BUSINESS NEWS

In April, Representative Anna Eshoo (D–CA) introduced the Medicare Remote Monitoring Access Act of 2008 in the House. The legislation would amend the Social Security Act to cover remote patient management services for certain chronic health conditions under the Medicare program.

Stephen J. Ubl, president and CEO of industry association AdvaMed (Washington, DC), ap-plauded the bill's introduction. He noted that the legislation would require Medicare to cover remote monitoring services used to manage care for patients with congestive heart failure and cardiac arrhythmia. "It also requires CMS to work with stakeholders to develop a standard of care for using remote monitoring for those conditions," Ubl said. "We are pleased the bill also establishes a demonstration program to evaluate the promise of Medicare coverage of remote monitoring services for three other serious and chronic conditions: diabetes, epilepsy, and sleep apnea."

Kalorama Information (New York City) reports that the development of remote monitoring technologies is being driven by current healthcare trends, including an aging population and a shortage of healthcare workers, as well as the advent of new wireless technologies. In a new report, High-Tech Patient Monitoring Systems, the market research firm reports that U.S. sales of new-generation patient monitoring systems added up to an estimated $3.9 billion for device manufacturers in 2007--a figure that could more than double over the next five years.

The report estimates that the U.S. market for new technologies in patient monitoring will grow to $11.1 billion by 2012, reflecting compound annual growth of 23.3%.

Copyright ©2008 MX