The Office of Inspector General recently reported that billings for remote patient monitoring eclipsed the $500 million mark in 2024, but the agency stated that more scrutiny will be necessary going forward to keep waste, fraud and abuse at bay.

In some ways, remote patient monitoring (RPM) came of age during the COVID-19 pandemic, but payers still worry about the potential for fraud and abuse. A recent report from the U.S. Office of Inspector General supported concerns about fraud and abuse with RPM, a problem CMS will have to address to constrain unnecessary and potentially illicit spending.

A survey of 1,025 consumers conducted by remote patient monitoring company Vivalink Inc. found that 84% of respondents would be willing to participate in hospital-at-home monitoring if it allowed them to leave the hospital earlier. Further, of those who had participated in a hospital-at-home program, 84% reported a positive experience.

The COVID-19 pandemic is well known for increasing telehealth utilization, including remote patient monitoring, but there are still issues with payer coverage policies even a year after the formal end of the public health emergency for COVID.

One company has developed a promising device and care model to reduce the exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) that often send patients to the hospital and contribute to accelerated disease progression. Patients who used a wearable remote cardiorespiratory monitoring device developed by Spire Inc. experienced a 64% decrease in cardiopulmonary-specific admissions in a study published in the International Journal of COPD.