As remote health adoption grows, organizations can leverage best practices in remote patient monitoring (RPM) to create efficient, engaging programs that benefit patients and providers. This article outlines key best practices for optimizing RPM workflow, technology, staffing, patient experience, data management, billing, and evaluating outsourcing options for long-term growth.
7 Remote Patient Monitoring Best Practices for Optimizing RPM Services
Remote care is not new but has become the standard of care in healthcare organizations. Many health systems continue growing their remote patient monitoring programs. This is because advancements in remote patient monitoring continue to benefit many patient populations. Remote patient monitoring is effective for chronic and acute care. Still, it is most often used in chronic care for chronic conditions like diabetes, COPD, and hypertension that require regular vitals tracking. RPM is also used to help monitor post-operative and recently discharged acute care patients.
1) Identify the Right Patient Populations
The first step in leveraging best practices in remote patient monitoring and optimizing RPM service programs is identifying which patient populations will benefit most from RPM technology. The key question is: Is remote patient monitoring right for your patient population? This is important because RPM may only be appropriate for some patients.
It is also important to identify who qualifies for remote patient monitoring. Determining which patients will benefit most from RPM ensures your program is tailored to those most likely to engage with and gain health improvements from RPM.
Acute Care Patients
Many patients use remote patient monitoring programs after surgery or critical care admission. Regular vital sign monitoring with connected health devices allows qualified healthcare professionals to quickly identify if conditions or symptoms are worsening and prevent the progression of symptoms.
Chronic Care Patients
Remote patient monitoring is also effective for monitoring patients with chronic conditions like diabetes, hypertension, and COPD. Chronic care patients often require frequent adjustments to treatment plans. RPM can help reduce in-person visits because physicians receive a steady stream of real-time data, allowing patients to be monitored remotely.
Once the need for remote patient monitoring is established, the following explains how to leverage remote patient monitoring best practices in setting up efficient workflows.
2) Remote Patient Monitoring Best Practices: Refine Workflow and Processes
Leveraging best practices in remote patient monitoring includes setting up transparent and efficient clinical workflows. The core medical staff must understand best practices to help in optimizing RPM operations, procedures, and responsibilities required for effective monitoring.
Implementing a new remote patient monitoring solution can initially overwhelm medical staff. To avoid this, remind staff how RPM delivers value to patients and helps meet organizational goals. Share metrics used to evaluate the remote patient monitoring program and continue informing staff on progress. Continue working on improving processes and workflow based on learnings.
Some best practices for efficient workflow include:
- Clearly defined roles and responsibilities
- Straightforward monitoring protocols and standardized device usage
- Streamlined data review and alert escalation processes
- Ongoing training on using devices, protocols, and data systems
- Regular evaluation of workflows to identify optimization opportunities
Setting up structured workflows and keeping staff informed on goals, responsibilities, and performance aids in facilitating staff adoption and optimizing RPM. This leads to more efficient operations and better patient outcomes.
3) Optimizing RPM with Medical Staff Onboarding
The following section covers how to leverage remote patient monitoring best practices for proper continuing training and education of medical staff. If you have not already done so, designate remote patient monitoring “superusers.” Select team members who can support staff with technology updates and workflows. Superusers should update resources such as procedures, videos, and guides to help staff with current and future workflows.
Advise superusers to keep resources on the following topics up-to-date:
- Clinical workflow procedures
- Device hardware frequently asked questions
- Portal software frequently asks questions
- Patient onboarding guidelines
Conduct weekly briefings with clinical staff to secure feedback on RPM procedures and workflow. Frequent communication helps to identify if any fine-tuning needs to be made to remote patient monitoring processes and workflows.
4) Remote Patient Monitoring Best Practices in Patient Onboarding
Just as employee onboarding best practices are vital to a company’s bottom line, a robust remote patient monitoring onboarding process can improve patient engagement and add to your organization’s bottom line. Patients are required to take their vital sign measurements for at least 16 days out of the month.
To ensure patients are engaged and consistently taking measurements, they must fully understand how to use remote patient monitoring devices. Vital sign data accumulates fast and allows physicians to optimize patient treatment plans quickly. In addition, studies show that patients fully engaged in RPM adhere better to their treatment plans and daily measurement routines.
