Remote Therapeutic Monitoring, or RTM, is one of the best opportunities for physical therapy clinics to improve patient compliance while generating reimbursement for the work therapists are already doing between visits. The key to a successful RTM program is not adding more work. Instead, it is incorporating RTM into your existing clinical workflow.
With Exercise Pro Live, RTM can be implemented with very little administrative overhead while improving patient engagement, documentation, and billing support.
Disclaimer: CPT coding and payer policies change periodically. Always verify current CMS guidance and payer specific coverage requirements before billing.
What is Remote Therapeutic Monitoring?
Remote Therapeutic Monitoring allows physical therapists to monitor a patient's adherence and response to prescribed home exercise programs between clinic visits. Unlike Remote Patient Monitoring, RTM focuses on non-physiologic data, including:
- Home exercise compliance
- Pain levels
- Difficulty performing exercises
- Patient feedback
- Response to treatment
Patients report this information using the Exercise Pro Live patient website or mobile app. This allows therapists to monitor progress remotely while documenting the professional services they provide.
Step 1: Verify Insurance Coverage Before Starting
One of the easiest ways to avoid billing problems is verifying RTM eligibility before treatment begins.
Currently, Medicare generally covers RTM services when all requirements are met. Many Blue Cross Blue Shield plans also reimburse for RTM. Some commercial insurance companies provide coverage, while others do not.
Every clinic should verify coverage before enrolling the patient in RTM.
A quick insurance verification at the beginning of care prevents billing surprises and helps staff determine whether RTM should be incorporated into the patient's treatment plan.
Step 2: Introduce RTM During the Initial Evaluation
The initial evaluation is the ideal time to establish expectations.
After creating the patient's home exercise program in Exercise Pro Live, explain something similar to the following.
"Today I am sending your exercise program to you. You can use either our patient website or the free phone app, whichever you prefer. Every time you complete your exercises, simply log that you completed them. We will be monitoring your progress between visits to help keep you on track."
Patients who understand that their therapist is reviewing their progress are much more likely to remain compliant.
Step 3: Schedule the Follow Up Before the Patient Leaves
This is one of the most overlooked steps and one of the most important.
Before the patient leaves the clinic, have your front desk schedule a convenient time for a ten minute telephone call from a Physical Therapist Assistant.
During this call, the PTA can:
- Review exercise compliance
- Answer patient questions
- Address barriers to completing the program
- Reinforce proper exercise technique
- Encourage continued participation
This simple scheduling step greatly improves consistency.
Our experience has shown that patient compliance is significantly better when patients know someone will be following up with them.
After completing the call, the PTA should record the communication time directly within Exercise Pro Live.
Step 4: Make Daily RTM Monitoring Part of the PTA's Routine
RTM should become part of every PTA's daily workflow.
Each day, the PTA should spend a few minutes reviewing patient activity within Exercise Pro Live.
The RTM dashboard quickly identifies:
- Patients completing their exercise programs
- Missed exercise sessions
- Pain reports
- Difficulty ratings
- Overall compliance trends
As the PTA reviews each patient, they should record the monitoring time in Exercise Pro Live.
Over the course of the month, these small daily interactions accumulate into billable RTM time while providing better continuity of care.
Step 5: Address Noncompliant Patients Early
One of the greatest advantages of RTM is identifying problems before the patient's next clinic visit.
If a patient has stopped performing their exercises, do not wait until the next appointment.
Instead:
- Have the front desk call with a friendly reminder.
- If the patient does not answer, leave a voicemail.
- Send a secure message through Exercise Pro Live.
Even a simple reminder often gets patients back on track.
Improved compliance leads to better outcomes, higher patient satisfaction, and more successful plans of care.
Step 6: Document Your Time as You Go
Trying to remember RTM time at the end of the month almost always results in missed billable time.
Instead, document activities immediately.
Exercise Pro Live allows therapists to record:
- Initial setup
- Daily monitoring time
- Patient communications
- PTA telephone calls
- Secure messages
Everything is stored in one location and can easily be reported later for billing documentation.
Billing RTM with Minimal Overhead
When RTM becomes part of your normal workflow, billing is straightforward.
Initial Visit
When the exercise program is first issued and the patient is enrolled in RTM, bill CPT 98975.
This code is billed only once for that patient and condition.
If the patient returns months or even years later for a completely different diagnosis or episode of care, CPT 98975 may generally be billed again for that new condition, subject to payer guidelines.
Monthly Billing Review
Beginning one month after the initial encounter, review the accumulated RTM management time.
Most clinics will bill CPT 98980 and/or CPT 98981.
Bill CPT 98980 for the first monthly occurrence and CPT 98981 for additional monthly occurrences of:
- At least twenty cumulative minutes of RTM management time
- At least one telephone or video interaction with the patient performed by a licensed healthcare professional during the calendar month
These are the codes that most clinics will bill on a regular basis.
If only ten to nineteen cumulative minutes have been documented during the month, bill CPT 98979 instead.
