General Patient Considerations
Per CMS's current guidance, an RPM patient must have a condition — acute or chronic — that requires monitoring, and the monitoring must be medically reasonable and necessary as determined by the treating provider.
Acute vs Chronic Conditions
Current CMS guidance for remote physiologic monitoring covers both acute and chronic conditions, unlike CCM, which is specifically limited to chronic conditions expected to last at least 12 months. This makes RPM's condition scope broader in one respect than CCM's.
Medical Necessity
The treating provider must determine that monitoring is medically reasonable and necessary for the specific patient — this is a clinical judgment, not a checklist a website can make on a provider's behalf.
Device Requirements
The connected device used to collect and transmit data must meet the FDA's definition of a medical device, and must electronically collect and automatically upload data to a secure location for the billing practitioner's review.
Consent
Patient consent is required at the time RPM services are provided.
Provider Relationship
Monitoring Plan
A monitoring plan connects the three RPM components — device education/setup, device supply/data collection, and treatment management — into an ongoing program for the specific patient, rather than a one-time data pull.
Documentation
Document medical necessity, the device's FDA medical-device status, the data-collection period, and any treatment-management time and interactive communication that occurred.