If you’ve been reading the headline news, remote patient monitoring (RPM) programs have emerged as a high value solution benefiting patients, healthcare providers, and payers alike, with artificial intelligence (AI) now playing a pivotal role in enhancing their effectiveness. These programs underscore the growing movement to reimburse providers for RPM services.

Reimbursement for RPM, once considered a significant obstacle to the widespread use of RPM, has experienced a significant shift. Starting in 2018, when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid first provided RPM coverage, a number of payers including one of the largest, United Health Group, now considers RPM services eligible for reimbursement.

RPM for cancer patients is close to my heart
While there are multiple examples of how RPM benefits patients and providers, one use case, a personal example, is close to my heart.

In 2023 in the United States, there will be an estimated 1,958,310 new cancer cases and 609,820 cancer deaths. These numbers are staggering to say the least, but it is not until your family receives such a diagnosis that the true devastation becomes a reality.

In August 2014, I got the call that my younger brother was diagnosed with Glioblastoma. Glioblastoma is a type of cancer that starts as a growth of cells in the brain or spinal cord. It grows quickly and can invade and destroy healthy tissue. Life expectancy after diagnosis is 14 to 16 months.

My family and I adjusted our lives to monitor our brother’s health and scrutinize any telltale signs that the cancer was surging. We felt helpless without the proper tools and means to monitor his vitals and alert the clinical team should something begin to deteriorate. At that time, there were no such tools available.

Today, we are fortunate to have RPM, and for patients and families everywhere this will be a game changer. RPM allows the physician to understand how a patient is doing with treatment between scheduled appointments. If a patient is having an adverse event and potentially heading to the emergency room, the clinician can intervene and alter care based on patient-reported symptoms or remotely monitored metrics.

RPM with AI is a powerful combination
The use case for remote patient monitoring just gets better as providers can offer proactive care from machine learning algorithms that can analyze vast amounts of patient data, detecting anomalies and trends that might go unnoticed through manual monitoring. This early intervention potential allows healthcare professionals to deliver more timely and effective care. AI also aids in risk stratification helping providers allocate resources efficiently and prioritize high-risk patients.

Payers recognize the financial advantages of RPM, as it reduces costly hospitalizations and emergency room visits. AI-driven predictive analytics enable payers to identify at-risk populations and tailor interventions to mitigate health issues before they escalate. This preventive focus aligns with value-based care models, reducing long-term healthcare costs.

RPM programs, bolstered by AI, are a win/win/win for patients, providers, payers and families. They usher in a new era of healthcare that's patient-centered, data-driven, and cost-effective, fostering better health outcomes, convenience, and financial sustainability across the healthcare ecosystem.

Why Avanade for AI?
Avanade has partnered with Microsoft on AI for almost a decade and hundreds of clients rely on us to help them responsibly innovate and work with AI to achieve things never possible before.

Our long-standing experience of how to make the most of your existing Microsoft investments, enables us to bring unique capabilities to help you more quickly ready your people, processes and platforms for AI and to responsibly scale AI to unlock more value.

If your organization would benefit from a deeper conversation with us about how to elevate RPM with AI, please reach out and contact us.