Thomas Ferrante Assesses Recent HHS OIG Report on Remote Patient Monitoring

Foley & Lardner LLP partner Thomas Ferrante commented on the recently released report on remote patient monitoring from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) in the Fierce Healthcare article, “HHS watchdog flags potential remote monitoring fraud. Stakeholders say concerns about misuse are overblown.”

Ferrante said that it would be useful for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to release additional guidance about how to bill remote patient monitoring codes. He explained that while there was a Medicare Learning Network guidance document for chronic care management, no such sub-regulatory guidance exists for remote monitoring.

“When people try to do the right thing, there’s like, a great ambiguity, so they have to guess,” he commented.

Ferrante added that the timing of the report is eye catching, as this is the first document OIG has issued on remote monitoring since its consumer alert in November 2023. He said that typically, after a consumer OIG puts out a consumer alert, an enforcement action is soon to follow.