Medicare OKs Coverage of 24-Hour Blood Pressure Monitoring Tool

Identifying Medicare patients with high blood pressure will be a little easier now that the federal government has expanded coverage of a device that continuously tracks blood pressure over a 24-hour period.

In a July 2 decision, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services completed its national coverage policy for ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM), a non-invasive diagnostic test that lets doctors check patients’ blood pressure as they go through their normal day.

Readings taken while patients sit nervously in doctors’ offices can often provide inaccurate results leading to false diagnoses of hypertension known as “white coat hypertension.”

The new ...