A method for differentiating heart failure risk scores that includes receiving a current data transmission and acquiring patient metrics from a remote device, determining a daily heart failure risk score for each day occurring during a time period from a previous received data transmission to the current received data transmission based on the acquired patient metrics, determining a maximum daily heart failure risk score of the determined daily heart failure risk scores during a lookback window prior to the current received data transmission, determining a heart failure risk status alert for the received data transmission based on the temporal proximity of the determined maximum heart failure risk score and receipt of the current data transmission, selecting a type of notification based on the heart failure risk status differentiation, and indicating the transmission heart failure risk status and the heart failure risk status differentiation via the selected type of notification.