Here are some of the recent statistics about the growing adoption rate of RPM that have been shared:

• About 25% of consumers confirmed they would consider switching to a new physician to access telehealth, according to the Pew Research Center.

• In a 2020 poll of 1,300-plus Sermo physicians, 8 out of 10 indicated they were seeing patients via telecommunications.

• According to a 2019 American Medical Association report, almost 9 out of 10 healthcare providers indicated that they had invested in or were evaluating RPM technologies.

Both patients and physicians reported a variety of benefits as a result of taking part in remote patient monitoring programs.

The top three benefits of remote patient monitoring cited by patients were:

1. Detailed information on personalized health

2. Faster access to healthcare services

3. Greater influence on their own wellbeing through ownership of health data

Healthcare professionals highlighted the following benefits to RPM programming:

1. Improved patient outcomes

2. Improved compliance rates

3. Patients taking more ownership of their health

Another benefit of this healthcare technology is that RPM programs are being covered by a growing list of insurers.

There are several other factors contributing to the upward trend of RPM usage. RPM is helping to support public health concerns and challenges associated with delivering care to an aging population.

Practitioners across the country are finding this virtual service to be enticing as a safe and effective means of maintaining the delivery of healthcare to some of their most vulnerable patients.

The fact that the United States is facing a shortage of practitioners is another factor driving the increase in remote patient monitoring usage.

The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) is estimating a primary care practitioner shortage of as many as 55,000 practitioners in the next 12 years. 

In addition to the physician shortage, the country is expecting an overall population growth of more than 10%, with the number of people aged 65 and older increasing by more than 45% over the same 12-year period.

Since physician shortages are inevitable, RPM is a sensible solution to delivering quality patient care while increasing access to care and reaching more patients efficiently and effectively.

The Real Cost of Chronic Health Conditions

Our traditional methods of treating the symptoms of chronic conditions [ie. heart disease, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), etc.] end up costing a great deal more money.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that the U.S. currently spends about $3.5 trillion on treating both chronic and mental health conditions — which is roughly 90% of our total national healthcare expenditures.  

Here are some common chronic conditions that can be managed effectively by leveraging home RPM programs: 

• Diabetes: There are over 34 million people living with diabetes with an additional 88 million suffering from prediabetes.

Diabetes is costing our country more than $325 billion in medical expenditures and lost productivity costs.

 

• COPD/asthma: Chronic lung conditioned are projected to cost close to $50 billion annually, with U.S. workers over 16 million days of work per year collectively.

As a matter of fact, COPD and asthma together cost around $200 billion each year and cost United States employers close to $130 billion annually in lost productivity. 

• Heart disease: 33% of all annual deaths in the United States are caused by a combination of either heart disease or stroke — which is more than 859,000 people. 

Due to the benefits of RPM, managing these and other chronic conditions is often much easier for both patients and doctors than ever before.

Value of Remote Patient Monitoring for Patients

The initial value of remote patient monitoring is rightly focused on patients — simply because without patients, there would be no need for RPM programs.

Here are five ways patients benefit from RPM programs:

1. Easier access to the healthcare team and treatment — Since RPM devices report real-time health data, practitioners are kept in the loop on their patients’ current health status, providing patients and caregivers with more peace of mind.

 

2. Fewer trips to the practitioner’s office — This means less exposure for patients to other illnesses and fewer expenditures in time and money for travel. 

3. Improved quality of care — With RPM, practitioners gain a more holistic understanding of a patient’s health condition, which can lead to more accurate adjustments in medications, fewer emergency room visits, and more time between in-office visits.

4. More control over personal health — RPM typically comes with a user-friendly application for a phone or tablet that provides patients with instant analysis of their wellbeing.

This allows for small adjustments to their daily lifestyle that can strengthen the management of a condition and help patients better recognize abnormal changes and developments.

5. Better support and education — the healthcare team receives more comprehensive information about a patient’s health status, practitioners can provide better individual support and education.

Financial Benefits of Remote Patient Monitoring

As noted, remote patient monitoring doesn’t just deliver clinical benefits. It provides financial benefits to patients and practices.

Updates by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to rules and reimbursement guidelines for remote patient monitoring have allowed the service to expand and grow tremendously.

Officially covered by original Medicare, CMS has outlined coverage rules that Medicare Advantage plans must also follow. Most other private insurance companies follow the lead set forth by Medicare. 

With respect to Medicare patients, they should expect copays until they meet their deductible. 

Once the deductible is met, remote patient monitoring is covered at 80% and beneficiaries can expect to pay on average about $25 per month for each month of monitoring.

While this might seem significant, consider the real cost of in-person office visits for close monitoring of chronic health conditions.

Between travel time and its associated expenses as well as the wait time in a potentially infectious waiting room, $25 monthly seems like a small price to pay. 

Another consideration is the cost of hospital admission for unchecked exacerbations of chronic diseases, which in some cases can total in the thousands.  

Meanwhile, for practices, remote patient monitoring is one of the more lucrative Medicare care management programs.  

 

Benefits of Remote Patient Monitoring for Payers

Health insurance companies, recognizing the growing consumer demand for and cost savings associated with telehealth, are launching “virtual-first” health plans.

This insurance makes telemedicine a foundational part of the patient’s care, essentially serving as a digital “front door” that allows patients to access virtual healthcare services that guide them to in-person care when needed.

If virtual-health plans are successful and achieve their objectives, the results should be more frequent, improved care access that also lowers costs, among other benefits.

Remote patient monitoring may be the most beneficial of the non-clinical remote services that health plans can consider integrating into virtual-first offerings.

RPM allows patients to take vitals measurements in preparation for virtual visits and can be used as part of a care plan to show patients’ progress in a more comprehensive way between visits.