Many medical practices have adopted telehealth to connect with their patients virtually. Still, remote patient monitoring offers the missing piece a video call cannot provide: real insights into a patient’s health. And with generous reimbursements, the right RPM program can triple physicians’ annual revenue with very little extra work.
Suppose you are not familiar with remote patient monitoring. In that case, it works based on patients tracking their vitals like blood pressure or blood sugar at home, using health monitoring devices that share the measurements automatically with the patient’s provider.
Unlike patient visits, remote patient monitoring is an ongoing program where patients participate for longer periods of time, enough to see improvements to their condition while creating recurring new revenue for their care providers.
The CMS started reimbursing remote patient monitoring in 2018, with new CPT codes being added periodically since. RPM offers many benefits to both practices and patients, and we summarized the most important ones here.
RPM Drives Better Patient Care
Remote patient monitoring has been designed to provide continuous patient care between doctor’s visits. Patients with acute high-risk conditions like COVID-19 or those with chronic conditions like hypertension or diabetes are all suitable for RPM. The reality is that doctors do not know how their patients are doing in-between visits, and patients often don’t recognize the need to see their primary care provider or a specialist in time to avoid hospitalization or a trip to the ER. RPM keeps patients accountable for self-monitoring with the support of their care team that now has the tools to oversee patients’ health virtually and in an efficient way.
“We have been pleasantly surprised just how well remote patient monitoring worked for us. Our hypertensive patients dropped on average 25 mmHg within five months of enrollment.” Geriatric practice, AZ, using Lara Health
RPM Unlocks New Significant Reimbursements on Top of Patient Visits
RPM offers some of the best reimbursements available to medical practices. On average, a patient enrolled in RPM can bring an extra $1,500 a year in additional reimbursements. In addition, unlike patient visits, RPM patients create recurring monthly revenue that is predictable and highly profitable, given most RPM programs are overseen by clinical staff like medical assistants and not doctors themselves.
“Our practice generates $700 a year per Medicare patient who is seen five times a year by the doctor. With RPM, we added at least another $1,000 a year for each patient enrolled in RPM. Our program is managed by our existing nursing staff.” Primary care provider, AZ, a client of Lara Health
RPM Offers a Scalable Model for Higher Quality Care
Unlike face-to-face care, a remote patient monitoring program is a one-to-many care model that is easily scalable. Utilizing software and advanced technology, it’s the perfect care model in times of clinical staff shortage.
“We often get asked how many more staff members a practice might need to start RPM. The answer is none. We have many customers who managed to run a successful program without additional staff until they reached hundreds of patients.” Martina Janeckova, CEO of Lara Health
RPM Can Lower the Cost of Running a Medical Practice
Physicians’ time is expensive, which means growing your medical practice or seeing existing patients more often can only be done cost-efficiently if utilizing clinical staff like medical assistants. Remote patient monitoring is one of few programs that reimburse clinical staff’s time. What’s more, a lot of reimbursable care is something practices already do, like returning patients’ calls or reviewing patients’ test results outside an appointment. With patients enrolled in RPM, this time is now billable.
RPM Supports Patient Rention and Satisfaction
Remote patient monitoring is an ongoing program that engages your patient’s in-between visits. It allows for quick virtual check-ins and continuous care and, with the right solution, provides a concierge-like service to your patients without much extra work for your staff.
RPM Lowers Doctors Burnout
Remote patient monitoring allows physicians to delegate some care workloads to their clinical staff. With real-time insights into patients’ health, clinical staff can now intervene virtually and triage patients for in-person visits.
“Lara Health allowed our physicians to see fewer patients a day yet provide better care at the same time. And we see more revenue. It’s a win-win for all.” Geriatric practice, AZ, using Lara Health
RPM Creates Better Access to Care
With the current pandemic, physicians need better tools to care for their patients wherever they are. But even before, older patients, those with mobility issues or living in rural areas, had difficulty accessing care. Remote patient monitoring allows clinical teams to get patient health insights and reach them to provide timely care anytime, anywhere.
Lara Health is a leading virtual care platform offering remote patient monitoring, chronic care management, telehealth, and other care models that are reimbursable and easy to implement. Leveraging automation and AI, the Lara Health solution maximizes remote patient monitoring benefits to both medical practices and their patients. We are excited to partner with Sevocity and support their clients with tools their care teams and patients will love and benefit from. For more information, visit us at https://lara.health.