A recent False Claims Act settlement involving remote patient monitoring (RPM) demonstrates the federal government’s approach to investigating fraud and abuse concerns associated with the technology, McGuireWoods healthcare partner Timothy Fry and associate Micaela Enger wrote in an Aug. 11, 2025, article in Westlaw Today. The article originally was published on McGuireWoods’ The FCA Insider blog.
RPM involves the use of digital devices to remotely monitor a patient’s health outside of a traditional clinical setting. As the industry grows, “the government has begun to examine whether certain RPM models may have fraud and abuse concerns when others will not,” they explained.
The U.S. Department of Justice recently announced that a healthcare technology company and its owner paid $1.29 million to settle allegations of submitting false claims to Medicare in violation of the FCA’s “reverse false claims” provision. The DOJ also alleged the company paid physician practice groups kickbacks in exchange for patient referrals, and billed Medicare for RPM services the DOJ alleged were not reimbursable, the authors noted.
The authors spelled out three requirements for proper use of RPM for Medicare fee-for-service enrollees. The enrollee must have a chronic or acute condition; the RPM device must be used; and a minimum amount of data must be collected and transmitted during a 30-day period.
“RPM is experiencing rapid expansion as an increasingly critical piece of healthcare technology,” Fry and Enger wrote. “Its growth is due in part to the rising prevalence of chronic disease, an increase in the aging population, a greater demand for home-based care, and a shift towards value-based care focused on prevention.”
The authors concluded: “With expansion, anticipate additional investigator scrutiny moving forward.”