The 2026 RTM CPT Codes, Explained for MSK Practices

Remote Therapeutic Monitoring is how a musculoskeletal practice gets paid for staying connected to a patient between visits — tracking recovery data and managing care remotely. For orthopedic surgeons, physical therapists, and PM&R providers, it's one of the few Medicare-recognized ways to bill for the work you're already doing to keep a recovery on track.

But the code set is easy to get wrong, and 2026 added two new codes. This is the plain-English map: what each code covers, when it applies, and the thresholds that make it billable.

What RTM actually is

RTM lets a qualified provider bill for monitoring a patient's non-physiologic, therapeutic data — for MSK practices, that's recovery data like pain, function and range of motion, and exercise adherence — plus the time spent reviewing and managing it. Unlike its physiologic cousin RPM (Remote Physiologic Monitoring), RTM data can be patient-reported, which is exactly what post-operative and rehab recovery looks like.

The code family breaks into three buckets — here's the whole ladder at a glance:

Setup & education — CPT 98975

98975 covers the initial set-up and patient education on using the monitoring program. It's billed once per episode of care — the on-ramp. This is the one code with a clean, broadly consistent 2026 number: a national non-facility amount of $21.71. (Even here, your local MAC or contracted rate can differ — confirm your own fee schedule.)

Device supply — CPT 98985 and 98977

These cover the ongoing supply of the monitoring program and collection of recovery data. For MSK practices there are two, split by how many days of data the patient transmits in a 30-day period:

• 98985 — 2 to 15 days of data. New for 2026.
• 98977 — 16 to 30 days of data; requires at least 16 distinct data-days.

Two things providers get wrong. First, they're mutually exclusive — only one device-supply code bills per 30-day episode. Second, 98976 is not your code: that's the respiratory device-supply code. The musculoskeletal codes are 98985 and 98977. Dollar-wise these pay a modest amount (roughly the $40 range nationally), but the exact figure depends on the 2026 conversion factor and your adjustments — confirm with your biller.

Treatment management — CPT 98979, 98980, 98981

These pay for your time reviewing the patient's data and managing care over the calendar month. Three tiers, one shared requirement:

• 98979 — first 10 minutes (10–19 min). New for 2026.
• 98980 — first 20 minutes (20–39 min).
• 98981 — each additional 20 minutes (40+); add-on to 98980.

98979 and 98980 are mutually exclusive in a month; 98981 stacks on 98980 for longer months.

Every treatment-management code requires at least one documented, interactive, synchronous call with the patient that month. No call, no code.

A real-time, two-way conversation, attested by the provider. Daily logs and silent chart review don't satisfy it. National amounts here are modest too — the management base (98980) lands in roughly the mid-$50s for 2026 — but the precise figure is conversion-factor- and locality-dependent. (If you've seen an older "$51" floating around, it's stale.)

Which code, when

What changed for 2026

Two new codes filled the gaps in the ladder. 98985 gives you a device-supply code for patients who log fewer than 16 days (2–15), where before there was no MSK code below the 16-day threshold. And 98979 adds a lower treatment-management tier (10–19 minutes). Net effect: shorter, lighter months are now billable instead of falling off a cliff — but the documentation requirements (especially the interactive call) didn't change.

Two rules that sit on top of all of this

• The 90-day surgical global period. For a post-surgical patient, the operating surgeon generally can't bill RTM during the 90-day global period — it's bundled into the surgical package. (There's an important PT/PM&R exception.)
• RTM and RPM are mutually exclusive for the same patient in the same calendar month.