Onboarding patients means educating them on how to use the devices. The best remote patient monitoring devices are FDA-cleared, require no setup, and use cellular or Bluetooth connectivity to transmit data automatically. For example, Tenovi uses top-line FDA-cleared RPM devices that do not require syncing or apps.
Asking these questions can help keep your patient onboarding experience positive:
- Is the enrollment/onboarding process clear and concise?
- Are patient onboarding materials easy to understand?
- Do patients find RPM devices easy to use?
- Can patients quickly access technical support?
- Have you clearly explained normal vs. concerning readings?
5) Proactively Manage Data and Customize Alerts
The next step in leveraging best practices for remote patient monitoring and optimizing RPM covers securely collecting and managing RPM data. Proper data collection allows physicians to obtain deeper insights into a patient’s condition. Once data is collected, physicians can review and analyze patient vital sign data to ensure the patient is adhering to a treatment plan. In addition, physicians can study patient vital signs by analyzing data trends, and providers can create alerts to warn when readings have reached a set threshold. Setting up a clear workflow for collecting and interpreting patient data is also important. Your medical staff must understand their role and how to maximize the value of RPM services through formal procedures.
Clear procedures to streamline the patient experience and encourage engagement, adherence, and accurate data collection are as follows.
- Continually manage and analyze incoming data.
- Detect and report clinically significant data to the appropriate care team member.
- Quickly facilitate clinical interventions and changes to treatment plans as needed.
Some patients will need consistent monitoring for chronic conditions such as congestive heart failure or COPD, while others may need less frequent monitoring. Therefore, healthcare providers must categorize the patient and gather data appropriately to bill adequately.
6) Remote Patient Monitoring Best Practices for Billing
Levering best practices for remote patient monitoring ensures that healthcare organizations are generating and collecting revenue to continue growing their businesses. The 5 CPT billing codes (99453, 99454, 99457, 99458, and 99091) help itemize services, such as device setup, collection, interpretation, and processing of remote physiologic data. Below is an explanation of the CPT codes and an overview of best practices for remote patient monitoring reimbursement.
These rounded numbers are based on 2024 non-facility national averages and vary by region.
1) CPT 99453
This code is for device setup and is submitted for initial setup and patient education on the use of equipment. The payment is $19.65 once per episode of care.
2) CPT 99454
This billing code covers remote monitoring and is submitted for supplying patients with an FDA-cleared RPM device. The patient must use the device for 16 days per calendar month. The payment is $46.50 per month.
3) CPT 99457
The treatment management billing code is for the initial 20 minutes of treatment management services for clinical staff, physicians, or other qualified healthcare professionals in a calendar month. The payment is $38.64 per month.
4) CPT 99454
An additional 20 minutes of remote monitoring may be submitted for each additional 20 minutes of RPM services, with a maximum of 60 minutes in a calendar month. The payment is $39 per month.
5) CPT 99091
Data interpretation is the time it takes clinical staff to gather, interpret, and process data, which is at least 30 minutes in a calendar month. The payment is $52.71 per month.
7) Remote Patient Monitoring Best Practices: Evaluating the Process
Finally, the seventh best practice for remote patient monitoring is continually evaluating your outsourcing options. A healthcare organization must frequently review staff bandwidth to be sure they can perform their responsibilities. For example, does your team have the ability to streamline procedures, automate, outsource, and hire new staff as needed?
You may have been managing your RPM program in-house and are considering outsourcing. Remote patient monitoring CPT reimbursement codes allow healthcare organizations to outsource RPM services to third-party remote monitoring companies. Many RPM vendors help perform device setup, education, data review, customer service, and HIPAA-compliant patient and partner technical support. If you are considering increasing your program to a more significant number of patients, as the vendor to review their experiences in scaling RPM.
Outsourcing provides value-added services such as billing, device fulfillment, data review, and patient and partner technical support. Assistance with optimizing RPM services workflows opens the opportunity for healthcare businesses to generate new streams of revenue with very minimal impact on current organizational workflow.
Physicians no longer have to increase clinic workload or hire more staff. Instead, they can outsource to companies with qualified clinical staff who can perform RPM services. Visit Tenovi to find out whom we serve and request a free demo.
