Remote monitoring momentum
This article was originally published in The Gray Sheet
Executive Summary
Congressional Budget Office, CMS and key congressional committee staff are in "a very detailed level of discussion" with AdvaMed about which codes should be included in legislation to reimburse physicians for remote monitoring of patients with heart failure and cardiac arrhythmia, according to AdvaMed CEO Steve Ubl. "We think working through these technical issues will provide important momentum for adding it to a Medicare bill this year," he said. The AdvaMed-backed bill, S. 631, has a roughly $100 million price tag over five years and would affect physicians monitoring patients with implantable device-connected networks such as Boston Scientific's Latitude, Medtronic's CareLink and St. Jude Medical's Housecall Plus (1"The Gray Sheet" Nov. 5, 2007, p. 5)