Who knows about RTM? And what do they know?
We've talked to hundreds of PTs, OTs, SLPs, practice owners, and clinic directors, and we've found there are 3 categories and 6 common responses. Where do you fall? And what should you be considering?
The Remote Therapeutic Monitoring (RTM) codes came out on 1/1/22 with the 2022 Physician Fee Schedule, and the world of rehab (and movement health in general) in the US forever changed, in my opinion, for the better. A way for rehab professionals to finally get paid for work they’ve been doing forever. More on the impact of RTM on the rehab world at a later date – now, onto the list.
Category 1: Level of Understanding 0 to -1 (yes, negative)
Level 0: "What is RTM?"
We still get this 30%-40% of the time, primarily from independent practices with 20 clinicians or less, which is a population we are blessed to serve.
Our advice - get up to speed, fast! How can you best get up to speed on RTM? Selfishly, we have an overview on our website (https://lnkd.in/ee4SnC3m), and I would also suggest you look at law firms like Foley and Nixon.
Level -1: "We did RTM during COVID"
No, I promise you that you 100% did not bill for RTM during COVID. This is our 3rd or 4th most common response, and it is difficult to find where the blame lies in this misconception.
Don’t blame yourself; RTM completely flies in the face of every code you have ever billed. Getting paid for patient engagement!? It sounds too good to be true; however, I can assure you it is not.
Our advice - Get up to speed via our website or connect directly with me/SaRA Health - More Value from Visits, and I suggest you look at law firms like Foley and Nixon.
Category 2: Is RTM a fit for us?
We aren’t sure if we are going to do RTM…
This is typically from larger practices that are concerned with the operational challenges that could present themselves. While they see the revenue and patient experience potential, they’re incredibly worried about burdening their already overworked staff where the clinician churn would evaporate any potential profit. These are valid concerns; however, there is an underlying belief that the status quo will not shift dramatically, which we disagree with. These RTM codes are the proverbial carrot (to move to value-based care) before the stick.
Our questions - Can you really afford not to? With payers already siphoning off valuable commercial lives via their own digital solutions, will you be able to survive, much less thrive, without innovating? M&A in the PT space is continuing to heat up, and EBITDA (Michael Piekutoski, MPT, mentions the importance of EBITDA in his February Report) will drive your value when you want to exit RTM can help improve that number.
We aren’t going to do RTM.
We hear this mostly from cash pay or practices with very low Medicare populations. These practices have very little trust that commercial payers will reimburse for RTM and are disenfranchised with the entire insurance landscape. And they get to practice how they want to, and I would be incredibly hypocritical to criticize that since both my son and I see a direct primary care provider.
Aren’t you already doing it? You probably are giving your cell phone number out to your patients and are left with only blurred lines between work and personal life. Sure, you won’t “bill” for RTM, but the innovation driving these RTM platforms could improve your ability to communicate and engage with patients on your time and schedule.
Category 3: We should probably do this…
We think we will do RTM
The practice owners have likely started looking at RTM solutions. We find that a good amount of these practice owners have heard through a variety of sources such as practice owner communities, trusted resources, and the ever-increasing amount of advertising by RTM solution companies. Here are some questions to ask and tips to consider when rolling out an RTM solution.
Is there a solution flexible enough to improve the patient experience while simplifying inter-visit communication for our practice, specifically?
We hear that more and more therapists desire flexibility both in hours of the day worked and location; implementing RTM could make “a half day at home on Friday” a mutually beneficial staffing structure
Any amount of change comes with some pain, but requiring “Super-Users” can help to blunt the challenges of implementing new solutions, as well as, give growth opportunities to hungry clinicians
Patient expectations are changing, and RTM can be a way to improve communication and connectivity between visits and be reimbursed for your clinician’s time.
A call during a therapist’s day is much more disruptive than a text engagement that can be responded to on the therapist’s time.
Payers are siphoning off commercial patients via Sword, Hinge, Kaia, etc., and patients who want to commit fewer resources to PT will choose these options unless there’s an in-person + virtual offering at their local PT clinic
This is happening, and you’ve probably already started to see the smoke, if not the fire, on this problem
Declining reimbursement for PTs and PTAs shows no signs of slowing or stopping, so adding a high-margin revenue source may go from a “nice to have” now to a “must have” soon
We are looking at RTM options
This is the smallest group in size; however, they are in buying mode. Typically stacking demos back to back, then whittling down the field and making a decision. You’ve decided to implement an RTM solution, and now you’re searching for vendors and deciding which one best augments your practice. Some questions we have found helpful for other practice leaders to consider are…
Will this vendor’s solution fit my values?
Do we want a vendor who will make clinical decisions?
Do we want a vendor whose technology is only available to those who can afford and operate a smartphone well?
Will this vendor work with us (leadership and clinicians) as the RTM landscape evolves?
How responsive is the leadership team?
Where does their funding come from? (i.e. who are they beholden to?)
Will my patients and therapists actually use this?
What is the average patient engagement for this vendor? What is their track record for hitting that critical 16 days of engagement in a 30-day period?Will this work for how we run our clinics (i.e. using PTAs, interdisciplinary plans of care, etc.)?
