By the year 2014 public and private healthcare providers may save between $1.96 billion and $5.83 billion in healthcare costs thanks to remote patient monitoring over cellular networks, according to a recent report from Juniper Research.
Juniper believes that the US and Canadian markets will generate the most cost savings, because of those countries’ high healthcare costs, system structure and more advanced remote monitoring rollouts.
“The cost of a hospital bed, used as a proxy for cost, is much higher in the North American region, partly due to the role of health insurance in the US healthcare sector,” Anthony Cox, Senior Analyst at Juniper Research stated in a company release. “This has a direct impact on how much cost remote monitoring can save.”
Whether the savings amount to $1.96 billion, which Juniper calls the “base case,” or whether the “optimistic” scenario of $5.83 billion in healthcare costs are saved by 2014, the market will save “vast amounts of money,” Juniper said. While these savings will be concentrated in North America, Juniper notes that the costs of mobile monitoring may make it “questionable” to rollout in developing regions.
For more on the report, read this Juniper press release