Safer at Home: Using Remote Patient Monitoring for Patient Care

Published in January 2021

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Summary: While remote patient monitoring may not be separately reimbursable for federally qualified health centers, there are other benefits including keeping patients with chronic conditions safer at home during the pandemic and monitoring patients with chronic conditions to detect changes early and intervene. This early detection and intervention supports high value care and improved health outcomes.

For those launching or expanding a remote patient monitoring program, there are three keys:

• Planning: Create a team, develop a project management plan, identify your patient population, and then select your vendor or tool using key selection criteria.
• Implementation: Some health centers have begun implementing self-monitored blood pressure programs, but despite promising results and relevant for clinical quality measures, they remain underutilized. Successful implementation of RPM offers the opportunity for patients to be more engaged in their care, as well as for both patients and care team to have access to near real time feedback on how the patient is doing. Training for health center staff training and support for implementation. Health center staff must both know how to configure RPM to provide meaningful information and how to support patients when they may encounter challenges. The many successes of other organizations provide helpful insights.
• Financial sustainability: While RPM is often not separately reimbursable for health centers beyond their prospective payment system or perhaps chronic care management reimbursement, it is important to monitor changes at the state and local level as RPM adoption increases and payers further realize its value. Other funding, such as telehealth grants or incentives from value-based care contracts can help offset the cost. Demonstrating the value of RPM for your patients can help secure additional funding in the future.