KLAS report says reimbursement and EHR integration are high priorities for RPM

To better evaluate the rapidly evolving remote patient monitoring technologies, KLAS researchers explored customer experience with RPM across several key areas, including partnerships, innovation, ease of use and integration with electronic health records.

why it matters

RPM has demonstrated prior intervention and low utilization – particularly important results for value-based care arrangements – but new remote patient monitoring, according to 2023, will see healthcare organizations piloting the technology reimburse, integrate with EHRs and monitor Looking at equipment and staffing needs. Report from KLAS Arch Collaborator.

For the study, the researchers conducted interviews with several organizations to quantitatively rate RPM products of 10 companies over the past 12 months. Over 165 individuals from all types of organizations responded.

Optimize Health, Health Recovery Solutions and TimeDoc Health received the highest ratings for ease of use while HRS earned the top ratings for technology integration.

The researchers said users of HRS — a 2023 Best in KLAS winner — are often large organizations with enterprise-wide programs that cover multiple conditions and care settings.

According to the researchers, most users of Optimize Health and TimeDoc Health are clinics.

During COVID-19, RPM helped him collect data from older patients remotely, according to an interview last year with Dr. Waqas Al-Siddiq, chairman, CEO and founder of Biotricity, a medical diagnostic and healthcare technology company.

In the meantime, “some feel[EHR]integration is a strength, although many customers want deeper or more automated integration of patient data into the[EHR],” the KLAS researchers said in the new report.

An overall performance score chart shows that the majority of users are using their RPM platform for monitoring heart disease and hypertension and using the technologies for care management and patient-related tech support.

Most of the organizations are also using RPM platform for device inventory and management.

“Feedback about integration and reporting is varied – many customers say[EHR]integration is not available or not as deep as they would like,” the researchers said.

The researchers said that HRS users would like to see “continuous monitoring, improved inventory management, an improved video visit tool, and an updated (user experience) for tablets.”

Biofourmis and Current Health both offer continuous monitoring.

Although feedback on Bioformis was limited, the vendor’s customers view the company as “innovative and a strong partner,” but their feedback was mixed on integration and ease of use.

For Current Health — part of retailer Best Buy — responding customers reported that the RPM platform is part of their long-term plans. The company’s large organization customers “describe the salesperson as cooperative, responsive and eager to grow,” said the KLAS researchers.

CareSignal, which offers device-less RPM and requires patients to provide updates on their status via call or text, was left off most charts in the report. A mix of clinics and large healthcare organizations looking to ease technology concerns for patients said they commonly use the solution for diabetes monitoring and report being highly satisfied. However, CareSignal cannot be reimbursed using RPM CPT codes.

KLAS also evaluated the clients of MD Revolution, VitalTech, CareSimple and Livongo, which are used by most payers and employers.

For MD Revolution, some customers reported conflicts with their account managers, while VitalTech users said unreliable support and a lack of advanced features caused them to reconsider their long-term plans, according to KLAS.

big trend

The use of RPM is on the rise as healthcare organizations struggle with staff shortages and increased patient loads.

Andrew Zengilovsky, CEO and co-founder of CoachCare, explained, “This digital health tool and secondary care team alleviates the pain of staffing shortages to care for current patients and increases the bandwidth of existing resources, which can then be used to deliver new patients.” have the ability to connect. an rpm vendor.

They told Healthcare IT News In March when the specialty care providers working with his company are overcoming staffing issues and improving outcomes without adding additional staff.

Hospitals are also using RPM to move forward. Fort Myers, Florida-based Lee Health is sending fewer people to hospitals and emergency rooms with RPM linked to Epic, according to an interview in January.

“Our digital footprint has suddenly expanded from a passive surveillance program to one of surveillance and intervention,” said Dr. Zolt Kulsar, Medical Director of Lee Health.

On the record

“While alternatives to RPM are rapidly evolving, there are many factors for healthcare organizations to consider,” said the KLAS researchers.

“Reimbursement is an ongoing question, with some health care organizations finding that they cannot rely on reimbursement from CPT codes alone.”

Andrea Fox is a senior editor for Healthcare IT News.
Email: afox@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.