Many state Medicaid offices have declined to pay for remote patient monitoring programs despite being touted by successive White House administrations as a way to improve health and reduce unnecessary government spending, Politico reported Oct. 26.
Four details:
1. About 20 states' Medicaid programs do not reimburse for remote patient monitoring, according to the report. Several states that pay for programs have tight restrictions around its use.
2. States are hesitant to invest in part because of disagreement over how clinically effective and cost-efficient remote patient monitoring programs are when expanded to wider populations, according to the report.
3. Data on how useful remote monitoring is for patients with chronic disease is mixed because there is no standard for how to use monitoring devices, according to the report.
4. The VA said in 2018 that patients enrolled in its remote patient monitoring program saw a 53 percent decrease in bed days and a 33 percent decrease in hospital admissions, according to the report.