New remote patient monitoring advocacy group launches

Eight digital health companies have created the Remote Monitoring Leadership Council, an alliance that aims to advocate for expanded remote patient monitoring access and adoption.

The council's founding members include Best Buy Health, BioIntelliSense, Cadence, CoachCare, CopilotIQ, Bioformis, HealthSnap and Impilo. Together, they aim to broaden access to RPM, improve care quality through RPM and work with policymakers to share data, outcomes and accelerate RPM adoption. On May 14, council members met with Trump Administration officials and Congress to identify opportunities to strengthen RPM-enabled care.

The move comes as RPM becomes more popular, with healthcare executives noting a positive return on investment. A May 2023 survey of 141 healthcare executives revealed that most (94%) believe RPM programs have improved patient outcomes, and three-quarters (73%) said they have yielded a positive ROI.

Not only that, but RPM adoption across Medicare and Medicaid programs has also grown exponentially. 

"Remote Patient Monitoring must be recognized and protected as a cornerstone of a sustainable, value-based healthcare system," said Samson Magid, co-founder and CEO of HealthSnap. "At HealthSnap, we see daily across more than 150 hospitals and health systems how RPM reduces the total cost of care, strengthens patient-clinician relationships, and enables earlier intervention. This is not a pilot or a nice-to-have. RPM is a necessary infrastructure for modern chronic disease management. Now is the time for leaders to champion policies that ensure these programs are scalable, equitable, and built to last."

The council has laid out principles for high-quality RPM, which organizations seeking membership must commit to. The principles include ensuring that RPM is used to close care gaps, ensure continuity of care and enable patients to take greater ownership of their care.

Additionally, the council stated that it is committed to demonstrating and publishing outcomes and cost data for RPM and appropriately billing the services.

The last point is especially critical in light of a September 2024 report from HHS' Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG).

Medicare began covering RPM in 2018, allowing healthcare providers to bill for the services using a set of procedure codes representing three RPM components: education and setup, device supply and treatment management. However, HHS-OIG found that 43% of Medicare enrollees who received RPM in 2022 did not receive at least one of the three components, raising concerns about whether RPM services are being used as intended.

Despite these concerns, lawmakers have signaled interest in ensuring access to RPM. At the end of April, U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) introduced the Rural Patient Monitoring (RPM) Access Act to solidify access to RPM among Medicare patients in rural and underserved communities. The bill includes provisions mandating that RPM providers be capable of promptly transmitting captured data to the supervising provider and responding to data anomalies.

Anuja Vaidya has covered the healthcare industry since 2012. She currently covers the virtual healthcare landscape, including telehealth, remote patient monitoring and digital therapeutics.