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Distant affected person monitoring use soared amongst Medicare beneficiaries throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, in line with an analysis published in JAMA Internal Medicine.
The examine reviewed conventional Medicare claims from Jan. 1, 2018, via Sept. 30, 2021, searching for distant affected person monitoring (RPM) CPT codes. That included new codes introduced 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 completely 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 had 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 prognosis for RPM care was hypertension, representing 62.5% of RPM companies. Diabetes made up 8.3%, whereas sleep issues had been cited for 3.9% of claims and hyperlipidemia, or excessive ldl cholesterol, for 3.5%.
The researchers famous that main prognosis diversified inside specialties; as an example, sleep and respiratory issues 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 may have a critical influence on price 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 might be most helpful.
“Prices have to be balanced with RPM’s potential advantages, reminiscent of lowering hospital admissions. Randomized medical trials of RPM confirmed combined outcomes general, however some focused use instances confirmed promise,” the researchers wrote. “Additional analysis is critical to establish medical eventualities through which RPM is most helpful and to know which sufferers are utilizing it and whether or not there are teams dealing with entry points.”
THE LARGER TREND
A wide range of firms are providing RPM know-how. Biofourmis, which focuses on AI-backed monitoring in addition to digital therapeutics, lately added another $20 million to its $300 million Series D raise first introduced in April.
Linked well being tech firm Withings additionally launched its own RPM service utilizing its wearables, scales and sleep mats, whereas Alio received FDA 510(k) clearance for a monitoring system that collects knowledge on pores and skin temperature, auscultation and coronary heart fee.
In the meantime, the Digital Drugs Society (DiMe) final month released four toolkits aimed toward serving to healthcare and life science organizations use sensor knowledge from wearables and RPM methods at scale.
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