By Emily Miller
Health insurance companies should look into covering home blood pressure-monitoring kits as these devices could improve healthcare quality while reducing healthcare costs over the long term, new research indicates.
“Home blood pressure monitors should be reimbursed, widely adopted across American and integrated into current clinical practice for diagnosis and treatment for hypertension,” lead author Alegandro Arrieta, assistant professor in the department of health policy and management at Florida International University in Miami, an American Heart Association news release.
“By improving the accuracy of their blood pressure assessment and by monitoring their blood pressures outside the clinic setting, patients help themselves, help their physicians and save money for insurance companies,” said Arrieta.
“Our study provides evidence that reimbursement makes business sense for an insurance company.”
This research was published in the American Heart Association’s journal Hypertension where researchers analyzed data collected between 2008 and 2011 from almost 34,000 people in two health insurance plans.
Researchers found high blood pressure in six percent or people aged 20 to 44, 34 percent of those aged 45 to 64, and 60 percent of those 65 and older.
In the United States, more than 76 million adults have diagnosed high blood pressure, and many more are undiagnosed. Since high blood pressure typically has no symptoms, period testing is critical for people with the factors that put them at risk for the condition.
Home monitoring kits effectively test blood pressure at regular intervals over several days or weeks in a familiar environment.
In the first analysis of its kind, researchers found that for each dollar invested in home monitoring kits, insurance companies could expect a return of $0.85 to $3.75 in the first year. Over 10 years, the return per dollar invested could increase to $7.50 to $19.34.
People with high blood pressure should monitor their blood pressure levels at home, along with regular monitoring by their doctor, according to the American Heart Association, which recommends that patients be reimbursed if they buy a home monitoring kit.
