Congressman David Kustoff's Rural Patient Monitoring Access Act Advances Ways & Means Committee

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Ways and Means Committee passed Congressman David Kustoff's (R-TN-08) Rural Patient Monitoring (RPM) Access Act, H.R. 3108, with bipartisan support. Introduced by Reps. David Kustoff, Donald Davis (D-NC-01), Troy Balderson (R-OH-12), and Mark Pocan (D-WI-02) in April 2025, this bill enables Medicare beneficiaries in rural and underserved communities to gain access to high-quality remote physiologic monitoring services.

"Today's committee passage brings us one step closer to helping more Medicare patients receive the care they need closer to home," said Congressman David Kustoff. "The RPM Access Act will help more doctors and nurses monitor patients remotely, allowing them to manage complex chronic conditions in real time. I appreciate my colleagues' support as we work to expand access to high-quality health care in rural West Tennessee and across the country."

"Technological advancement has created new opportunities to deliver better health care, but those opportunities mean little if patients cannot access them,"said Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (MO-08). "Remote patient monitoring gives physicians valuable insight into their patients' health while allowing individuals to better manage chronic conditions from home. Unfortunately, rural communities that need these tools the most continue to face barriers that limit access, and as a result have a 33% lower rate of use of remote monitoring. Representative Kustoff's Rural Patient Monitoring Access Act ensures Medicare beneficiaries in rural and underserved communities can benefit from innovative care models that improve health outcomes and strengthen access to care."

Background:
Remote physiologic monitoring is the use of digital technologies to collect health data from patients in one location and electronically transmit that information securely to providers in a different location. Medicare patients living in rural areas face higher rates of heart failure, hypertension, and diabetes compared to patients in urban areas. However, Medicare reimbursement for remote physiologic monitoring is lowest in the rural areas it is needed most.

The RPM Access Act would create new requirements to ensure high-quality services for Medicare. These requirements include:

• RPM providers must be capable of responding to data anomalies detected by the monitoring service.
• RPM providers must be capable of promptly transmitting captured vitals and treatment management notes to the electronic health record of the supervising provider.
• Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services may require providers of RPM to report data to the Secretary of Health and Human Services in order to facilitate the evaluation of cost savings generated to the Medicare program through the proliferation of remote physiologic monitoring services.

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