Can remote patient monitoring for home health improve patient outcomes? Both home health and remote patient monitoring involve home-based care, yet they are two surprisingly different services. This article will review the differences between home health and RPM and explain how using home health services and remote patient monitoring together can engage patients and improve patient outcomes.
Home Health vs. Remote Patient Monitoring
Both home health and remote patient monitoring make it easy for patients to get the personalized support they need outside of the conventional clinic setting. Extending healthcare to the patient’s home is comfortable and effective. These two services vary in approach and offer different benefits, but when combined, they can benefit one another.
Location and Type of Service
A care provider must physically visit the patient’s home location in home health services. Types of services covered under Medicare may include:
- Part-time nursing care (must be less than 7 days a week, 8 hours a day, and 28 hours a week)
- Physical therapy
- Occupational therapy
- Speech therapy
- Medical social services
- Part-time home health aide services
In contrast, remote patient monitoring is a telehealth service that does not involve an in-person interaction. Instead, patients are responsible for regularly measuring their vital signs from home or other locations with a remote patient monitoring device. Once the patient takes a measurement, it is automatically transmitted in real-time to a remote patient monitoring portal for the clinician to access.
If a measurement is above or below the set threshold, the RPM platform will immediately alert the clinician for quick action. With RPM technology, patients can go about their daily lives and feel assured that a qualified care provider is monitoring their health.
Home Health and RPM Care Providers
A home health agency provides home health services. The agency bills Medicare for home health services, not the physician who prescribes the service. In other words, the physician does not get any payment for home health services.
Physicians and clinical staff can provide RPM services or outsourcing through remote patient monitoring companies. However, the physician is always responsible for submitting the billing claim. If insourced or outsourced clinical staff perform RPM services, the billing physician must bill “incident to” under general supervision.
Now that you understand the primary distinctions between home health and RPM care providers, let’s review what happens when remote patient monitoring and home health are combined and how they can improve patient outcomes.
Using Remote Patient Monitoring for Home Health
In October 2018, CMS released a final rule allowing home health agencies to bill for remote physiological monitoring. Medicare recognizes that RPM can help home health agencies improve the care planning process. To incentivize the adoption of RPM, the costs of necessary equipment, setup, and related services can be included as allowable administrative costs on the home health agency’s cost report.
Home health agencies are only responsible for the collection of data, not the 20 minutes of data interpretation and intervention, the same way a physician would be.
By implementing remote patient monitoring for home health, home health agencies can:
- Collect more data to understand the patient’s condition better
- Quickly identify fluctuations in vital signs
- Get the physician to intervene promptly and adjust the patient’s treatment plan
- Improve agency efficiency by decreasing unnecessary travel
Science Direct published a study of home monitoring for patients with interstitial lung diseases (ILD). The study found that home monitoring has the potential to identify both acute and chronic disease worsening, guide treatment, improve patient-relevant outcomes, and simplify clinical trials.
It’s important to understand that remote patient monitoring is not intended to substitute for visits. Instead, consider it a complementary service that provides the insight necessary to enhance and personalize care during home visits.
A study published in BMJ concludes that RPM interventions are designed with patients, providers, and implementation set in mind while incorporating key variables such as personalizing and providing responsive and timely care; it is more likely effective at reducing acute hospital events. Therefore, when home health services and remote patient monitoring are managed appropriately, it is more likely to improve patient outcomes.
Remote Patient Monitoring for Home Health: Key Points
While remote patient monitoring and home health focus on home-based care, they offer different benefits. Fortunately, Medicare allows home health agencies to utilize remote patient monitoring. As a result, patients can reap the benefits of both services and receive optimal outcomes. See the Tenovi article for more information about advanced care at home initiatives. Learn more about how Tenovi leads the charge in revolutionizing healthcare by booking your free demo today.
