ROMTech® Expands Rehabilitation Access for Rural Veterans--At Home

With 40% of Veterans Affairs knee-replacement patients living in rural areas, national data show why rehabilitation must reach Veterans across geography and fractured care settings.

BROOKFIELD, Conn., Sept. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- ROM Technologies Inc.® (ROMTech®), creator of the PortableConnect® Rehab System, announced today that its at-home rehabilitation model can help address two barriers facing Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) knee-replacement patients: 1) distance from rehabilitation services; and 2) coordination between VA and Community Care.

VA leaders and clinicians can explore PortableConnect® or contact ROMTech to discuss access to home-based rehabilitation for Veterans.

Approximately 3 million rural Veterans are enrolled in VA health care, and 54% are age 65 or older. In a national VA knee-replacement study, 40.8% of patients lived in rural areas, making repeated long distance travel a potential barrier to consistent rehabilitation.

A national study identified 93,063 primary knee replacements among VA enrollees from October 2019 through July 2024; 58,152, or 62.5%, occurred through Community Care. The VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) consistently points to referral delays and scheduling bottlenecks in the split system. Fragmented oversight and communication can push the administrative burden onto the patient during the already difficult recovery period. Veterans therefore need timely, coordinated rehabilitation regardless of where surgery occurs.

Travel is already a significant VA operational consideration. Its 2026 revised budget request includes approximately $2.29 billion for Beneficiary Travel, although the VA does not report how much is attributable to rehabilitation or rural Veterans. In a separate rural cancer-care initiative, the VA brought services closer to nearly 4,000 Veterans, supporting more than 11,000 appointments while avoiding more than 900,000 travel miles.

"Veterans should not have to choose between the protracted travel required to reach rehabilitation and missing it altogether," said Peter Arn, ROMTech Chief Executive Officer. "PortableConnect delivers structured rehabilitation at home while keeping clinicians connected 100% of the time to each Veteran's recovery across VA and Community Care."

The PortableConnect platform provides clinician-directed therapy, remote monitoring and real-time recovery data. ROMTech has deployed the PortableConnect in the homes of more than 200,000 patients nationwide, including patients from 63 VA hospitals. In a separate internal analysis of 35,294 patients, users averaged 2.7 sessions per day, seven days per week—approximately 38 sessions during the first two weeks after discharge, compared with 4 to 6 ambulatory physical therapy sessions during the same period.

In a separate analysis of self-reported outcomes from 2,371 PortableConnect patients following total knee replacement, patients reported: 

• 2.9% overnight hospital readmission rate and a 2.5% rate of falls with injury, compared with published rates of 6.7% and 8.0%, respectively. 
• 2.6% combined rate of deep-vein thrombosis or infection involving the surgical knee and a 2.8% manipulation-under-anesthesia rate, approximating published rates or lower.

The PortableConnect gives the VA a scalable way to extend rehabilitation access and clinical oversight into the home, expand capacity and support continuity across VA and Community Care.

About ROMTech

ROM Technologies Inc. (ROMTech) is a medical technology company advancing rehabilitation through its Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-registered PortableConnect Rehab System. It's mission is "To deliver best-in-class patient recovery through intelligent technology, clinical precision, and human-centered care." The system combines clinician-directed therapy, remote patient monitoring, artificial intelligence-driven insights and real-time data. Founded in 2013 and based in Brookfield, Connecticut, ROMTech continues to expand across orthopedic rehabilitation and additional health care applications. Fast Company named ROMTech one of the Most Innovative Companies of 2025; LexisNexis named it to the Top 100 Global Innovators for 2026; and MedTech Breakthrough recognized the PortableConnect as the 2026 Best Home Health Care Solution. Learn more at www.ROMTech.com.

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SOURCE ROMTech