Can Physical Therapists Bill RTM? (2026)

Yes — physical therapists can bill Remote Therapeutic Monitoring. PTs are qualified healthcare professionals for RTM and bill CPT 98975–98981 under their own NPI, furnished under an active therapy plan of care and carrying the GP modifier. The only conditions are the ones every RTM biller shares: documented patient consent, the device-supply data-day thresholds, and at least one synchronous interactive call per calendar month for the treatment-management codes.

RTM is, in fact, one of the few remote-monitoring programs explicitly open to therapy providers — its physiologic cousin, RPM, generally isn't a PT's to bill. That makes RTM a meaningful, recurring revenue line for monitoring exactly the recovery a physical-therapy practice is already managing between visits. Below is the full map: who qualifies, the modifier rules, the six codes and what each requires, the compliance gates, and the reasons claims get denied.

Who can bill — PT eligibility

RTM monitors non-physiologic, therapeutic data — musculoskeletal status, pain, function and range of motion, and adherence to a home exercise program. That is the heart of physical therapy, and the RTM codes were designed so therapists can furnish and bill the service. Three things establish a PT's eligibility to bill:

• Qualified professional status. Physical therapists are recognized as qualified healthcare professionals who may furnish and bill RTM, billing under their own NPI. This is what separates RTM from RPM, which PTs generally cannot bill.
• Private practice or facility. A PT in private practice bills RTM under their own entity. In a facility or "incident-to" arrangement the billing entity and supervision rules differ — confirm your setting with your biller.
• An active, signed plan of care. PT-furnished RTM must sit under a current therapy plan of care, recertified on its recurring window (commonly every 90 days). If the plan lapses, the billing basis lapses with it. See RTM for physical therapists for the full plan-of-care breakdown.

For a PT, the plan of care is the foundation — let it expire and the RTM standing on top of it expires too.

One point PT practices most often miss in their own favor: the 90-day surgical global period attaches to the operating surgeon's fee. A physical therapist billing under their own entity is a separate biller and isn't bound by it — so a post-operative patient whose surgeon can't yet bill RTM can often be monitored and billed by their PT in the same window.

The GP (and CQ) modifier rules

Services delivered under a physical-therapy plan of care carry the GP therapy modifier, and RTM lines billed by a PT are no exception. GP signals that the service was furnished under a PT plan of care — leaving it off is a frequent, avoidable denial.

A related modifier, CQ, applies when a physical therapist assistant (PTA) furnishes a portion of the service above the de minimis standard. Since 2022, claims carrying CQ are paid at a reduced rate relative to the full fee schedule. The mechanics of which lines take CQ, and how the de minimis calculation works for a remote service, are worth confirming with your biller — the worked examples are in the GP and CQ modifier guide.

The codes a PT bills — and what each requires

A PT bills the full musculoskeletal RTM ladder — six codes across three buckets. (Note: 98976 is not one of them; that's the respiratory device-supply code.) The rates below are CY2026 Medicare national non-facility averages; your MAC, locality (GPCI), and payer contract will vary.

Put together, the recurring value is roughly $146 or more per active patient per month (98977 + 98980 + 98981), and it's uncapped because 98981 stacks in additional 20-minute increments. The per-code descriptors and the 2026 changes are covered in depth in the 2026 RTM CPT codes guide.

Consent, data-days, and the interactive call

Three requirements sit on top of the codes. None of them is PT-specific — they apply to every RTM biller — but each is a place a PT claim can fall apart:

• Consent, before any billing. The patient must give documented consent to RTM before you bill it. See RTM consent requirements.
• Data-days for the device-supply code. Device supply requires at least 2 days of transmitted data for 98985 (2–15 days) and at least 16 distinct data-days for 98977 (16–30 days). How days are counted is covered in RTM data-days.
• The monthly interactive call. Each treatment-management code (98979/98980/98981) requires at least one documented, synchronous, interactive call with the patient per calendar month — a real-time, two-way conversation attested by the provider. A phone call qualifies; silent chart review and in-app messages do not. The call's duration also counts toward the 10/20/40-minute time thresholds. Full detail in the RTM interactive-call guide.

A billable PT RTM month, step by step

1. Confirm eligibility. Active, signed therapy plan of care on file; patient enrolled under your NPI.
2. Capture consent. Document the patient's consent to RTM before any billing begins.
3. Set up & educate (98975). Onboard the patient to the monitoring program — billed once per episode.
4. Accumulate data-days. Track transmitted data toward the 2-day (98985) or 16-day (98977) threshold.
5. Log your management time. Review data and manage care; accumulate minutes toward 10 / 20 / 40.
6. Make and document the interactive call. At least one synchronous call in the calendar month, attested.
7. Bill with the GP modifier. Apply GP (and CQ where a PTA furnished a share); submit the codes the thresholds support.

Common denial reasons

• Missing or expired plan of care. No active signed plan means no billing basis for PT RTM.
• GP modifier omitted. Therapy RTM lines without GP are a frequent, avoidable rejection.
• No documented interactive call. The single most common reason management codes (98980/98981) get denied or clawed back — no call, no code.
• Data-day threshold not met. Billing 98977 with fewer than 16 distinct data-days, or a device-supply code with under 2 days.
• Consent not on file. Billing before documented consent.
• Wrong device-supply code, or 98976. Billing both device-supply codes in one episode, or using the respiratory code 98976 instead of the MSK codes.
• RTM and RPM same month. The two are mutually exclusive for the same patient in the same calendar month.

See common RTM billing mistakes for the full list. Most of these are bookkeeping failures, not coding errors — the work was done, but the threshold, the call, or the modifier wasn't captured as it happened.

Frequently asked questions