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Getting Started

Getting Started With RTM: A Step-by-Step Launch Plan

From zero to your first billed month — a practical sequence for standing up RTM in an orthopedic or PT practice.

RTMLaunchOnboardingGetting Started
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The BoneArc Team
March 2026 · 6 min read
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On this pageDecide who’s billingEnroll and consentBuild the data habitDocument the workClose the first month

Key takeaways

  • Start by deciding who bills — surgeon, PT, or both — because that drives the global-period timing.
  • Get enrollment and consent right at onboarding; everything downstream depends on it.
  • The early data-day habit is what makes device-supply billing work.
  • Your first billed month is mostly an operations milestone, not a coding one.
As of the CY2026 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (final rule CMS-1832-F, effective January 1, 2026). General educational information, not billing or legal advice. Coverage, codes, and payment vary by payer and locality — confirm specifics with your biller.

RTM isn't hard to bill; it's hard to operationalize. The codes are stable and the rules are knowable — the work is building the habits that produce a clean, documented month, every month. Here's a sequence that gets a practice from zero to a first certified month without the usual false starts.

Step 1 — Decide who's billing

Before a single patient is enrolled, settle which provider entity bills the RTM — the surgeon, the PT, or both for different windows. This one decision drives the timing: a surgeon is subject to the 90-day global period; a PT billing under their own entity isn't. Getting this right up front avoids billing into a bundled window.

Step 2 — Enroll and capture consent

At onboarding, enroll the patient in the monitoring program and capture consent in the same motion. Consent has to precede billing, so this is the step you never want to be retroactive (details). Assign the patient to the right provider and set the episode anchor here too.

Almost everything that goes wrong with RTM later was set in motion at enrollment — so make enrollment the step you do well.

Step 3 — Build the data habit early

Device-supply billing turns on data-days, and adherence is established in the first two weeks or not at all. Set the expectation at enrollment, make logging effortless, and let the patient see that someone is watching the data. The practices that hit 16+ days consistently are the ones that front-load the habit (why 16).

Step 4 — Document the work as it happens

Capture review/management time as you do it, and — for the management codes — document and attest the interactive call the month it happens (how). The goal is that nothing has to be reconstructed at month-end; the record is built in real time.

Step 5 — Close (certify) the first month

At month-end, review the activity and certify the month, which finalizes and locks the record (what that means). That first certified month is the proof your operation works — after that, it's repetition. BoneArc carries each of these steps, so “getting started” is a setup task, not a standing burden.

RTM left on the table is usually a bookkeeping problem, not a coding one.

BoneArc tracks data-days, review time, and the attested call — so the billable work is documented as it happens.

See it on your panel →
Sources & verification. Reflects the 2026 CPT code set and CMS CY2026 Physician Fee Schedule final rule (CMS-1832-F), effective January 1, 2026. Code identities, descriptors, and day/minute thresholds are stated as published; the one national dollar figure given is 98975 = $21.71 (non-facility) — all other amounts vary by MAC, locality (GPCI), and contract and are described as ranges. Educational information, not billing or legal advice — verify against current CMS guidance and your fee schedule.