Remote Monitoring Faces Coding Challenges After Public Health Emergency Ends

Federal remote monitoring regulations tied to the COVID public health emergency (PHE) are expiring soon, and insurers and providers must make sure that remote monitoring is being used effectively and in compliance with permanent regulations. Health care experts say that payers and providers have an opportunity to improve clinical outcomes and increase value by applying pandemic-era lessons learned and best practices to ongoing remote monitoring-assisted care.  

Remote patient monitoring became a vital tool for practitioners during the COVID-19 pandemic’s darkest days. Hospitals were overwhelmed and, in many places, barred from providing elective services, creating an urgent need for “hospital-at-home” care. The Biden and Trump administrations facilitated expanded use of remote monitoring technologies through emergency regulations tied to the duration of the PHE, but it is set to end on May 11. In particular, hundreds of emergency use authorizations (EUAs) from the FDA will expire unless they have undergone a review process. Going forward, some reimbursement codes set up by CMS during the pandemic will be phased out, and others will carry on until the agency can set up permanent protocols.