The future of remote patient monitoring hinges on reimbursement

Providers are using remote patient monitoring to extend care for chronic care patients in underserved areas but reimbursement for the services is far from certain. Remote patient monitoring can help providers extend care for patients in underserved areas and improve outcomes, but only if it’s a reimbursable service. During the COVID-19 pandemic, remote patient monitoring adoption soared among Medicare beneficiaries, according to an August 2022 study in JAMA Internal Medicine. From February 2020 to September 2021, usage of remote patient monitoring increased from 91 claims per 100,000 enrollees to 594 claims per 100,000 enrollees, according to the study. But as adoption has increased, reimbursement of the technology faces an uncertain future. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has expanded payment for remote patient monitoring since 2018 by adding billing codes that cover some of the services under Medicare fee-for-service health plans. But reimbursement value for some of those codes decreased in the 2023 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule by more than 10% and could again in 2024.