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Below you'll find answers to your most commonly asked questions. If you don't find the answer you are looking for, please contact us at 1-877-204-8540 or info@nonnatech.com
RPM Basics & Benefits
Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM), or Remote Health Monitoring (RHM), is the use of digital health technologies to support providers and patients in managing their care. RPM involves setting up easy-to-use wireless devices (e.g., B/P cuff) in the home to measure biometrics like blood pressure focused on early intervention and improving self-management. RPM devices gather and transmit the device data securely to the healthcare team via Nonnatech’s platform allowing them to monitor their patient’s health status in real-time.
Yes. RPM has been shown to offer many health benefits that include: preventing ED visits and avoidable hospitalizations, improving patient health literacy and self-management, reducing overall costs, improving health outcomes, improving patient-clinician relationships and improving clinician intervention times. Additionally, with COVID-19, RPM has been relied upon by physicians and hospitals to safely monitor patients from their home.
While there are many devices that capture different types of patient information, common data includes blood pressure, weight, temperature, heart rate and blood oxygen. Additional devices can also passively capture physical movement such as sleep and other activities of daily living indicating a change in health status. RPM has been shown to be highly effective at tracking trends related to chronic health conditions such as hypertension (high blood pressure).
Insurance Coverage
Yes. RPM is covered by many commercial insurance plans and also covered under Medicare and Medicare Advantage plans. State Medicaid coverage will vary by state. Medicare makes several CPT codes available that physicians and other qualified health professionals can bill for RPM services (e.g., 99453, 99454, 99457, 99458) following Medicare compliance and other billing requirements. There are self-pay options also available.
Co-pays will vary by health plan and insurance type. Medicare and commercial insurance plans may require a patient co-pay.
Home Installation
No. Nonnatech’s RPM solutions do not require any pre-existing in-home technology. Nonnatech’s devices are turnkey and can be used safely and securely in any community setting.
A physician, nurse practitioner or other qualified healthcare professional on the patient’s care team orders all RPM devices to be used by the patient and establishes appropriate medical need based on the patient’s condition and diagnoses. Devices can be ordered and tailored based on their health condition. Nonnatech offers easy, full in-home installation and patient education support for all RPM devices.
RPM can be set up in as little as 48 hours in a patient’s home once the RPM program has been established with the clinical team.
Provider Benefits & Considerations
Yes. Nonnatech takes data security very seriously. All patient data is sent to Nonnatech’s HIPAA-compliant platform where the information is securely shared with the patient’s clinical team. Industry best practices are followed to ensure data security to protect all patient health information.
RPM can be used to track health status trends across an array of health conditions such as hypertension (high blood pressure) and diabetes (high blood sugar). RPM can be very helpful for individuals with a new diagnosis or with a poorly controlled health condition. In addition, RPM can be used for many other health conditions especially after discharge from the hospital to ensure proper post-acute care goals are met.
Yes! RPM is becoming a “must-have” technology for hospitals and clinical teams to reach beyond the four walls of the traditional healthcare setting to monitor a patient’s health status. RPM provides a proactive approach focused on early intervention and prevention, versus a reactive model often seen when a patient is struggling to manage their care. A key goal of RPM is to prevent a patient from ending up in the ED or having an avoidable hospital admission. Innovative hospital systems and practices are adopting virtual health technologies like RPM as part of their care delivery model to help achieve quality outcomes and meet the goals of contracted value-based arrangements.
No. Nonnatech’s program and solution is designed as an important complementary tool to assist clinicians in tracking trends, focused on early intervention and improving patient self-management. Patients with an emergency or serious change in their health condition are instructed to contact 911 or proceed as ordered by their physician, nurse practitioner and clinical team.
Nonnatech offers a full RPM program model, implementation plan and support with comprehensive education and training. Unlike other companies that “dump and run” with their technology, we have seasoned clinical experts with national experience using best practices to design effective and efficient clinical workflows. We know clinicians are busy with limited resources. We collaborate closely with the clinical teams to establish workflows tailored to their practice. We recognize that RPM is new for many practices where a crawl, walk, run approach often works best. We are committed to making RPM a success guided by the principles of patient safety, collaborative clinical team support and improving health outcomes.
Nonnatech’s team has patient support specialists that collaborate with each clinical team partner to offer additional in-home support for patients. In our experience, we know many patients have questions about technology and often need additional assistance to ensure they understand RPM’s full benefits, how to use the equipment to manage their health and how to better communicate with their clinical team. We know that long-term success requires a proactive, comprehensive and culturally competent approach to educating patients meeting them where they are on their healthcare journey.
Billing requirements will depend on the type of health insurance – commercial, Medicare or Medicaid. Many commercial insurers will reimburse for RPM services, but each payer will have different benefits coverage for their various insurance products. Providers will need to contact the health insurance plan to determine each patient’s RPM payment specifics. Similarly, Medicaid payment will vary by state with specific provider reimbursement requirements and RPM payment policies.
Medicare offers a standard reimbursement approach with RPM-specific CPT codes used to bill for services. Typical billing codes include 99453 for initial set-up, 99454 for transmission of RPM data and 99458 and 99459 for each 20 minutes of RPM management provided. Also to note, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) allows for non-clinical staff to count time that can be billed for RPM services when provided under the supervision of a qualified health professional such as a physician or nurse practitioner. Additionally for 2022, CMS expanded new CPT codes including new Remote Therapeutic Monitoring codes designed to monitor respiratory and musculoskeletal management that can be billed by providers such as physical and occupational therapists. Contact Nonnatech to receive a free billing guide on RPM and RTM codes.
NOTE: Providers should always follow the billing guidelines provided by CMS or as directed by other payer policies for commercial or Medicaid insurance.