' usage of home monitoring medical devices will cover multitasking, upgradeable personal companion robots such as the CareBot due to the cost effective, robust, and efficient coverage readily available with minimum modifications to the home itself other than the comparatively simple installation of WiFi coverage. These new economic realities improve the value proposition of our mobile robot solutions for this marketplace, enhance the present pent up demand, and increase ROI for our stockholders," concluded Spencer.