“An apple a day keeps the doctor away,” is a common adage but its central idea of prevention has only recently and more vigorously pursued by medical practices in the United States to mitigate the ever-growing cost of healthcare. When it comes to prevention, practices have come to learn the value of Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) and now feel its urgency and relevance in providing effective preventive care, especially as it relates to patients doing their part: complying with plans of care.
RPM harnesses the power of telecommunications technologies to monitor and collect patients’ health data outside of traditional settings. The data is then electronically transmitted to providers for assessment and intervention when needed. The patient’s vital signs, heart rate, blood pressure, blood sugar, oxygen level or weight are routinely collected daily via RPM. The most common RPM devices are blood pressure monitors, weight scales, blood glucose meters, pulse oximeters, and spirometers. Automation of these devices has advanced in leaps and bounds making it much easier to capture and send electronic data with only a few clicks.
So how does RPM promote preventative care? And how important is it to your practice?
Here are 5 ways RPM is beneficial to you:
1. RPM: More Than an Ounce of Prevention
The healthcare industry now looks to prevention as a more effective response to promote health by preventing further complications and controlling costs. RPM brings preventive care in treating chronic conditions, which account for 7 out of 10 deaths in the U.S. or 1.7 million Americans per year. The program helps people stay healthy, detects or diagnoses a problem before it escalates, and provides physicians a holistic understanding of the patient’s health condition. Chronically ill patients that require close monitoring do not need to make office visits for clinicians to accomplish the goals by using RPM for routine check-ins. Missed appointments will no longer pose the same threat, which may lead to further complications, because RPM will deliver near real-time data on the patient’s health status.
Practices can leverage RPM technology with devices that can be calibrated with pre-set parameters and reviewed by clinicians if goals are met or when thresholds are crossed. With real-time data, clinicians can accurately adjust medications and in turn, patients can also easily adjust their lifestyle because they see and understand the changes or developments in their conditions.
In fact, RPM offers more than just an ounce of prevention. Prevention is a pillar in providing high quality of care. RPM delivers the following benefits that support the overall health and well-being of patients:
Improves Patient Outcomes
Take for instance how RPM manages heart disease, the number one chronic condition plaguing Americans today. RPM enables patients to easily manage their condition at home through a connected RPM solution that calls for proactive care where medications can be adjusted to reduce preventable hospitalizations. Not only are readmissions avoided but mortality is reduced. RPM can immediately address a problem before it can turn into a major health crisis.
Improves Patient Engagement and Satisfaction
Through RPM, patients play an active role and claim ownership of their data, which in turn influences their well-being, improves compliance to their care plan, and medications adherence. Patients enrolled in RPM have fewer ER visits and hospitalizations; further bringing greater financial health by reducing the cost of care. RPM bridges the existing gap in keeping patients engaged in self-managing their conditions. Positive health outcomes result not just from prevention but from increased patient engagement and satisfaction.
Increased Support, Education, and Feedback
RPM enables clinicians to provide better support in managing patient conditions by offering relevant feedback to their patients during in-person and virtual consultations. It also provides more opportunities to strengthen clinician-patient relationships. Patients do well with the knowledge that their physician is keeping a close watch on them.
2. RPM: A Lucrative Medicare Program
RPM brings valuable financial rewards because it generates much-needed cash flow to augment the revenues lost as in-person visits drastically declined during the past two years. Even before COVID-19 turned into a worldwide health crisis, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) had already acknowledged the importance of RPM, which was very evident in the upgrading of 2020 CPT codes. RPM has become a lucrative Medicare program with increasing financial benefits to all parties. Moreover, Medicare has revised the RPM coverage, which is not only for patients with chronic conditions but also with chronic and/or acute conditions.
RPM brings to providers billable reimbursements particularly through CPT codes 99457 and 99458. These codes reimburse providers for remote care services like routinely looking into a patient’s data. For this year’s CMS rates, CCM may have taken the bigger portion of the pie with a more than 50% increase but RPM remains strong, though relatively unchanged. Practices that are adopting RPM into their workflows and collecting vast amounts of patient data will not only provide better care but will benefit greatly from the program. Incidentally, private insurance companies have also followed suit for they now know the relevance of RPM and the cost savings associated with it. Payers are now launching programs that integrate telehealth technologies such as RPM as an essential part of patient care.
3. RPM: A Better Access to Healthcare
RPM technologies can easily monitor the most remote and isolated populations outside the reach of the traditional delivery systems of care. With COVID-19, clinicians have relied heavily on smartphones and wearables to monitor their patients in their homes, where they can be safe from infectious diseases. Consumers now see the value of remote care. It is not only safe and convenient but also practical in terms of saving on travel costs and time. Without stepping into a doctor’s office, patients are connected to their doctor and receive the care they need.
In some rural and urban areas in the U.S., access to healthcare in the U.S. is still limited due to many factors like transportation difficulties, geographic location, and even the shortage of providers. These factors do not hinder the delivery of care through RPM. Even technology challenged patients will not have a problem with the RPM devices. They are specially designed to be user-friendly by connecting automatically to cellular networks.
4. RPM: Improving How Your Practice Operates
RPM facilitates prioritization in the delivery of care by improving case triage for patients with more urgent needs. It promotes better communication in collecting, recording, and utilizing patient data to support clinical decision-making. It also boosts physician performance in delivering optimal care.
RPM as a telehealth service significantly addresses the problem of patient no-shows. For these patients, there is no longer waiting room congestion and providers can see and treat patients remotely and simultaneously. By simultaneously treating patients, providers can accommodate more patients as they enjoy more flexibility in their workload.
RPM improves work productivity, staff efficiency, and even resolves the problem of staffing shortages. In the next dozen years, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) has projected a shortage of as many as 55,000 primary care practitioners. In the same 12-year period, the overall population is expected to grow more than 10% with 65-year-olds and above increasing by more than 45%. RPM offers a timely solution that promotes continuity of care with more patients within easy reach.
5. RPM: A Competitive Advantage for Your Practice
Around 25% of consumers are saying that they are willing to switch to a different provider to use telehealth services according to the Pew Research Center. Consumers hold convenience as a major decision-making factor and will remain loyal to providers that can offer them optimal remote care. This means that practices need to offer innovative solutions to have a competitive advantage for patient retention and to attract more patients. In short, RPM programs can also increase referrals, not simply revenues, and thereby contribute to improved coordinated care among providers.
RPM: A Clear Win for All
Not only do providers benefit from RPM but it is inevitably a significant change for the industry especially in the delivery of healthcare. It benefits patients, caregivers, and payers alike. There is also no denying its cost-effectiveness, and RPM delivers positive outcomes particularly in preventive care. Medicare and commercial payers are now supporting RPM while patients are relying on it increasingly. The demand for RPM will continue to grow and practices should keep up with it. The technology will continue to evolve to be more sophisticated over the years giving practices more compelling reasons for its adoption.
The growth opportunities for practices are here with the right RPM vendor and partner. Ascent Care Partners offers a turnkey solution for seamless integration to your existing workflows. Seize the opportunity and learn more at www.myacpcare.com
