Is Remote Patient Monitoring the Answer Health Care's Been Looking For?

DOTmed Business News
March 7, 2011

Over the next year, a group of patients in the Greater Boston area, recently hospitalized for congestive heart failure, will put technology to the test. Could a home-based patient monitoring system keep them from returning to a hospital bed?

Launched in January, the 13-month demonstration study will enroll 200 patients. It’s being run by the New England Healthcare Institute, a Cambridge, Mass.-based nonprofit health policy institute pursuing innovations to improve health care quality and reduce costs. As one of the entities selected to be a part of the Remote Patient Monitoring Diffusion Grants Program administered by the Center for Technology and Aging, NEHI was awarded $100,000 to fund a part of the study. (The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative is the primary funder of the study.)...

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. 

Link to Full Article: http://www.dotmed.com/news/story/15367