When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, it changed the healthcare industry forever and sent ripples through virtually every sector of life and business alike, instantly shuttering virtually every workplace. However, there’s one transition underway that isn’t getting a lot of attention in the mainstream media, and this transition is bringing with it some excellent benefits for cardiac patients.
Now that the pandemic’s effects have finally faded, people are returning to the office, but we’re actually seeing healthcare spending shift back in the other direction — from in-office or in-hospital care to at-home care.
This under-the-radar transition is shifting patient care to the home
Management consultancy McKinsey & Company estimates that up to $265 billion worth of services provided to Medicare Advantage and Medicare fee-for-service patients could shift from offices and hospitals to the home by 2025. That estimate is based on a survey of physicians who primarily serve patients on these two Medicare plans and amounts to 25% of the total cost of care.
While lessons learned during the pandemic may have been the trigger for this shift, other factors are now driving it forward and accelerating it. For example, as healthcare costs skyrocket, insurance companies are looking for ways to cut costs.
One of the easiest ways to do this without negatively impacting the quality of care is to move patient monitoring from the hospital setting to the patient’s home. Other factors driving the transition to at-home care include the rapidly aging population and the negative impacts of over-hospitalization. Finally, remote monitoring can provide a less expensive way for uninsured people to stay on top of any chronic health conditions they might have.
Even as these drivers accelerate the shift of patient care from the office or hospital to the home, patients with a wide variety of chronic conditions can benefit significantly. In particular, cardiac patients may see some major benefits as the technology used for remote patient monitoring continues to advance.
Four benefits of remote monitoring for cardiac patients
Of course, heart problems are among the most serious health conditions to deal with. Thus, it’s no surprise that cardiac-related sensors were among the earliest additions to consumer-oriented devices like smartwatches. However, patients with known heart problems benefit greatly from regular or constant remote monitoring.
For example, cardiac patients who receive remote monitoring at home experience a better quality of care. A doctor can spend more time speaking with their patient and less time taking their vital signs. Additionally, when a physician has constant access to a patient’s data, potential problems can be caught quickly before they become serious issues requiring hospitalization or surgery.
A steady stream of data also provides higher-quality information about the patient’s health and progress on their treatment plan, enabling the physician to identify potentially problematic trends before something serious happens.
Once these trends have been realized, the doctor can then take proactive measures to deal with them early instead of waiting until they lead to a sudden cardiac arrest. For example, if a cardiac patient suddenly gains a lot of weight, it might indicate edema or a buildup of excess fluid in the body that could point to congestive heart failure.
A second related benefit is improved patient outcomes. When surgery is avoided, patient outcomes improve significantly for multiple reasons. Hospitalization always comes with a risk of exposure to infectious diseases that might be circulating through the facility. Patients also tend to respond better to treatment at home because they’re comfortable in their usual environment.
Third, patients who are being monitored remotely tend to engage more with their physicians. As patients review their data with their doctors, they have greater opportunities to learn about their condition and discuss what they can do to improve their health.
A fourth benefit for cardiac patients is reduced healthcare costs. Fewer hospital stays and emergency room visits mean lower costs with the increased convenience of being monitored in the comfort of the patient’s own home.
Benefits of remote monitoring for hospitals and physicians
Patients aren’t the only ones who benefit significantly from remote monitoring. Physicians and especially hospitals also benefit, with the largest benefit coming from another major transition currently underway in the healthcare industry.
In recent years, Medicare and insurance companies have been steadily shifting to value-based care. As a result, hospitals are penalized and usually fined when patients are readmitted within a short time after being discharged, usually 30 days. Some studies have actually linked remote patient monitoring with reduced hospital readmissions.
For example, a report from KLAS Research, which polled 25 healthcare organizations, found that 38% of healthcare organizations that monitor patients with chronic conditions remotely had reduced hospital admissions. Additionally, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center reported a 76% reduced risk of hospital readmissions — and with patient satisfaction scores exceeding 90%.
Other benefits for the healthcare system, in general, include increased patient adherence to medication and treatment plans and the ability to adjust the patient’s medication and treatment plan between visits, often preventing a trip to the emergency room. As the number of patients being monitored remotely increases, the burden on chronically understaffed healthcare facilities is reduced, reducing the stress that often accompanies a healthcare job.
Updated CPT codes also mean more recurring revenue for healthcare facilities
While the technology for remote patient monitoring has been around for about 20 years, the practice only started to pick up steam during and after the pandemic. In fact, the CPT codes for remote monitoring were just overhauled in 2020 — with tremendous results for all stakeholders. Thus, any new monitoring devices should be developed with these codes in mind so that it will be easy for hospitals and clinics to bill for these services and devices.
The number of available CPT codes and covered services have only increased since then. In fact, remote patient monitoring has now become one of the more lucrative care management programs in Medicare.
As a result, physicians, clinics, and hospitals with remote monitoring programs in place could see significant recurring revenue with little additional time spent. This enables them to see more patients and focus on those who need acute care the most at any given time.
Lab tests at home
There’s a final piece of the puzzle in this transition to at-home care and remote patient monitoring. Patients with chronic health conditions often need regular lab work, which necessitates regular visits to the clinic.
However, a growing number of companies now offer kits that allow patients to collect their own samples in the comfort of their own homes and send them in to get results without leaving home.
Looking into the future of remote patient monitoring, the next logical step is bringing remote monitoring and at-home lab testing under one roof, which has not widely been done yet.
The future of remote cardiac monitoring
Although the pandemic brought home healthcare to the forefront of medicine, it seems clear that remote patient monitoring is here to stay. Insider Intelligence estimates over 26% of the U.S. population, amounting to 70.6 million people, will use remote patient monitoring tools by 2025. In fact, Markets and Markets estimates the value of the global remote patient monitoring product at $53.6 billion in 2022, with a compound annual growth rate of 26.7% through 2027, bringing it to $175.2 billion.
Thus, companies that can tap into this remarkable growth should have bright futures. As far as the available technology, some key trends to look for in the remote patient monitoring space include the development of artificial intelligence and machine learning, both of which will further increase patient outcomes if implemented wisely.
Miniaturization will also be important for new devices, as it will be making these devices less invasive and easier to use. Finally, most companies that offer remote patient monitoring are still quite small, so partnerships with other firms will enable them to grow fast enough to keep up with this rapid transition to at-home care.
For example, Dexcom partnered with Verily, the life sciences division at Alphabet, on a diabetes sensor that can be implanted and then uses Bluetooth to transmit health data to monitoring devices or smartphones. Additionally, G Medical has teamed up with MiCare Path, a major presence in hospital systems.
Ultimately, the more life sciences professionals who understand this transition to at-home care and the benefits available to all stakeholders, the better they will be able to develop features that will cater to those needs in future devices for remote patient monitoring.
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