ALR Technologies Advocates For Sensible Medicare Reimbursement of Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) for Diabetes Patients
Internet Monitoring More Cost Effective than Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) for Most Medicare Patients Says ALRT President Bill Smith
Richmond, VA, October 20, 2014 -- In a letter to Marilyn Tavenner, Administrator of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Bill Smith, President of ALR Technologies (OTCQB: ALRT) advocated for CMS reimbursement for continuous glucose monitoring systems (CGM) for Type 1 diabetes patients as well as higher-risk Type 2 patients. However, Smith argued that most Type 2 patients should first be encouraged to seek Internet-based remote chronic care management and then to step up to CGM if they don’t achieve their health goals on the more cost-effective, Internet-based monitoring.
“There is no doubt that CGM should be made available to higher risk diabetes patients as this is a very valuable monitoring technology,” said Smith. “However, for many other patients, I believe a sensible policy would be to reimburse first for Internet-based monitoring systems and then provide the CGM option for patients who fail on this less costly, Internet-based technology.”
The complete text of the letter can be found here.
On November 1, CMS is expected to announce new rules for physician reimbursement in a broad range of treatments including management of chronic diseases such as diabetes. Among the proposed rules is a new payment schedule for remote chronic care management similar to the service that ALRT’s Health-e-Connect system delivers.
About ALR Technologies Inc.
ALR Technologies is a medical device company providing remote monitoring and care facilitation for patients with chronic diseases. ALRT has developed the FDA-cleared and HIPAA compliant Health-e-Connect System that collects data from blood glucose meters and uploads to a secure website. Trained Facilitators use the System to effect efficiency of care among patients, clinicians and caregivers to improve outcomes and assist health plans to optimize their quality goals. Currently, the Company is focused on diabetes and will expand its services to cover other chronic diseases anchored on verifiable data.
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This release contains certain "forward-looking statements" relating to ALR Technologies' business, and these statements reflect the current views of ALR Technologies with respect to future events and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions. When used, the words "estimate", "expect", "anticipate", "believe" and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. There are many factors that could cause the actual results, performance or achievements of ALR Technologies and its products to be materially different from any future results, performances or achievements that may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Further management discussions of risks and uncertainties can be found in the company's quarterly.