By Dr. Pierre Daou, MD
It’s become increasingly challenging for medical practices and cardiac device clinics to meet the needs of their patients and their staff members.
With staff shortages and burnout reaching unprecedented levels, and billing and compliance rules creating additional administrative burdens, many healthcare organizations are struggling to find balance and thrive. Add to that the increasing visit volumes and care complexities associated with the aging patient population—including more patients who require remote cardiac monitoring—and it’s nearly impossible for practices and device clinics to keep up.
At Rhythm, we’ve spoken with hundreds of practices about these challenges, and we’ve helped many overcome them (we’ll share more on how later in this blog), but The Heart Rhythm Society (HRS) has also been watching this trend closely. In fact, the organization—along with the European Heart Rhythm Association, the Asian Pacific Heart Rhythm Society, and the Latin American Heart Rhythm Society—recently released their 2023 Expert Consensus Statement that provides detailed guidance on how practices and clinics can adapt to the rising volume of patients who require cardiac remote monitoring.
One key theme explored throughout the statement? The benefits of effective third-party cardiac remote monitoring support. The statement, which was co-authored by a diverse group of authors– including physicians, NPs, nurses, pharmacist and a patient partner– from over 10 countries, includes the guidance that effective third-party support can lead to more efficient management of remote monitoring, enhanced care quality for remotely monitored patients, and more streamlined billing processes for practices and clinics.
How Third-Party Cardiac Remote Monitoring Support Can Help
- Enhanced efficiency and reduced burnout. The amount of information captured by patients’ cardiac remote monitoring devices is difficult to comprehend, with some practices receiving more than 100,000 transmissions each year, according to the consensus statement. That’s an overwhelming number in general, but it’s even more unfathomable when juxtaposed against the severe staff shortages many organizations are facing.According to the guidance issued by the 2023 HRS statement, effective third-party resources may be particularly helpful to practices and clinics because they have “created the infrastructure to manage high-volume data.” This capability can reduce the burden on the practice or clinic staff, and improve their efficiency which can result in financial benefits. Further, the statement notes, this can help alleviate staff burnout.At Rhythm, we focus on ensuring all of our practice and clinic partners experience these benefits. And, in relation to transmission overload, we’ve created an approach that minimizes alert fatigue while ensuring the highest quality care. We work with each practice and clinic to create customized alert thresholds, and our highly experienced clinical team reviews all transmissions to ensure proper escalation of alerts. This saves clinicians time and energy and enables them to focus more on direct patient care.For more on how Rhythm reduces alert fatigue, read this case study featuring Montefiore Medical Center.
- Timelier transmission reviews and improved care quality. Effective third-party support can also result in more prompt reviews of the transmission data coming into the practice, as well as more prompt communication to remotely monitored patients when necessary, according to the consensus statement. Specifically, the Heart Rhythm Society statement notes that “quality of care and communication between providers and patients may improve when outsourcing to third parties if more data can be reviewed and results communicated in a timely manner.”
At Rhythm, our clinical team continuously reviews transmissions and issues immediate alerts when necessary. This ensures practices and clinics have timelier information at their fingertips, and can address patient health concerns more proactively. We also share information electronically with the practice, and color-code the transmissions—red, yellow, or green—to indicate the urgency with which they should be reviewed by the clinicians. And, we immediately call the physician and patient if we identify something that needs to be reviewed urgently.For more on how we streamline alerts for practices, read this case study featuring Dignity Health Medical Group. - Enhancing billing and revenues. Some third-party partners provide billing support to practices and clinics, and as a result, “help to increase revenues,” according to the consensus statement. At Rhythm, this is one of our key areas of focus. Billing for remote cardiac monitoring services can be extremely complex, so we help practices determine how often to bill for services in accordance with different payers, regions, and coding requirements.
We also ensure compliance with scheduling rules—and focus on re-engaging patients who disconnect from their remote cardiac monitoring devices. Our ongoing engagement and re-engagement efforts help ensure more patients stay in the remote monitoring program, which also increases remote monitoring revenues. And, since we create more efficient processes for practices and clinics, clinicians have more time for in-person, higher acuity visits that lead to additional reimbursement opportunities.
Seven Questions to Ask Third-Party Partners
Not all companies that provide remote monitoring are equally effective, which is a caution noted throughout the HRS consensus statement. To help practices select effective third-party support, we’ve identified seven critical questions to ask during the partner evaluation process. View the questions here.
Final Thoughts
Remote cardiac monitoring presents a huge opportunity for patients. In today’s resource-constrained practice and clinic environment, however, finding time for remote monitoring is difficult. The 2023 HRS consensus statement is a helpful resource for practices and remote clinics who are attempting to navigate this challenge. By partnering with the right third party, healthcare organizations can zero in on their patients’ needs and support their financial health, without creating additional burdens for the clinical team.
We would love to learn more about how we can support your remote cardiac monitoring needs. Contact us today.
