The prevalence of telehealth has grown exponentially in the past few years. In fact, the number of Medicare visits that took place via telehealth increased 63-fold between 2019 and 2020. As the telehealth market expands so, too, does the remote patient monitoring market. Remote patient monitoring (RPM) is a type of telehealth in which patients use devices at home to check their vitals and then send that data on to their medical team. Many medical professionals have turned to this kind of care to:
- Save time and money
- Increase the number of patients they can see
- Catch medical issues before they get worse
While all these factors play a role in a medical facility’s decision to start using RPM, this blog will focus on the financial benefits of remote patient monitoring.
What Is the Cost of Remote Patient Monitoring?
The cost of RPM varies depending on several factors, including:
- Size of the program
- Type of program
- Seriousness of patients’ conditions who are involved in the program
Harmonize Health allows you to capture the value of an RPM program that fits your needs and budget. Tell us your goals, and we will create a program that’s right for you. In the past, we’ve created the following programs:
- High-Risk Patient Care: This program focuses on caring for patients with more than one medical condition or disease.
- Acute Care Clinic: This program monitors the health of patients who have recently had a serious bout of illness. In particular, it ensures that the patient’s health doesn’t deteriorate further and allows for intervention if necessary.
- Chronic Disease Management: This program monitors patients with chronic disease with less overhead.
- COVID-19/Flu Monitoring: This program works to detect early signs of flu or COVID-19 and provides educational resources on coping with symptoms.
Who Pays for Remote Patient Monitoring?
Like with other types of medical procedures and programs, hospital administration, insurance companies, and patients all pay for RPM. Hospital administration will have to pay to start and run the program at their facility. Once the program is running and patients join, patients can be billed for:
- Device setup and training on using these devices at home
- Contacting the medical team
- Data interpretation by the medical team
- Any necessary medical appointments
These bills will go through the patient’s insurance first, and whatever insurance doesn’t cover, the patient will have to pay. Both private insurance companies and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will typically cover at least part of the costs for RPM, assuming the patient meets certain requirements. And, if medical facilities provide quality care to patients, CMS will provide financial incentives to these facilities.
Is Remote Patient Monitoring Effective?
Remote patient monitoring is effective and saves medical facilities money in the long run. One way it does this is by decreasing the amount of scheduled doctor’s appointments per patient which, in turn, boosts efficiency within a medical facility. As of 2019, healthcare spending in the United States was $3.8 trillion. 25 cents of each of those dollars was considered wasted. That means that $950 billion was wasted in the healthcare industry in 2019.
On average, $50 billion is lost on no-shows alone in the United States. A no-show occurs when a patient misses a scheduled doctor’s appointment without rescheduling or canceling it. When physicians utilize RPM, patients need fewer appointments for checking vitals which, in turn, decreases the chances of a no-show and saves the medical facilities money.
Because RPM allows patients to provide vitals data continuously, patients also come into the hospital less often. Unplanned visits to the hospital costs the U.S. about $15-20 billion a year. Remote patient monitoring companies like Harmonize Health assist hospitals, clinics, and physician offices in tracking patient health data, so health conditions can be caught before they become serious enough to require a hospital visit. On average, those who use Harmonize Health see a 61% decrease in hospital admissions and a 43% decrease in emergency room visits. With numbers like these, your hospital will save both time and money. In fact, they save, on average, more than $7,000 per patient per year.
See RPM Cost Savings With Harmonize Health
If you want to see the benefits of remote patient monitoring cost savings, then turn to Harmonize Health. We can save you more than $7,000 a year per patient. What’s more, we will cover the costs to replace any necessary medical devices a patient uses and will even provide patients with everything they need for effective RPM, including a smartphone if they don’t have one. On top of that, our fees are all-inclusive, so you just have to pay for a patient once and get all the equipment you need for that patient, even if it’s months down the road before you realize you need another device.
Are you ready to see how RPM can save you money? Contact us to request a demo or to learn more.
