Spike in Remote Patient Monitoring Driven by Handful of Providers
New research found that the COVID-19 pandemic led to expanded use of remote patient monitoring, but the increase was largely driven by a small number of primary care providers.
Source: Getty Images
By - A study published in Health Affairs found that a small fraction of primary care physicians drove a more than four-fold increase in remote patient monitoring (RPM) use during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Even though RPM was being used prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, changes in care delivery amid in-person restrictions led to a significant rise in use.
In this study, researchers aimed to gather data regarding how RPM is used to help educate policymakers as they make decisions regarding regulations and reimbursement for the care modality.
Researchers collected data on medical claims for 20 million Medicare Advantage enrollees between Jan. 1, 2019, and March 31, 2021. They gathered several pieces of claim-specific information, including dates of service, associated procedure codes, motivating diagnoses, and de-identified provider IDs.
They found that the volume of RPM claims increased immediately at the start of the pandemic in March 2020, hitting four times its standard level within a year. By March 2021, there were 19,762 RPM claims across 15,682 unique patients, substantially higher than the 4,355 claims associated with 3,653 patients in March 2020.
Of all patients that used RPM in 2020, 51 percent continued to use the care modality six months after their initial use. On average, RPM patients individually received $706 in services in their first year.
But the study shows that RPM claims were concentrated among only a few primary care providers (PCPs), with 0.75 percent of all physicians having any RPM claims. The 0.1 percent of providers researchers identified as high-volume providers accounted for 69 percent of all general RPM claims.
Further, there was little difference in RPM use based on condition complexity, number of chronic conditions, and disease control. For example, patients with one chronic condition had an RPM use rate of 16.5 percent, compared with 24.1 percent among those with five or more chronic conditions.
Based on this data, researchers concluded that the COVID-19 pandemic was linked to a dramatic increase in general RPM, but "more research is needed to identify which patients and use cases benefit most from remote patient monitoring."
Despite the need for further evidence, researchers believe that improvements in chronic conditions and patient access indicate the importance of RPM investments.
Efforts directed toward RPM improvements have expanded as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.
In a virtual summit hosted by Xtelligent Healthcare Media in August, speakers described how RPM innovations support opportunities for chronic care management.
Speakers also described how RPM supports hospital-at-home growth opportunities, leading to ease of care access and improved outcomes.
In addition, a study published in July found that RPM led to a decline in COVID-19 hospitalizations. Researchers came to this conclusion following a cohort study at Froedtert and Medical College of Wisconsin Health Network. They found that COVID-19 patients who engaged in RPM were less likely to end up in the hospital and had lower lengths of stay.
