The Remote Therapeutic Monitoring (RTM) services provided by the Medicare program are subject to five additional adjustments that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recommended on July 7, 2022. Digital health providers expected the changes, which are a part of the planned 2023 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule rule and aim to increase the clarity and flexibility of RTM services. In its proposed rule for this year, CMS expanded upon introducing new RTM codes in 2022.
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Understanding the Remote Therapeutic Monitoring Codes
If the proposed rule is implemented, it will:
- Introduce four new RTM codes, two of which will be used by qualified non-physician health care providers (QHPs) and the other two by physicians or non-physician practitioners (NPPs);
- Allow clinical personnel to provide RTM services billed under a doctor’s or NPP’s Medicare enrollment under general supervision rather than direct supervision;
- Clarify some requirements for billing particular RTM codes;
- The development of a universal device code for RTM should be put off; and
- Introduce a new RTM device code for cognitive behavioral treatment that is contract-priced.
These new reimbursements represent an exciting chance for healthcare organizations and providers to support the expansion of remote patient care.
By utilizing a remote therapeutic monitoring program, practitioners can take advantage of these reimbursements, improve patient engagement, generate over $200 more per patient per month in revenue for their healthcare organization, and boost their capacity for remote treatment. Healthcare facilities that do not employ a remote therapy monitoring program run the danger of losing patients who anticipate better care. Long-term financial losses and reputational damage may result from this practice.
Remote Therapeutic Monitoring: What is it?
Patients can self-report information regarding their therapeutic response, medication compliance, musculoskeletal system state, and respiratory system problems via remote therapeutic monitoring. They can either employ medical equipment (which may include specific medical software) that captures non-physiological data or self-report their feelings.
For instance, a patient can document and describe how they take their medications. They can keep an eye on how the drug is impacting them, how it makes them feel, and whether it is functioning as intended.
Advantages of Remote Therapeutic Monitoring
The use of remote therapeutic monitoring has a number of advantages for medical practices that decide to use it.
The potential for substantial financial gains for practices and healthcare institutions is foremost among them. With very little additional effort, you might make $221.84 per patient per month if your clinic received full reimbursement each month. In reality, you would probably already be performing billable actions a lot of the time. It only requires using and comprehending the new CPT codes.
For your patients, remote treatment monitoring offers a number of beneficial advantages.
- Early intervention: Doctors are better equipped to spot warning indications when something isn’t working since they have more knowledge about their patients’ daily activities and therapy compliance.
- Greater patient involvement: Patients have more say in how their health will turn out. They consult with their doctor more frequently to make sure they are following the medicine or exercise plan correctly rather than mindlessly following it.
- Extending their reach to marginalized groups Many Americans may not have access to the care they require because they don’t reside close to comprehensive medical facilities, yet remote care can aid these underserved communities.
- Patient savings: When patients and clinicians closely coordinate to monitor chronic care management, patients are more likely to have positive results, which results in fewer hospital admissions.
The Importance of Remote Therapeutic Monitoring
Since monitoring adherence is now a billable service, practitioners can and should monitor home exercise programs that will benefit chronic conditions. Before CMS introduced these new remote therapeutic monitoring CPT codes, practitioners weren’t as encouraged to engage with their patients about adherence to home exercise programs.
Practitioners would only be able to examine the data produced by the medical gadget in isolation from the bigger picture if they just used remote patient monitoring. Clinicians were not encouraged to enquire further and find out what might be causing those statistics.
To offer much-needed context to the data, the remote physiologic monitoring medical device can provide practitioners like a physical therapist. Physical therapists are compensated by asking patients to self-report data like exercise habits, how they feel about their prescription medications, and workout plans.
The Future of Comprehensive Healthcare is a Remote Care
For practices that want to keep on top of giving their patients the best treatment possible, remote care—whether that’s remote patient monitoring or remote therapy monitoring—is becoming a must.
Also, it is obvious. Your clinic will benefit from increased patient medication adherence, respiratory system care, and programs for managing chronic conditions like diabetes, pain, and chronic illness.
Moreover, it’s a simple approach to promote patient engagement, lower total costs for patients, and make it simpler to target underserved demographics. It’s also a simple way to increase the profitability of your practice. Remote patient monitoring differs from remote therapeutic monitoring in certain ways. Remote therapeutic monitoring focuses on monitoring health conditions like musculoskeletal system status, respiratory system status, medication adherence, and therapy response, allowing for the collection and reporting of non-physiological data. This is the main distinction between remote therapeutic monitoring and remote patient monitoring.
On the other side, remote patient monitoring necessitates that all information reported and acquired (and subsequently digitally uploaded remotely) be physiological, such as blood pressure, glucose levels, and respiratory system function. Patients can report without using a medical device when using remote treatment monitoring. They can discuss how they feel about their treatment plans in comparison to earlier treatment plans and how that makes them feel. To better assist doctors in adjusting drug dosages, they might report pain levels after taking medication.
It enables more thorough patient care because these kinds of self-reporting weren’t merely rewarded with payment codes for remote patient monitoring.
Implementing RTM services is a must if your practice already has a remote patient monitoring program in place. The two programs complement one another and are meant to be used together.
Patients Now Anticipate Remote Monitoring
Patients were recently asked if they were interested in remote patient monitoring, and a sizable majority responded in the affirmative. Patients with long-term diseases are “extremely interested” in exchanging their health information remotely with their doctors, according to 78% of them.
Patients with long-term diseases are now more than ever asking for and anticipating some form of remote monitoring from their healthcare provider. This information might persuade your clinic to implement remote treatment monitoring if you have been on the fence about it.
Implementing RTM services or remote patient monitoring programs is a wonderful place to start if you’re interested in enhancing the patient experience and raising patient engagement. Start by asking your patients whether they would be interested in a remote monitoring program to see if it is appropriate for your practice. Additionally, count the number of chronically ill patients you see.
Conclusion
Patients can self-report information regarding their therapeutic response, medication compliance, musculoskeletal system state, and respiratory system problems via remote therapeutic monitoring. This blog tells everything about Remote Therapy Monitoring. Connect with SaaSworthy to know more.
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