Congressman Kustoff Introduces RPM Access Act

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Reps. David Kustoff (R-TN), Troy Balderson (R-OH), Donald Davis (D-NC), and Mark Pocan (D-WI) introduced the Rural Patient Monitoring (RPM) Access Act in the House of Representatives. This bill would ensure high-quality remote physiologic monitoring services for Medicare beneficiaries in rural and underserved areas.

"Expanding access to healthcare in rural West Tennessee has been a priority of mine in Washington," said Congressman Kustoff.  “The RPM Access Act is important legislation that will help doctors and nurses monitor patients remotely. I urge my colleagues to support this bill to help provide Americans with good-quality healthcare no matter their location.”

Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Mark Warner (D-VA) introduced the companion bill in the United States Senate. 

“Medicare beneficiaries in rural and underserved areas often face serious barriers to health care, and they deserve better,” said Senator Blackburn. “The Rural Patient Monitoring Access Act would ensure Tennessee Medicare patients have access to high-quality remote physiologic monitoring services to manage chronic conditions and help patients eliminate unnecessary hospital visits.”

Background:
Remote physiologic monitoring (RPM) is the use of digital technologies to collect health data from patients in one location and electronically transmit that information securely to providers in a different location. Medicare patients living in rural areas face higher rates of heart failure, hypertension, and diabetes compared to patients in urban areas – and they have limited access to health care. Remote monitoring can help address this barrier to access. However, Medicare reimbursement for remote physiologic monitoring is lowest in the rural areas it is needed most.

The RPM Access Act would set the floor for practice expense and malpractice geographic indices for remote physiologic monitoring services at 1.00, allowing rural areas to be able to provide RPM services at the national average. The legislation would also create new requirements to ensure high-quality services for Medicare. These requirements include: 

• RPM providers must be capable of responding to data anomalies detected by the monitoring service.
• RPM providers must be capable of promptly transmitting captured vitals and treatment management notes to the electronic health record of the supervising provider.
• CMS may require providers of RPM to report data to the Secretary of HHS in order to facilitate the evaluation of cost savings generated to the Medicare program through the proliferation of remote physiologic monitoring services.

Click here to read the full text of the bill. 
 

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