by
Olga Deshchenko, DOTmed News Reporter | March 29, 2011
From the March 2011 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
Proponents say remote patient monitoring can effectively slash health care costs, but payers aren’t buying into it just yet – reimbursement for the use of RPM devices is spotty at best and in many cases, nonexistent. Still, projects like NEHI’s are springing up all over the country and market data suggest providers are putting their faith in the technology.
A healthy outlook
In 2009, the U.S. market for high-tech patient monitoring systems was valued at $5.7 billion and that number is expected to grow at an approximate annual rate of 26 percent until 2014, according to a 2010 report by Kalorama Information.
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New York-based Kalorama, a medical markets research publisher, attributes the double-digit growth to several factors, including the aging population, shortage of health care staff, rising costs and scarce resources.
According to the report, five diseases account for more than 80 percent of all U.S. health care spending: asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, congestive heart failure, coronary heart disease and diabetes. And CHF alone is the leading cause of hospital admissions for Americans over the age of 65.
Most RPM technologies are currently being used to observe those with CHF. “This is a patient who has a serious condition and has to be monitored,” says Bruce Carlson, Kalorama’s publisher. “Providers have to catch problems before they occur; otherwise, they’re going to be bringing the patient to the ICU, a tier of care that’s going to be more expensive.”
In choosing from the solutions that are currently available, providers tend to evaluate a product’s capacity, functionality, reliability, signal strength and cost. Systems can cost anywhere from $5,000 for an elementary product to more than $30,000 for a high-tech device, says Carlson.
Vendors say RPM market growth is also being driven by the forthcoming changes to the health care system. The implementation of accountable care organizations, patient-centered medical homes, bundled payments and penalties for hospital readmissions are increasing the demand for these solutions. “I think the general belief is that remote patient monitoring – in whatever form it will ultimately emerge or establish itself – is at least one of the few more or less proven approaches to reducing health care costs,” says Paul Bromberg, vice president and general manager of remote patient monitoring with Philips Healthcare.
Today’s RPM systems are certainly sophisticated and mature, but before becoming permanent fixtures in the clinical realm, the technologies will face some challenges.
