How CareSimple delivered the industry’s deepest EHR integration—plus billing automation that goes beyond Epic’s blueprint.
When a health system runs Epic, its care teams live inside Epic. Orders, notes, labs, medications, billing—everything flows through the EHR. But when those same teams launch a Remote Patient Monitoring program, they’re typically forced into a parallel universe: a separate portal, separate logins, and a separate data silo that demands manual reconciliation every month.
Deaconess Health System refused to accept that trade-off. In early 2026, Deaconess became the first health system in the world to go live with a Remote Patient Monitoring program through Epic Toolbox—using CareSimple’s platform.
“The CareSimple Toolbox integration with Epic has significantly improved how Deaconess manages remote patient monitoring, both operationally and clinically. By fully integrating this system into Epic, we’ve reduced several workflow inefficiencies, simplified a previously complex billing process, and strengthened the care we provide to our remote monitoring patients.”— Clinical Operations Leadership, Deaconess Health System |
What Epic Toolbox Means—and Why It Matters
Epic Toolbox is Epic’s highest standard for third-party integration—a pre-validated blueprint that dictates how patient data should flow between an RPM platform and the EHR. Toolbox status means the integration has been reviewed, tested, and approved by Epic as the reference architecture for RPM.
For health systems, the practical impact is significant. Toolbox integrations are pre-built, which compresses implementation timelines from months to weeks. They follow Epic’s own design patterns, so care teams interact with RPM data the same way they interact with labs, vitals, and clinical notes. And because the integration is standardized, it’s supported and maintainable across Epic version upgrades.
CareSimple was the first RPM vendor designated for Epic Toolbox—in both 2025 and 2026. Deaconess is the first health system to bring that integration into production.
Real-Time Visibility into Patients at Home
The clinical promise of RPM has always been visibility—seeing how patients are actually doing between visits, not just during them. The challenge has been delivering that visibility in a way that fits naturally into how care teams already work. With the CareSimple Toolbox integration, vitals from cellular-connected devices flow directly into Epic flowsheets, surface alerts in Epic InBasket, and auto-populate clinical notes—all without a second portal or duplicate documentation.
“Providers and nursing staff can now see real-time data and vitals for patients with chronic conditions while they are at home, not just when they are in the hospital. This helps us manage patients more proactively, address issues earlier, and work to reduce avoidable readmissions.”— Post-Acute Services and Virtual Care, Deaconess Health System |
Going Beyond the Blueprint: Billing Automation
RPM reimbursement under Medicare has grown more flexible—and more complex. The 2026 Physician Fee Schedule added two new CPT codes (99445 and 99470) to the existing set (99453, 99454, 99457, 99458), creating six billable codes with distinct eligibility rules. Code 99445 now covers device supply for shorter monitoring periods of 2–15 days, while 99470 covers treatment management starting at just 10 minutes—but neither can be billed alongside its longer-duration counterpart in the same period. Tracking which code applies to which patient every billing cycle, across hundreds or thousands of enrollees, is a significant operational lift.
CareSimple built billing automation directly into the Epic integration at Deaconess—covering all six RPM CPT codes, including the new 2026 additions. The system automatically determines whether a patient qualifies for 99445 or 99454 based on transmission days, selects 99470 or 99457 based on management time, tracks 99458 add-on eligibility, and flows billing-ready data into Epic’s professional billing module. This is not a Toolbox requirement—it’s an additional capability that CareSimple developed because getting billing right is what makes RPM programs sustainable.
Deaconess’s February 2026 billing cycle ran successfully through the automated workflow—confirming that the integration is delivering on both the clinical and financial sides of the RPM program.
Scaling RPM Without Scaling Staff
One of the most consistent challenges health systems face with RPM is scaling enrollment without scaling clinical staff. Manual data review, fragmented communication channels, and disconnected billing workflows all create friction that caps how many patients a care team can manage. The Toolbox integration removes that friction—and adds patient-facing communication tools that keep care teams connected without adding overhead.
“The integration has also increased our capacity, allowing us to monitor more patients through our RPM program than we could with previous systems, without adding staff. In addition, patients can communicate with our nurses via text message, giving them another way to ask questions, share concerns, and clarify instructions. This ongoing connection helps us address potential problems sooner and adjust care plans as patients’ needs change.”— Post-Acute Services and Virtual Care, Deaconess Health System |
What This Means for Epic Health Systems
The Deaconess deployment establishes a reference model for how RPM should work inside Epic. For health systems evaluating RPM vendors, there are three takeaways:
Toolbox integration eliminates the second portal. Care teams already have too many screens. An RPM platform that requires its own login, its own UI, and manual chart reconciliation will limit adoption. Toolbox integration means RPM data lives inside Epic—period.
Billing automation makes RPM financially sustainable. The clinical case for RPM is clear. The operational case depends on billing capture. With CMS expanding to six CPT codes in 2026—each with different eligibility thresholds and mutual exclusivity rules—manual tracking is no longer viable at scale. Automation solves this.
Pre-validated means faster deployment. Custom EHR integrations take months and require significant IT resources. Toolbox status means the integration is already built, tested, and documented to Epic’s standards. Deaconess went from decision to go-live in weeks, not quarters.
About Deaconess Health System
Deaconess Health System is a premiere provider of health care services to a population of more than 1.5 million in southwestern Indiana, western Kentucky and southeastern Illinois. The system—based in Evansville, Indiana—includes 22 hospitals—among them Deaconess Midtown Hospital, Deaconess Gateway Hospital, The Women’s Hospital, Deaconess Henderson Hospital, Deaconess Memorial Medical Center and numerous other hospital affiliates. Deaconess Clinic, a fully integrated multispecialty group featuring primary care physicians as well as top specialty doctors, provides patients with consistent and convenient care. Additional components include the Linda E. White Hospice House, a freestanding cancer center, urgent care facilities, near-site clinics, telemedicine, virtual visits, a network of preferred hospitals and doctors and multiple partnerships with other regional health care providers.
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