High remote patient monitoring practices offer improved hypertension care

Patients with hypertension at high remote patient monitoring (RPM) practices have improved hypertension care, but also have increased hypertension-related spending, according to a study published online Nov. 7 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Mitchell Tang, from the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and colleagues estimated the effect of RPM on hypertension care and spending in a matched observational study. Changes in outcomes were compared from 2019 to 2021 for patients with hypertension at high-RPM practices (192 practices, with 19,978 patients with hypertension) versus those at matched low-RPM control practices (942 practices, with 95,029 patients with hypertension).

The researchers found that patients with hypertension 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 compared with those at low-RPM practices. Fewer hypertension-related acute care encounters (−9.3 percent) and reduced testing use (−5.9 percent) were also seen for patients at high-RPM practices. Increases in primary care physician outpatient visits (7.2 percent) and a $274 increase in total hypertension spending were also seen for patients at high-RPM practices.

"Our findings point to targeted patient eligibility and time-varying reimbursement as potential levers to explore for improving the value of RPM use for hypertension," the authors write.

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