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A remote patient monitoring program does not need six months of committee meetings. Practices that succeed follow roughly the same 30-day arc. Here is the playbook.

Week 1: Define the population and the workflow

• Pick one condition to start – uncontrolled hypertension is the most common because blood pressure cuffs are cheap, cellular, and familiar.
• Write inclusion criteria (e.g., last two BP readings above goal) and pull the patient list from your EHR.
• Decide who monitors: an MA or nurse reviewing the dashboard daily beats an “everyone owns it” model.

Week 2: Devices and consent

• Choose cellular devices over Bluetooth for older populations – no app pairing, no Wi-Fi setup. Brands like Tenovi, Smart Meter, and TeleRPM ship readings automatically.
• Script the enrollment conversation and capture consent (this supports CPT 99453).
• Ship or hand devices to your first 10-25 patients. Small first cohorts surface workflow problems cheaply.

Week 3: Monitoring rhythm

• Set alert thresholds conservatively at first to avoid alarm fatigue.
• Log every patient interaction – the 2026 codes reward even 10-minute months (CPT 99470), but only when documented.
• Establish an escalation path: who calls the patient, who messages the physician.

Week 4: Billing dry run

• Run a month-end report: days of readings per patient (16+ days bills 99454; 2-15 days bills the new 99445) and clinical minutes (20+ bills 99457/99458; 10-19 bills 99470).
• Submit your first claims and reconcile what comes back.
• Review adherence and expand the cohort.

The shortcuts that are not shortcuts

Skipping consent documentation, sharing one login among staff, or eyeballing time instead of logging it will all surface in an audit. Software should make the compliant path the easy path – that is the entire design brief behind SimplyRPM.

Talk to us about launching your program on SimplyRPM.

If you are evaluating remote patient monitoring software, you will see the phrase “SMART on FHIR” everywhere. Here is what it actually means and why it should be near the top of your requirements list.

FHIR, in one paragraph

FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) is the modern standard for exchanging healthcare data. It defines common building blocks – Patient, Observation, Condition, and so on – and a web API for reading and writing them. Certified EHRs in the United States are required to expose FHIR APIs under the 21st Century Cures Act.

What SMART adds

SMART (Substitutable Medical Applications, Reusable Technologies) is the app-launch and authorization layer on top of FHIR. It lets an application launch inside the EHR with the current patient’s context, and it uses OAuth 2.0 so the health system controls exactly what data the app can access. Think of it as the app store model for the EHR.

Why this matters for RPM specifically

• Adoption. The number one killer of RPM programs is a separate portal nobody opens. A SMART app lives inside the chart where clinicians already are.
• Data quality. Device readings written back as FHIR Observations become part of the longitudinal record – trendable, referrable, auditable.
• No rip-and-replace. The same SMART app pattern works across FHIR-enabled EHRs, so switching or adding EHRs does not restart your RPM program.
• Security posture. Scoped OAuth access is far easier for your compliance team to approve than credential-sharing or custom interfaces.

Questions to ask any RPM vendor

1. Does your app launch inside the EHR via SMART on FHIR, or is it a standalone portal?
2. Do device readings write back to the chart as structured data?
3. Which FHIR scopes do you request, and why?
4. How is billing documentation surfaced to the care team?

SimplyRPM answers all four the way you would hope. See how our integration works.

The 2026 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule delivered the most significant expansion of remote patient monitoring billing since the codes were introduced. Two new CPT codes – 99445 and 99470 – close the gaps that made many real-world patients unbillable.

The problem with the old rules

Until now, RPM device supply (99454) required at least 16 days of readings in a 30-day period, and treatment management (99457) required at least 20 minutes of clinical time per month. A patient with 12 days of readings and 15 minutes of review generated no revenue at all, even though real monitoring and real clinical work happened.

What CPT 99445 changes

99445 covers device supply with 2-15 days of readings in a 30-day period, reimbursing at roughly the same rate as 99454 (~$47 national average). Patients ramping up, traveling, or partially adherent are now billable months instead of losses.

What CPT 99470 changes

99470 covers the first 10 minutes of monthly treatment management with at least one interactive communication (~$26). Months that fall short of the 20-minute threshold for 99457 no longer go uncompensated.

The full 2026 RPM code family

• 99453 – setup and patient education (~$22, once per episode)
• 99454 – device supply, 16-30 days (~$47)
• 99445 – device supply, 2-15 days (~$47) – NEW
• 99457 – management, first 20 minutes (~$52)
• 99458 – management, each additional 20 minutes (~$41)
• 99470 – management, first 10 minutes (~$26) – NEW

What your practice should do

1. Re-run your program economics – previously unbillable patients may now cover their device costs.
2. Update billing workflows so 99445/99470 are selected when thresholds for 99454/99457 are not met.
3. Audit your documentation – the new codes still require device readings and logged interactive communication.

SimplyRPM tracks day counts and clinical minutes automatically and maps each patient-month to the right code. See the full 2026 billing guide or request a demo.

Rates are unadjusted national averages; confirm against the current fee schedule and your MAC.