According to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 6 million adults in the United States have congestive heart failure (CHF), which costs more than $30 billion yearly. Unfortunately, both figures are likely to rise in the coming years, owing to the “silver tsunami” of aging baby boomers, unhealthy lifestyles, and chronic medical conditions such as obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes, increasing CHF risk. Because CHF is so common, it’s more crucial than ever to identify effective treatment options that are both cost-efficient for patients and help us better regulate our national healthcare spending.
Patients with congestive heart failure can benefit from remote patient monitoring.
The value of high-quality, continuous care and support for congestive heart failure patients extends beyond improving their quality of life and extending their lives. While this is undoubtedly the first concern, another crucial part of patient care is minimizing the exorbitant expenses associated with treating congestive heart failure patients over the long term. The basic truth is that congestive heart failure is a long-term condition that patients and their medical teams must collaborate to manage constantly.
The use of remote patient monitoring has been gradually growing and evolving into something useful, particularly in cardiology. Evidence of RPM’s efficacy, such as published recommendations from the American Heart Association endorsing the use of RPM for patients with cardiovascular conditions, has aided its growth. Cardiology was one of the first specialties to include heart failure with remote monitoring with the development of connected cardiac implants.
With cellular- or Bluetooth-connected devices that can capture and upload specific vital health data from the patient straight to the practitioner, regular follow-ups with the patient become more accessible and more convenient.
This information is typically transferred straight to a secure software platform (e.g., CCM) where the practitioner and their healthcare team can access, monitor, and make quick, potentially life-saving decisions about a patient’s health. Overall, using remote patient monitoring for patients with congestive heart failure can lower healthcare expenditures, improve practitioner efficiency, help patients stay healthy for longer, and provide other benefits to both the practitioner and the patient.
Practitioner Benefits of Remote Monitoring for Heart Failure
Doctors are incredibly busy, seeing patient after patient, collecting documentation, performing medication management, evaluating imaging and diagnostics, and plenty of other responsibilities. As a result, practitioners must delicately balance all of the above while ensuring that patients receive the best possible treatment.
Practitioners frequently use technological tools to help their practice function more smoothly to fulfill the plethora of demands. Remote patient monitoring is an excellent approach for chronic health issues like congestive heart failure. Practitioners, in particular, benefit from the use of remote patient monitoring in a variety of ways, including:
Increased practice efficiency – Practitioners can see accurate, real-time patient health information using connected devices and a user-friendly software platform.
Automated documentation — Patient physiologic data can be obtained and added directly to the patient’s health record via automated documentation.
Better care oversight – Because patient physiologic data is captured and delivered directly to their care team, any alarming measures can be addressed quickly, avoiding unnecessary office visits, condition exacerbation, or even hospitalizations.
Lucrative — RPM is a higher-reimbursing Medicare care management program, making it an effective tool for practitioners to add non-visit revenue. This is especially advantageous since that reimbursement is under pressure.
Pairing Remote Patient Monitoring and Chronic Care Management
While remote patient monitoring is critical in managing congestive heart failure, practitioners are discovering that it is also beneficial in the treatment of a variety of other chronic health conditions that plague their patients. RPM and chronic care management (CCM) can work together to give an efficient way to treat the symptoms of CHF and other conditions like asthma, diabetes, hypertension, and obesity. Because these other chronic health conditions frequently contribute to congestive heart failure consequences, remote patient monitoring is even more important in keeping these patients healthy. Even better, when a chronic care management program includes remote patient monitoring, reimbursement increases, making it a win-win situation for both practitioners and patients.
Are you prepared to meet your patient’s demands for excellent heart failure remote monitoring? Get in touch with one of CCM Health‘s RPM specialists. We can assist you in determining if RPM is appropriate for your practice.
