Health insurance company United HealthCare Services Inc. showcased its mobile technology advancements at CES 2016 last week in Las Vegas.

Beyond recently released apps and a just-launched virtual doctor visit interface, United HealthCare also touted its remote patient monitoring system.

The program, which launched two years ago, allows hospitals to remotely monitor patients at home via a tablet and Bluetooth connected medical devices. The program has reduced medical costs and hospital readmission rates, says Praveen Karandikar, director of product development for United Health Group’s health services platform Optum telehealth. Karandikar did not specify how much the program reduced expenses and readmission rates, but if a patent is readmitted to a hospital for surgery, it could cost thousands of dollars, he says. That is at least in part because of beefed-up regulations from the federal government that financially penalize hospitals when Medicare heart and pneumonia patients are readmitted within 30 days of discharge.

United HealthCare looks through its claims to find the best patients for this program. The insurance company seeks patients who have had a heart failure or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and who are likely to be readmitted to the hospital because of their condition. Patients must agree to be part of the free program, Karandikar says.

United HealthCare partners with hospitals and provider systems to deploy the technology. Within the past year thousands of patients have used the home monitoring system, says Karandikar who declined to give specifics. Hospitals typically deploy more than one bundle of the devices at a time, he says.

Once a day, a patient picks up the tablet and within three seconds he is prompted with a task, Karandikar says. Usually the first task is to weigh himself on a scale. The tablet will then guide a patient through a series of tests, such as taking his blood pressure and his pulse with the connected devices. All of the devices are FDA-approved Class 2 medical devices, meaning doctors can give medical advice based on the device’s data. When patients receive the devices, they are already paired to the tablet via Bluetooth.

Through Bluetooth, the data from the devices is sent to the tablet, which is then sent to a United HealthCare nurse who checks to be sure there are no signs of problems. The next day the series of questions on the tablet might be different for the patient. If something in the data is abnormal, the nurse will contact the patient’s physician to see how he wants to proceed and schedule an appointment for the patient if necessary. If an appointment needs to be made, the nurse will call the patient to let him know.

United HealthCare developed the scale internally and worked with medical device manufacturers A&D Medical and Nonin Medical Inc. for the other devices, Karandikar says. United HealthCare worked with Google and Samsung for the HIPAA-complaint tablets. The tablets are locked devices, meaning they only work for this monitoring purpose. Patients cannot access the Internet or do anything else on the tablets. In fact, patents don’t need Wi-Fi to use any of the devices, as the data is transmitted to the nurse via a SIM card, Karandikar says.

United HealthCare is looking to grow the number of hospitals and provider systems that use the remote monitoring system. The insurance provider is also hoping to deploy a remote glucose monitoring system in the near future, Karandikar says.