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Remote patient monitoring (RPM) has become one of the most impactful tools in modern healthcare delivery. By allowing providers to track patients' vital signs and chronic disease indicators in real time—without requiring an office visit—RPM expands the reach of care and creates a more continuous relationship between providers and patients.
With growing Medicare reimbursement opportunities and an increasing focus on chronic disease management, more practices are looking at what RPM can offer—and how to get started.
Popular among patients and practices, RPM enables healthcare providers to monitor their patients’ chronic illnesses, even when patients and providers are in different locations. Remote patient monitoring uses technology tools to capture remotely measured vital signs in real-time and send them to the provider.
Originally developed for monitoring older patients with moderate to severe chronic illnesses, remote patient monitoring has expanded significantly. Today, RPM platforms support a wide range of chronic conditions and help practices extend quality care to patients who face barriers to in-person visits.
Patients use non-invasive RPM devices at home that automatically record and transmit values such as:
ARIA Population Health currently offers blood pressure cuffs, glucometers, and digital scales—the three most common devices for managing hypertension, diabetes, and congestive heart failure.
As a result, providers can remotely monitor these values and stay informed about their patients’ progress. This functionality allows providers to see if procedures and/or medication changes are proceeding according to the treatment plan.
Some RPM tools operate on secure, cloud-based server architecture, which enables physicians to log in from any device to check measurements and results. This is a critical capability for providers when they receive an alert about a result that’s beyond a predetermined threshold.
With remote patient monitoring tools that offer an alert system, providers can set a threshold value that automatically lets them know when their patients’ measurement value rises or falls out of the acceptable range. Providers may be able to give their patients with chronic diseases including diabetes, heart failure, and COPD more immediate medical attention due to these alerts.
Practices and patients benefit from remote patient monitoring.
An RPM solution enables providers to keep close tabs—easily and efficiently—on their patients with chronic illnesses. Additionally, practices can help protect the health of both patients and staff by treating at-risk patients remotely.
Providers can leverage an opportunity to increase their practice’s revenue by expanding their reach and supporting the treatment of immobile or distant patients. Patients who require high quality remote care can achieve better outcomes with better access to providers, more immediate care, and closer monitoring of their chronic conditions. According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, using virtual health care tools can expand the range of patient access to specialists.
Yes, Medicare covers remote patient monitoring. CMS has continued to expand reimbursement opportunities for RPM services, and qualifying practices can bill for device setup, monthly monitoring, and care management under established CPT® codes.
Moving forward, RPM reimbursement is available for patients managing both acute and/or chronic conditions.
With Medicare reimbursements, practices can expect to generate approximately $70 per patient, per month, from an active RPM program. This represents a meaningful, new revenue stream using your existing patient population, and it may also encourage additional billable encounters and follow-up visits.
Additionally, providers may want to factor into the equation the savings in money and time they could achieve by collecting patients’ data automatically through remote patient monitoring, which offers easy access to this information for immediate review. Practices also could expand their reach, targeting more distant patients than before.
Remote Patient Monitoring is a sub-category of telehealth. Telehealth is the use of electronic information and telecommunication technologies to provide clinical health care through remote methods, which can include live video chats between providers and patients, chat messaging, and secure file exchange.
Ready to bring remote patient monitoring to your practice?
ARIA Population Health from CompuGroup Medical offers two service models—RPM Essentials for practices that want to manage patient engagement directly, and RPM Complete for a fully managed solution from enrollment through billing.
Learn more about ARIA Population Health and contact us to get started.
