Remote Therapeutic Monitoring (RTM) lets physical therapists bill Medicare and many other payers for monitoring a patient's home exercise program between visits. This guide gives a six-step workflow for running RTM in Exercise Pro Live, with the 2026 CPT codes and PTA roles. 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 on the Exercise Pro Live patient website or the free Exercise Now app for iOS and Android. 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.
As of 2026, Medicare Part B covers RTM billed by physical therapists, occupational therapists and speech-language pathologists when all requirements are met. Commercial coverage, including Blue Cross Blue Shield plans, varies by plan.
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.
Can Home Health Agencies Use RTM?
RTM codes generally cannot be billed for a patient under a Medicare home health episode of care, because those services are paid under the home health benefit. Home health agencies can still use Exercise Pro Live to send video exercise programs and track adherence between visits. Outpatient therapists who treat patients at home under Part B can bill RTM, subject to payer rules.
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 10-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. Front-desk reminder calls do not count toward RTM billing; only time spent by the therapist or a supervised PTA counts toward 98979, 98980 and 98981.
- 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 once per episode of care, and can be billed again if the patient starts a new episode of care.
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
At the end of each calendar month, review the RTM management time logged that month.
Most clinics will bill CPT 98980 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 10 to 19 cumulative minutes were documented in the calendar month, and at least one real-time interactive communication with the patient took place, bill CPT 98979 instead.
You cannot bill CPT 98979 in the same calendar month as CPT 98980 or CPT 98981. In most cases, clinics should aim to reach the 20-minute threshold for CPT 98980.
At Discharge
At discharge, review the RTM time logged in the current calendar month. If it reaches 10-19 minutes (CPT 98979) or 20 minutes (CPT 98980), with at least one real-time interactive communication with the patient, bill it before closing the episode; time from earlier months cannot be carried forward.
Billing any remaining eligible time before discharge ensures the clinic receives reimbursement for all documented services.
For additional guidance on Medicare RTM requirements, see the APTA Practice Advisory: Remote Therapeutic Monitoring Codes Under Medicare (updated January 29, 2026).
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. There is no extra cost for RTM. See Exercise Pro Live Pricing.
Revenue Potential
RTM is much more than a patient engagement tool. It can become a meaningful source of revenue for your practice.
At 2026 Medicare national rates, a typical RTM patient generates about $165 per month; actual payment varies by locality and payer. To look up your payment amounts for your locality, see the CMS Fee Schedule look-up tool.
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 about $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 eligible RTM time for the current calendar month 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.
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 on the Exercise Pro Live patient website or the free Exercise Now app for iOS and Android, giving therapists visibility into progress without requiring an in-person visit.
What CPT codes are used to bill for RTM?
RTM uses six CPT codes in 2026: 98975 for initial set-up and patient education (once per episode); 98977 for 16-30 days of data in a 30-day period; 98985 for 2-15 days of data (new in 2026); 98979 for 10-19 minutes of treatment management with at least one real-time interactive communication (new in 2026); 98980 for the first 20 minutes with at least one interactive communication; and 98981 for each additional 20 minutes. 98979 cannot be billed in the same calendar month as 98980 or 98981, and 98977 and 98985 cannot be billed for the same 30-day 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. Using Exercise Pro Live's estimate of about $165 per Medicare RTM patient per month, a therapist with 7 RTM patients a month could add about $13,860 a year, and a 20-therapist clinic about $277,000, depending on payer mix, patient eligibility and documentation.
Can a Physical Therapist Assistant (PTA) perform RTM monitoring and follow-up calls?
Yes. Under general supervision, PTAs can contribute monitoring and communication time toward 98979, 98980 and 98981, subject to the de minimis standard and appropriate modifiers. A common workflow has a PTA make a brief (about 10-minute) follow-up call each month and handle daily monitoring of 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, Exercise Pro Live offers a free, full-featured two-week trial with no credit card required.
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