The federal watchdog at the Department of Health and Human Services issued a report on Tuesday calling for more oversight of remote patient monitoring in Medicare. The Office of Inspector General's report called out the potential for fraud and misuse of tools like at-home blood pressure cuffs, connected scales, and continuous glucose monitors that can feed data directly to a patient's doctor. Remote patient monitoring has exploded since the pandemic. In just four years from the beginning of 2019 through 2022, according to the report, the number of Medicare patients receiving RPM increased tenfold, from 55,000 to 570,000. Medicare Advantage use increased 14 times over. In the same period, payments per patient more than doubled — driving total Medicare spending on remote patient monitoring up to $311 million from just $15 million in 2019.
