Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) and Virtual Health as a Bridge to Value-based Care Models – #HITsm Chat Topic

We’re excited to share the topic and questions for this week’s #HITsm chat happening Friday, 7/31 at Noon ET (9 AM PT). This week’s chat will be hosted by Nirav Modi (@NiravJModi) from @CariumCares on the topic of “Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) and Virtual Health as a Bridge to Value-based Care Models“.

Provider organizations have organized themselves (administratively, clinically, and operationally) predominantly around fee-for-service payment models. This orientation means that most organizations are not viewing data through the same lens or focus that an organization that is managing-to-risk would.

As a consequence, while many organizations may “want” to take on risk-based payment arrangements, most are ill-equipped to do so because they aren’t operating in a manner today that is around ‘maximizing’ health outcomes — rather, they are organized around ‘episodes’ and therefore their datasets and analytics are not developed around the metrics that matter for value. As providers transition to value-based care, the ways they organize themselves must also shift –along with the tools they use.

In 2019, CMS introduced Remote Patient Monitoring as a reimbursable initiative and an introduction for many providers into virtual care. RPM and virtual health, when designed and implemented to their true potential, have the ability to shift the ‘episodic’ nature of patient and provider interactions to a deeper relationship, and the span of care to be more holistic. With CMS taking the lead and reimbursing providers to care for their patient virtually, they have provided a catalyst for change.

Virtual care allows providers to scale their services: increasing their reach from just in-clinic care to connecting with people on a regular cadence. Getting reimbursed for these services is one of the triggers for change, coupled with innovative technologies that enable virtual care such as digital health platforms, wearables, high-speed internet, and more. As providers reorganize their care delivery models and workflows to accommodate ‘more frequent’ and ‘lighter’ touch-points, they’ll have better visibility into a patient’s health trajectory, on a more on-going basis, allowing them to keep the patient ‘healthy’ on the continuum versus waiting for the next acute visit encounter. This also requires that they have different data and they use it in new ways. Care teams can be organized to manage this new mode of delivery.

I am optimistic that virtual health and RPM can be entry-points to digital transformation that will give providers timely visibility and insights on patient health in ways that current care-models and service-lines don’t. Patients are eager to leverage virtual care modalities as well. Per an Accenture study, 60 percent of patients said they want to use technology to communicate with their providers and to manage their health. The improved visibility and continuum of care from clinic into the home will give providers confidence in their ability to deliver strong health outcomes and therefore the confidence to take on risk.

Patients also benefit from more connected, virtual care. Nearly 50% percent of respondents in a recent McKinsey survey said they would seek virtual care channels in addition to in-person visits. When patients and providers collaborate with shared data, personalized goals, and frequent communication, the relationship is strengthened. I believe that good health depends on good relationships between the care team and patient.

This feels like the logical evolution that has to occur within a traditional fee-for-service environment. Transformation will occur as provider organizations have the confidence to deliver on value and that data to help them drive their decisions and actions.

Resources:

Join us for this week’s #HITsm chat where we’ll be talking about RPM and the move to value based care.

Topics for this week’s #HITsm Chat:

T1: What role can virtual health and RPM play in fostering stronger relationships between patients and providers? #HITsm

T2: Can patient-reported data (wearables, diagnostic devices, sensors, etc.) help a provider’s confidence when delivering care? #HITsm

T3: What have been the barriers for providers to adopt virtual health as a major care-delivery model pre-pandemic? #HITsm

T4: Can remote-patient monitoring and virtual health be foundational elements of value-based care models? #HITsm

T5: Is the EMR the right tool for virtual care? #HITsm

Bonus: Do you think the pandemic will result in accelerated and lasting adoption of virtual health as a seamless component of ‘healthcare’? #HITsm

Upcoming #HITsm Chat Schedule

8/7 – Is RPA the Missing Piece in Healthcare?
Hosted by Linda Stotsky (@EMRAnswers) and Rich Metger (@Rich_Metzger) from @Bossoft

8/14 – Health IT and Sustainability
Hosted by Chuck Webster, MD (@wareflo)

We look forward to learning from the #HITsm community! As always, let us know if you’d like to host a future #HITsm chat or if you know someone you think we should invite to host.

If you’re searching for the latest #HITsm chat, you can always find the latest #HITsm chat and schedule of chats here.

About the author

John Lynn

John Lynn is the Founder of HealthcareScene.com, a network of leading Healthcare IT resources. The flagship blog, Healthcare IT Today, contains over 13,000 articles with over half of the articles written by John. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 20 million times.

John manages Healthcare IT Central, the leading career Health IT job board. He also organizes the first of its kind conference and community focused on healthcare marketing, Healthcare and IT Marketing Conference, and a healthcare IT conference, EXPO.health, focused on practical healthcare IT innovation. John is an advisor to multiple healthcare IT companies. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can be found on Twitter: @techguy.

   

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