Key takeaways
- Non-operative patients have no surgical global period — RTM can be billed from the start of the episode.
- Conservative MSK care — osteoarthritis, tendinopathy, instability, post-injection management — fits RTM well.
- “From day one” still means once the other gates are met: consent, enrollment, data-days, review time, the call.
- A clean episode start date anchors everything downstream.
RTM gets discussed almost entirely in post-surgical terms, which hides one of its best use cases: the patient who never has surgery at all. For conservative, non-operative musculoskeletal care, there's no global period in the way — monitoring can begin and be billed at the start of the episode.
Billable from day one
The 90-day global period is a feature of surgery. No procedure, no global period. So for a non-operative patient, there's no post-surgical window during which billing is bundled — RTM can be billed from the start of the episode, as soon as the standard gates are satisfied.
What non-operative conditions fit
Plenty of musculoskeletal care is conservative by design:
- Knee or hip osteoarthritis managed without replacement
- Rotator-cuff and tendinopathy managed with rehab
- Instability and chronic pain under a strengthening program
- Post-injection management (cortisone, PRP, viscosupplementation), where you're tracking response over weeks
If you're managing a recovery or a condition over weeks with data you can track, RTM probably fits — surgery optional.
The gates still apply
“From day one” doesn't mean automatic. The same readiness gates govern: consent on file, the patient enrolled, enough data-days logged for device supply, documented review time, and — for the management codes — the interactive call. (Walk them in the gate checklist.) What's removed for non-op patients is only the global-period delay.
Anchoring the episode
Without a surgery date to anchor to, the episode start — typically enrollment or the diagnosis date — becomes the reference point for the monitoring window and the device-supply period. Getting that anchor right keeps the data-day counts and billing periods clean from the first month forward. BoneArc resolves the episode anchor for non-operative patients automatically, so the windows line up without manual bookkeeping.
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.
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