Better than ever with a long way to go: The future of digital health reimbursement

It gets complicated because some payment policies were created long before digital health was even a concept, so they don't always mesh with current digital health space today, he said. Brian Scarpelli, senior global policy counsel at the Connected Health Initiative, notes a lot of different stakeholders in the healthcare industry – from payers to technology developers to providers – are excited about the prospect of digital health. CMS took a huge step forward when it distinguished remote monitoring from telehealth services a few years ago, Jarrin said. Scarpelli said CMS staff has made great progress in implementing new rules, but he would like more endorsement for digital tools at the leadership level. "I think that a refrain from them on that topic, how digital health tools are so critical to the equity goals of the administration, which are paramount to them," he said. And to the larger digital health sector industry, he argues they need to keep in mind that this is medical care and it needs to benefit the patient.