Leading medical device manufacturer Medtronic has acquired Cardiocom, which provides remote monitoring of patients with chronic diseases, for $200 million in cash.

The manufacturer said the move will support its transition towards offering a broader set of healthcare services. Its first area of focus is heart failure, where the addition of Cardiocom’s platform and services will strengthen Medtronic’s position.

Medtronic’s speciality is implantable devices such as pacemakers. Its devices can cost more than $30,000 each.

Like others in the US healthcare market, Medtronic wants to get positioned for new rules that penalise hospitals for patient readmission. The rules are likely to encourage hospitals to make greater use of services that monitor out-patients in their own homes, ideally heading off any problems before the patient has to be readmitted to hospital.