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Remote Patient Monitoring Could Save Millions

Published Friday Jun 17, 2016

A pilot study finds that remote patient monitoring can save $8,375 per monitored patient annually. For a 1 million member health plan that could translate into about $1.1 million in annual savings from fewer hospital admissions as a result of catching health conditions earlier. The study was conducted by Geneia, a national health care technology company with offices in Manchester, using technology from Medtronic, a global medical device company with offices in Portsmouth.

The yearlong study compared the experience of Capital BlueCross health insurance members diagnosed with heart failure who enrolled and actively participated in the @Home remote monitoring program to a control group of non-monitored members. The program combines predictive analytics, state-of-the-art technology and in-home clinical support to identify chronically ill patients most likely to participate in and benefit from the program. It then supports them through personalized care planning to improve health outcomes.

The @Home study found reductions in hospitalizations including a 45 percent reduction in acute hospitalizations (66 percent in the pilot group compared to 21 percent in the control group with no monitoring). That equaled average savings of $8,375 per year per member. One unexpected result was an increase of 7 percent in emergency room visits in the pilot group. However, this is consistent with other research that reported monitoring patients was associated with a reduction in planned hospital visits and lower monetary costs, despite a modest increase in unplanned hospital and emergency visits.

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