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UrduHome monitoring associated with improved outcomes in hypertension
Abstract: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M23-1182
URL goes live when the embargo lifts
RPM is the remote transmission of physiologic measurements from patients to their clinicians. The use of RPM has grown rapidly since the COVID-19 pandemic, with its use increasing six-fold between February 2020 and September 2021. RPM may improve the care of chronic conditions by enabling more adjustment of medications and decreases spending by substituting for outpatient visits and reducing emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalizations. However, there are concerns that RPM may increase health care spending without commensurate improvements in outcomes.
Researchers from Harvard Business School and Harvard Medical School compared outcomes among 19,978 persons at 192 high-RPM practices and 95,029 persons with hypertension at 942 low-RPM practices. They found that patients at high-RPM practices had a 3.3 percent relative increase in hypertension medication fills, a 1.6 percent increase in days’ supply, and a 1.3 percent increase in unique medications received. Patients at high-RPM practices also had fewer hypertension-related acute care encounters and reduced testing use. However, these patients also saw increases in primary care outpatient visits increase and a $274 increase in total hypertension-related spending. According to the authors, time-varying reimbursement and targeted patient eligibility could be explored as ways to help mitigate the higher costs associated with home monitoring.
Media contacts: For an embargoed PDF, please contact Angela Collom at [email protected]. To speak with the corresponding author Ateev Mehrotra, MD, MPH, please contact [email protected].
