The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has updated the Medicare Part B Therapy Code list for Calendar Year (CY) 2026 affecting physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, as well as physicians, certain non-physician practitioners, and other providers billing Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) for therapy services.  

Some of the changes included in the update are:

-          The CY 2026 Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) final rule discusses the CY 2026 therapy codes and associated policies. “We’re designating two new CPT codes for RTM services as sometimes therapy,” CMS said”:

98984: Remote therapeutic monitoring (e.g., therapy adherence, therapy response, digital therapeutic intervention); device(s) supply for data access or data transmissions to support monitoring of respiratory system, 2-15 days in a 30-day period.

98985: Remote therapeutic monitoring (e.g., therapy adherence, therapy response, digital therapeutic intervention); device(s) supply for data access or data transmissions to support monitoring of musculoskeletal system, 2-15 days in a 30-day period.

-          “We’re designating one new CPT code for RTM treatment management services as sometimes therapy,” CMS said:

98979: Remote therapeutic monitoring treatment management services, physician or other qualified healthcare professional time in a calendar month requiring at least one real-time interactive communication with the patient or caregiver during the calendar month; first 10 minutes.

-          The descriptors of RTM codes 98976 and 98977, designated as sometimes therapy codes in the CY 2022 PFS final rule, are being revised to account for the number of days the respective device is in use, due to the creation of the two new RTM codes, 98984 and 98985, as noted below:

98976: Remote therapeutic monitoring (e.g., therapy adherence, therapy response, digital therapeutic intervention); device(s) supply for data access or data transmissions to support monitoring of respiratory system, 16-30 days in a 30-day period.

98977: Remote therapeutic monitoring (e.g., therapy adherence, therapy response, digital therapeutic intervention); device(s) supply for data access or data transmissions to support monitoring of musculoskeletal system, 16-30 days in a 30-day period.

See the complete current therapy code list at https://tinyurl.com/t3scbtf5.

Questions or comments? Contact Patrick Connole at pconnole@parkplacelive.com.