You cannot bill both CPT 98979 with CPT 98980 or CPT 98981 during the same billing period. In most cases, clinics should strive to reach the twenty minute threshold.
At Discharge
When the patient completes therapy, review any accumulated but unbilled RTM management time.
Billing any remaining eligible time before discharge ensures the clinic receives reimbursement for all documented services.
Why Exercise Pro Live Makes RTM Easy
Many clinics hesitate to implement RTM because they believe documentation will become overwhelming.
Exercise Pro Live was designed to simplify the process by allowing therapists to:
- Deliver home exercise programs through the patient website, mobile app, email, or printed handouts
- Monitor exercise completion
- Review patient pain and difficulty ratings
- Record monitoring time
- Record communication time
- Generate RTM reports
- Produce documentation that supports billing and compliance
Rather than managing multiple systems, therapists complete the entire RTM workflow within the same platform they already use to prescribe home exercise programs.
Revenue Potential
RTM is much more than a patient engagement tool. It can become a meaningful source of revenue for your practice.
According to the reimbursement estimates published by Exercise Pro Live, a typical Medicare RTM patient can generate approximately $165 in reimbursement.
Using these estimates:
- Seven RTM patients per month
- Approximately $165 in reimbursement per patient
- Approximately $13,860 in additional annual revenue for one physical therapist
Larger practices can scale these numbers even further. A clinic with twenty physical therapists could potentially generate nearly $277,000 annually from RTM services, depending on payer mix, patient eligibility, documentation, and compliance with billing requirements.
Final Thoughts
The clinics that succeed with RTM do not create complicated workflows. They simply make RTM part of the care they are already providing.
An efficient workflow looks like this:
- Verify insurance coverage.
- Issue the exercise program through Exercise Pro Live.
- Explain how the patient should log completed exercises using either the patient website or mobile app.
- Schedule a follow up call with a PTA before the patient leaves the clinic.
- Monitor patient compliance each day.
- Contact noncompliant patients promptly.
- Record monitoring and communication time as it occurs.
- Review RTM billing each month.
- Bill any remaining eligible RTM time at discharge.
Following this workflow allows clinics to improve patient compliance, strengthen continuity of care, and create a reliable source of additional reimbursement with very little administrative effort.
RTM Is Also an Excellent Solution for Home Health
Remote Therapeutic Monitoring is equally valuable in the home health setting, where therapists naturally have longer periods between patient visits. Exercise Pro Live allows home health clinicians to issue exercise programs directly from the patient's home, monitor compliance remotely, communicate with patients between visits, document RTM activities, and simplify billing within a single platform.
Whether you operate an outpatient physical therapy clinic or a home health agency, Exercise Pro Live provides an easy and efficient way to implement a successful RTM program that improves patient outcomes while creating additional revenue opportunities.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Remote Therapeutic Monitoring (RTM) in physical therapy?
RTM allows physical therapists to track a patient's adherence and response to a prescribed home exercise program between clinic visits. Unlike Remote Patient Monitoring, which tracks physiologic data (like blood pressure or glucose), RTM focuses on non-physiologic data such as exercise compliance, pain levels, difficulty performing exercises, and general treatment response. Patients report this information through a platform like Exercise Pro Live's website or mobile app, giving therapists visibility into progress without requiring an in-person visit.
What CPT codes are used to bill for RTM?
There are four main CPT codes used for RTM billing. CPT 98975 is billed once, at the time the patient is set up and enrolled in RTM. Clinics bill based on accumulated monitoring time and patient interaction: CPT 98980 covers the first monthly occurrence of at least 20 cumulative minutes of RTM management time plus one patient interaction, CPT 98981 covers additional monthly occurrences at that same 20-minute threshold, and CPT 98979 is used instead when only 10–19 cumulative minutes were documented in the month. Note that 98979 cannot be billed alongside 98980 or 98981 in the same period.
How much revenue can RTM generate for a physical therapy clinic?
Based on reimbursement estimates published by Exercise Pro Live, a typical Medicare RTM patient generates approximately $165. For a single therapist managing around 12 RTM patients per month, that translates to roughly $23,760 in additional annual revenue. Larger practices can scale this significantly — a clinic with 20 physical therapists could potentially generate close to $500,000 annually from RTM, though actual results depend on payer mix, patient eligibility, and consistent documentation.
Can a Physical Therapist Assistant (PTA) perform RTM monitoring and follow-up calls?
Yes. A common and effective workflow is to have a PTA conduct a brief (around 10-minutes) follow-up phone call monthly or as needed, and to handle daily monitoring of patient compliance data. During these calls, the PTA can review exercise compliance, answer questions, troubleshoot barriers, and reinforce technique. Time spent on these PTA activities should be documented in the platform as it occurs, since it contributes toward the monthly RTM billing thresholds.
Is there a free trial of Exercise Pro Live?
Yes, we provide a free 2 week full working trial of Exercise Pro Live.