Holter monitors (24-72 Hour Ambulatory EKG) have long been used to assess various aspects of cardiac function. For years, DigiCardio has provided the most advanced Holter procedures available to physicians, clinics and hospitals, nationwide, at no charge to the office!

What Does This Mean to Me?

During a recent scientific sessions exhibition, we were approached by a number of physicans wanting to purchase a new Holter system. After proposing a smarter, less costly service option, we heard concerns from each of them that they wouldn't be collecting any reimbursement for their time. This is completely false; your office will bill for 2 of 3 components

Don't Buy Holter Monitors, Use ours... at NO CHARGE TO YOU!

Buying Holter equipment for your office no longer makes sense. By now, you are well aware of Medicare's efforts to reduce costs but you may not know what is happening to Holter reimbursements. Both the hookup, (CPT 93231) and professional (CPT 93233) components are faring well with little reduction. Unfortunately, the technical code
(CPT 93232) is not. In fact, in their efforts to curb costs not associated with direct physician work, Medicare is in the middle of dropping reimbursements by nearly 50%.

Another Reason Not to Buy a Holter System

It seems that the CMS is trying to do just about everything it can to drastically reduce the amount of diagnostic testing performed in physicians' offices.

What about a basic, inexpensive Holter system?

Though many manufacturers certainly offer cheap Holter systems these days, make sure you factor in all of the costs when comparing this approach to using a high-end Holter service like DigiCardio.

To start, you'll need to amortize the cost of the entire Holter system over the number of tests you expect to perform, including costs for normal wear and tear.

Depending on your region, Medicare may be reducing rates to as low as $40 per test. At this rate, it could take years to recover just the purchase price alone, let alone the rest of the associated costs.

While you may have made the case for a reasonable ROI based on the initial Holter system cost, did you include:

• Your staff's time in processing the studies
  (Yes, they are already there, but couldn't they be doing something better?)
• The cost of keeping personnel trained on your equipment and software.
• The cost of periodic software updates and service contracts.
• The time and money spent buying Holter supply kits.

Even if all that still left room for a decent return, is it really worth putting the pressure on your staff and a bottom-end Holter system to produce reports that will inevitably create more work for you in the interpretation phase?

DigiCardio uses high-end, hospital-grade Holter analysis systems in concert with highly-skilled, certified technicians. This guarantees reports easily outpacing the quality available from low-end systems, particulary when used by staff with more pressing matters to address.

Don't let anyone tell you that top-quality Holter analysis can be done automatically. Sure, you can quickly throw out 12 hours worth of possible "artifact" in order to clean up a basic report, but what did you miss by discarding half of your data? Your patients depend on you to make the right decision, for which you need all the facts.

Why Holter recorder quality matters

DigiCardio’s premier solid-state recorder eliminates mechanical malfunctions common to older, cassette-based units. It stores EKG data on a small CompactFlash card at a resolution up to six times higher than a traditional cassette recorder. As a result, you’ll receive the highest quality reports with far more accurate results.

Its large, built-in LCD allows you to enter patient information, check lead quality and review all channels of EKG during the hookup process. With this feature, staff can make adjustments before the patient leaves your office and should never have to re-test the patient as a result of a bad hookup.

While wearing the recorder, patients use the simple keypad to enter activities and symptoms as they occur, thus ensuring maximum compliance and coorelation between diary entries and EKG data.

Having the LCD also allows for electronic storage of your patient’s unique ID, preventing confusion of patient records. Have you ever seen mixups between two patients' data from unmarked cassettes? Most have, but not while using DigiCardio!

DigiCardio’s Holter monitor also provides the ultimate in accuracy for ambulatory EKG monitoring. The recorder meets strict AAMI EC-11/EC-38 standards for frequency response, while advanced filtering technology allows for improved detection of both pacemaker spikes and narrow pediatric QRS complexes. This results in more accurate EKG reproduction for paced and pediatric patients. In addition, the optional 12-lead and oximetry capabilities are unmatched in the Holter industry.

Removable flash memory allows immediate re-use of the monitor and your office will receive enough equipment to ensure your ability to test patients as the need arises.

It's time to call DigiCardio

Once again, as with our other clinical offerings, there is no charge for equipment placed in your office. You bill the hookup (CPT 93231) and professional (CPT 93233) components and we bill our part. There is no "catch"; it's really just that simple!