Over the past several years, I’ve heard it all.
Remote patient care is a scam. It doesn’t work. RPM is designed to fail.
I’ve listened to the frustrations from doctors, managers, and administrators who swear that remote care is nothing but another profit scheme wrapped in good intentions.
And to be fair — I understand why they feel that way.
Because what they’ve seen isn’t remote care. It’s the watered-down, third-party version of it. It’s the one-size-fits-all model sold to practices desperate for relief, only to leave them burned, broke, and more skeptical than before. The noise has become so loud that it’s drowning out the truth: remote care, done right, is one of the most important evolutions in modern healthcare.
How We Got Here
The skepticism didn’t happen overnight.
Many practices tried remote patient monitoring (RPM) through outside vendors that promised easy money, minimal effort, and plug-and-play compliance. What they got instead were programs that:
- Pushed every patient into a standardized template.
- Prioritized billable events over clinical outcomes.
- Left staff overwhelmed by alerts and workflows they didn’t own.
- Collapsed as soon as the vendor walked away.
When that happens enough times across enough communities, trust erodes. The very words “remote care” or “RPM” start to trigger eye rolls.
But the truth is, the failure isn’t in the idea of remote care — it’s in how we’ve implemented it.
The Pain We Don’t Talk About
The same practices that dismiss remote care as a scam are often the ones struggling the most with operational and financial pressure.
They can’t pay staff competitively. They’re battling insurance denials, regulatory penalties, and burnout that’s eating away at patient access and continuity of care.
So when someone comes along promising “passive revenue” through RPM, it feels like a lifeline.
But when that lifeline turns out to be a liability, it reinforces the fear that nothing truly helps.
And yet, ignoring remote care altogether isn’t the answer either. Because as the population ages and chronic disease management becomes more complex, traditional office visits alone can’t keep up. If we don’t evolve, the gap between care need and care capacity will only widen — and our most vulnerable patients will fall through it.
Remote Care, Reimagined
Here’s what I’ve learned after years of watching both sides of this debate:
Remote care works when it’s built by the practice, for the patient — not when it’s outsourced for convenience.
Successful programs share a few common traits:
- Ownership: The practice controls patient selection, protocols, and data.
- Integration: The technology fits into existing workflows, not the other way around.
- Purpose: The goal isn’t to maximize billing codes; it’s to strengthen relationships, reduce friction, and extend the reach of the care team.
- Accountability: Every metric ties back to clinical outcomes — not arbitrary activity thresholds.
When a remote care program operates under those principles, the results speak for themselves. Staff engagement rises. Patients feel seen between visits. Providers finally get the full picture of what’s happening beyond the office walls.
And yes — the financial lift follows, but as a result of better care, not the reason for it.
The Third-Party Trap
It’s worth calling this out plainly:
The 3rd-party RPM model was built to serve billing infrastructure, not patient outcomes. It filled a short-term need during the pandemic, but it’s not sustainable long term.
Here’s why:
When an outside company manages your patient communication, your alerts, and your data, you lose control of the very thing you’re being paid to deliver — coordinated, continuous care.
It’s like trying to run a restaurant where another company cooks, serves, and collects payment while you just rent the kitchen. It might look like it works at first, but it’s not your operation anymore. And when it collapses, it’s your name, your patients, and your staff left holding the pieces.
If we want to fix the reputation of remote care, we have to stop outsourcing the soul of it.
Why Remote Care Still Matters
Despite the noise, I’ve never been more convinced that remote care is essential to the future of healthcare.
Here’s why:
- Chronic disease management is now the majority of care delivered in the U.S.
- Preventable hospitalizations cost billions annually, and many are tied to gaps in monitoring and follow-up.
- Patients increasingly expect digital continuity and proactive outreach.
Ignoring these realities because of bad experiences with early RPM vendors would be like abandoning telehealth after the first clunky video platform. The concept isn’t the problem — it’s the execution.
Remote care isn’t just a new revenue stream. It’s a new care layer — one that captures the daily reality of patients’ lives and turns it into insight, intervention, and trust.
The Call for a Unified Future
The healthcare industry doesn’t need another quick fix. It needs alignment — across providers, payers, and technology partners — around one simple truth:
Holistic, continuous care is the only way forward.
That means:
- Practices owning their programs instead of renting them.
- Technology supporting intuition, not replacing it.
- Reimbursement aligned with value, not volume.
- Patients becoming active participants, not passive data points.
For practices ready to step forward, the path isn’t as complicated as it seems.
The tools now exist to make remote care simple, sustainable, and clinically meaningful — without losing your identity or your control.
What Comes Next
We’re entering a new era of remote care — one where artificial intelligence and intuitive technology can finally support clinicians instead of overwhelming them. Where data isn’t noise but clarity. Where operational autonomy and financial health can coexist with better patient outcomes.
That’s the kind of future I want to help build.
It’s why we created FairPath, a plug-and-play remote care platform designed to teach practices how to run their own programs intuitively, powered by an AI foundation built for healthcare. It’s time to reclaim patient care.
If we get this right, remote care won’t just work — it’ll redefine how care works.
Let’s stop letting bad actors write the story. Let’s write our own.
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This content is for informational purposes only. Program requirements and reimbursement rates vary by MAC, plan, and region.