Publications
Publications
- 2022
- Health Affairs
Rapid Growth of Remote Patient Monitoring Is Driven by a Small Number of Primary Care Providers
By: Mitchell Tang, Ateev Mehrotra and Ariel Dora Stern
Abstract
Growing enthusiasm for remote patient monitoring has been motivated by the hope that it can improve care for patients with poorly controlled chronic illness. In a national commercially insured population in the U.S., we found that billing for remote patient monitoring increased more than fourfold during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of this growth was driven by a small number of primary care providers. Among the patients of these providers with a high volume of remote patient monitoring, we did not observe substantial targeting of remote patient monitoring to people with greater disease burden or worse disease control. Further research is needed to identify which patients benefit from remote patient monitoring, to inform evidence-based use and coverage decisions. In the meantime, payers and policy makers should closely monitor remote patient monitoring use and spending.
Keywords
Remote Monitoring; Medical Billing; Health Care Costs; Telehealth; Diabetes; Chronic Disease; Insurance Claims; Diseases; Primary Care Providers; COVID-19 Pandemic; Health Care and Treatment; Insurance; Cost; Health Industry; United States
Citation
Tang, Mitchell, Ateev Mehrotra, and Ariel Dora Stern. "Rapid Growth of Remote Patient Monitoring Is Driven by a Small Number of Primary Care Providers." Health Affairs 41, no. 9 (2022): 1248–1254.