Remote Patient Monitoring

Demand for help monitoring patients’ vital signs remotely has taken off since a Medicare change in 2019. Dozens of companies now push the service to help overburdened primary care doctors — and as a revenue stream. But some policy experts say its growth has outpaced oversight and evidence of effectiveness. - https://kffhealthnews.org/

Remote patient monitoring is a Medicare-approved, Stark-approved way of providing better patient care using current technology to follow patients' chronic illnesses like never before. 

The way this works is that patients who sign up will receive  wireless 4G monitoring equipment at their home address at no cost to them. The equipment consists of  a blood pressure device, a glucometer, a pulse oximeter, and a state-of-the-art weight scale. Whenever the patient uses the blood pressure device, for example, the results are immediately submitted wirelessly by 4G network to the hosting company, and to the patient's primary care physician. The results can also link to their electronic medical record.

The physician interprets the information and can act on it accordingly. If the blood pressure is repeatedly too low or too high, the patient will be informed and instructed what to do to improve it, without having to wait until the next office visit. If the data is extremely abnormal, the host company will notify the doctor and the patient immediately and even call 911 if necessary.

This service is covered by Medicare. The hosting company, in this case, TrueBlueMD, does the billing and receives the reimbursement. They then split the reimbursement with the patient's physician, who performs the data interpretation and needs to act on the information received when necessary. There is no copay or any other cost to the patient, nor is there any charge to the physician. 

If TrueBlueMD receives an order from a verified CVMS health provider, the provider receives an extra 5% of the reimbursement as a benefit of being a member of CVMS.

This will most likely revolutionize your ability to monitor patients with chronic illnesses like diabetes mellitus, congestive heart failure, hypertension and others. 

Read more here...

Call or email Robert Davis, Account Manager,  757-777-7403, robert.davis@truebluemd.com.

The following is an endorsement from a nonprofit health system:

"The advantages are apparent even to some providers who do not get paid by Medicare to offer the service. Frederick Health, a Maryland health system, provides remote monitoring to 364 high-risk patients and estimates the program saves the nonprofit system $10 million a year by reducing hospital admissions and ER visits. That estimate is based on comparisons of patients’ Medicare claims before they started the program and after, said Lisa Hogan, who runs the program. The hospital pays for the program and does not bill Medicare, she said."

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