Daniel from Improve Press
Distant affected person monitoring use soared amongst Medicare beneficiaries throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, in keeping with an evaluation printed in JAMA Inside Medication.
The examine reviewed conventional Medicare claims from Jan. 1, 2018, by way of Sept. 30, 2021, searching for distant affected person monitoring (RPM) CPT codes. That included new codes launched in 2019 for monitoring common physiological knowledge. Researchers then in contrast common RPM use throughout the pandemic to steady glucose monitoring, a extra particular case with totally different CPT codes.
They discovered common RPM use elevated from 91 claims per 100,000 enrollees in February 2020 to 594 claims per 100,000 enrollees in September 2021, representing a 555% bounce. Throughout the identical time, CGM use elevated solely 42%.
The examine additionally analyzed how these RPM companies have been getting used and by which practitioners. Throughout the pandemic, 63.1% of common RPM was supplied by main care clinicians. In the meantime, 19.7% was supplied by cardiologists and 4.1% was provided by pulmonology specialists.
The commonest main analysis for RPM care was hypertension, representing 62.5% of RPM companies. Diabetes made up 8.3%, whereas sleep problems have been cited for 3.9% of claims and hyperlipidemia, or excessive ldl cholesterol, for 3.5%.
The researchers famous that main analysis assorted inside specialties; as an illustration, sleep and respiratory problems made up 76.4% of common RPM for pulmonologists. Total, hypertension monitoring by main care suppliers dominated RPM use throughout the pandemic, making up 42.7% of companies.
WHY IT MATTERS
Though nonetheless small, the expansion of RPM might have a critical influence on value if use continues. The examine’s authors observe many Medicare beneficiaries have hypertension, an enormous use case seen on this evaluation.
However they argue extra analysis is required to determine when RPM shall be most helpful.
“Prices have to be balanced with RPM’s potential advantages, resembling lowering hospital admissions. Randomized medical trials of RPM confirmed blended outcomes general, however some focused use instances confirmed promise,” the researchers wrote. “Additional analysis is important to establish medical eventualities during which RPM is most helpful and to know which sufferers are utilizing it and whether or not there are teams going through entry points.”
THE LARGER TREND
A wide range of firms are providing RPM expertise. Biofourmis, which focuses on AI-backed monitoring in addition to digital therapeutics, not too long ago added one other $20 million to its $300 million Collection D elevate first introduced in April.
Linked well being tech firm Withings additionally launched its personal RPM service utilizing its wearables, scales and sleep mats, whereas Alio obtained FDA 510(okay) clearance for a monitoring system that collects knowledge on pores and skin temperature, auscultation and coronary heart fee.
In the meantime, the Digital Medication Society (DiMe) final month launched 4 toolkits geared toward serving to healthcare and life science organizations use sensor knowledge from wearables and RPM techniques at scale.
