Breaking News: APTA Updates Practice Advisory for Remote Therapeutic Monitoring
The American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) has recently updated their practice advisory on Remote Therapeutic Monitoring (RTM). We recommend providers and organizations delivering RTM services to their patients review the advisory and consider the recommendations APTA has made.
Some of the key areas in the advisory include:
- Report 98975 for the initial set-up and patient education in the use of the device once per episode, only if the patient has activated and has been monitored for 16 days—bill on day 17 of monitoring.
- Report 98977 only if 16 days of data collection occurred within a 30-day period
- What can be considered an interactive communication for 98980/81: The APTA indicated that synchronous in-person time may count if the time spent is not used toward reporting of any other codes.
- Clarifications on supervision of Physical Therapist Assistants (PTAs).
APTA also noted other news on RTM, including the recent Medicare Contractor Advisory Committee meeting. The February 28th CAC meeting provided an opportunity for Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) to hear from industry experts on the impact of RTM for their patients. This could be the first step in a local coverage determination (LCD) given the absence of a national payment determination (NCD) at this time. Both APTA and MedBridge continue to advocate for no LCD, as this may harm the rapid pace of innovation in this area.
MedBridge will continue to monitor the issue for developments and advocate for providers of RTM services. For additional resources and information around RTM, refer to our RTM Help Center.
