By 2025, nearly 71 million people in the U.S. will be using remote monitoring devices to track or collect medical data and share that information with healthcare providers, according to Insider Intelligence. [1]
While that marked increase applies to the broader remote patient monitoring category, a critical field within that is cardiac remote monitoring (CRM) of patients with implantable cardiac devices. In a 2022 survey that Rhythm Management Group commissioned healthcare consultancy Sage Growth Partners to conduct, nearly all (92%) of the 100 physicians, administrators, and CEOs from medical practices agreed that remote monitoring is important to ensuring high-quality care, while 52% have implemented cardiac remote monitoring and another 10% of those that have not yet deployed Cardiac Remote Monitoring (CRM) indicated plans to do so by 2024. [2]
Rhythm Cardiac Remote Monitoring (CRM) offers healthcare organizations the ability to expand their continuous monitoring of high-risk patients, while maximizing practice or hospital revenue, staff efficiency, and provider time. The technology enables organizations to:
- Enroll a higher percentage of the practice
- Engage patients more frequently
- Increase scheduling compliance
- Leverage ongoing monitoring insights
- Maximize revenue
Cardiac Remote Monitoring (CRM) partners with a dual emphasis on service and technology offer healthcare organizations a comprehensive package that promotes practice/service line growth, improves outcomes, and drives patient satisfaction. The sections that follow outline how Rhythm’s robust Cardiac Remote Monitoring (CRM) solution enhances the patient experience to support all stakeholders – physicians, patients, and non-clinical staff alike.
Maximize Patient Enrollment with Personalized Onboarding
The benefits of enrolling in remote monitoring programs include earlier detection of disease, more effective preventative care and lower spending on healthcare. [3] But according to oft-cited research from the Heart Rhythm Society, the average physician practice only enrolls 40-45% of patients who qualify for remote monitoring into programs.[4] At the beginning of every partnership, Rhythm sends a team of experts on-site to specifically focus on identifying and enrolling people – which typically connects more than 90% of eligible patients.
Deeply Engage Patients in their Remote Care
Once patients are enrolled in the Cardiac Remote Monitoring (CRM) programs, physicians say that keeping them activated is the top challenge such that fewer than half of enrollees are continuously engaged or transmit regular readings. [5] Rhythm Management Group partners with practices and health systems with a mix of services and technologies to ensure higher patient engagement, streamline the physician review process, and enhance clinical decision making. Rhythm Management Group is transparent about the process and delivers monthly updates as they strive to connect over 90% of a practice’s patients.
Boost Scheduling Compliance to Support Practice Operations & Revenue
Missed appointments are not a new problem and, in fact, are widely recognized to lead to poor health outcomes and lost revenue. [6] Rhythm Cardiac Remote Monitoring (CRM) enhanced compliance scheduling capabilities enable health systems and practices to address patient no-shows to improve both outcomes and revenue. Rhythm Management Group, for instance, partnered with Montefiore Medical Center to increase its scheduling compliance rate from 70% to 93% which, in turn, led to optimal reimbursement rates and empowered the system to bill $1 million annually for remote patient monitoring services. [7] For all clients, Rhythm Management Group’s proprietary technology enables the company to identify which patients are scheduled, unscheduled or no-show to help close that gap in care.
Leverage Customized Alerts for Optimal Triage
Among the biggest challenges of remote monitoring is using analytics to better understand all the data practices are collecting, and many technology solutions lack an intuitive, user-friendly interface. [8] Rhythm Cardiac Remote Monitoring (CRM) enables practices to separate the signal from the noise with a single portal as well as a blend of technology and clinical services built for a physician group’s specific preferences, including customized alert thresholds and protocols, machine learning to analyze trends, and reports that are simple to understand. Rhythm Management Group eliminates 60%-70% of noise caused by known or redundant arrhythmias.
Unlock Additional Revenue Streams with Optimal Billing Services
Many fail to realize revenue for two reasons: not engaging enough patients and not billing correctly for remote monitoring services. The opportunity to change that is undeniable. By using CPT code 99457, a practice remotely monitoring 500 patients stands to collect $366,000 in annual revenue, or $61.10 per month per patient.[9] That’s just one example. Rhythm Cardiac Remote Monitoring (CRM) also enables practices and health systems to maximize revenue by billing for pacemakers, defibrillators, implantable loop recorders, physiologic sensor reviews, monitoring to manage heart failure, and more. On a monthly basis, Rhythm Management Group helps clients cross-reference what they should be doing in terms of billing and offers guidance relative to what can be billed and when – so practices leverage all available revenue opportunities.
Conclusion
In our aforementioned 2022 survey, 79% of respondents said that remote monitoring has a positive impact on patient care, 64% said it increases staff satisfaction and 60% indicated it delivers a high return on investment.[10] Designed to support personalized patient care and prevent unnecessary emergency needs, Rhythm’s Cardiac Remote Monitoring (CRM) acts as an extension of the high-value care your practice provides. By enrolling more patients, engaging people more frequently, increasing scheduling compliance, gaining insights from data, and maximizing revenue, physician practices and health systems are strongly positioning their organization for long-term sustainability.
Sources:
- The technology, devices, and benefits of remote patient monitoring in the healthcare industry, Insider Intelligence
- Poised for Flight: Remote Patient Monitoring has Arrived, Rhythm Management Group
- Mending the Disconnect Why most remote monitoring initiatives underperform, and how your organization can implement a more effective approach to enhance clinical and business health, Rhythm Management Group
- 2015 HRS Expert Consensus Statement on Remote Interrogation and Monitoring Cardiovascular Electronic Implantable Devices, Heart Rhythm Society
- Poised for Flight: Remote Patient Monitoring has Arrived, Rhythm Management Group
- Decreasing Missed Appointments at a Community Health Center: A Community Collaborative Project, Journal of Primary Care & Community Health
- Case Study: Montefiore Medical Center, Rhythm Management Group
- Challenges of Operationalizing Remote Patient Monitoring Data, Health IT Consultant
- Mending the Disconnect Why most remote monitoring initiatives underperform, and how your organization can implement a more effective approach to enhance clinical and business health, Rhythm Management Group
- 10. Poised for Flight: Remote Patient Monitoring has Arrived, Rhythm Management Group
