Remote Therapeutic Monitoring for Physicians: 2026 RTM Guide

Ask most clinicians what Remote Therapeutic Monitoring (RTM) is for, and they will tell you the same thing: physical therapy. It is an understandable assumption. RTM grew up alongside the home exercise program, and physical therapists were among the first to put it to work at scale.

But that framing leaves a lot of value on the table. Remote Therapeutic Monitoring was never written as a physical-therapy-only benefit. The Medicare codes were designed to reimburse providers for monitoring a patient's therapeutic response between visits (adherence, musculoskeletal status, and pain) across a range of specialties. For orthopedic and sports medicine groups, pain management practices, and hospital outpatient departments, that is a reimbursable, outcomes-driving program sitting largely unused.

This article looks at RTM for physicians through a different lens: not as a PT add-on, but as a between-visit care model that physician practices and health systems can own. We will cover who is allowed to bill RTM, which specialties fit, how physician-led practices have a structural advantage over solo therapists, and what the 2026 reimbursement landscape looks like.

What RTM actually monitors and why specialty matters

Remote Therapeutic Monitoring reimburses providers for collecting and acting on non-physiologic patient data between encounters. That is the critical distinction in the RTM vs RPM question: Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) tracks physiologic data like blood pressure, glucose, or weight, while RTM tracks therapeutic data.

RTM is built around monitoring a patient's musculoskeletal status (range of motion, function, mobility, and exercise adherence) and their therapy response and adherence, including pain levels and self-reported outcomes. This is the data that tells you whether a plan of care is actually working between visits.

That definition opens RTM to far more than physical therapy. Any practice managing a condition where what the patient does between visits materially changes the outcome is a candidate. A post-surgical knee, a flaring lower back, a stalled rehab plan, or a chronic pain regimen that lives or dies on daily engagement: these are RTM use cases, and they sit inside orthopedic, sports medicine, and pain practices every day.

Who can bill RTM? It is broader than most think

Here is the point that most RTM content skips: RTM codes are billable by physicians and qualified healthcare professionals (QHPs), not only by therapists.

RTM was partly created to give therapists, including physical therapists, occupational therapists, and speech-language pathologists, a way to bill for remote monitoring, since they generally cannot bill RPM. But that origin story obscured a second truth: physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants can bill RTM too. The codes live in the same Medicare Physician Fee Schedule that physician practices already work within.

For physician-led practices and hospital outpatient settings, that creates a meaningful operational advantage. Physician practices can typically furnish RTM treatment management through clinical staff under general supervision, billing under the physician or QHP. In practice, that means a well-designed RTM program does not require your physicians to personally run every monitoring touchpoint. It can be delivered by clinical staff inside an established supervision and billing structure. A solo therapist does not have that same leverage.

The takeaway: if your practice manages musculoskeletal, post-surgical, or chronic pain conditions, the question is not whether you can bill RTM. It is whether you have built the workflow to do it well.

RTM billing and supervision rules vary by setting, payer, and provider type. This article is informational and not legal or billing advice. Confirm specifics with your compliance and coding teams.

The specialties where RTM fits naturally

Any practice where between-visit behavior drives the outcome is an RTM candidate:

Orthopedics and sports medicine

Orthopedic practices already own the most obvious RTM population: post-operative and conservative-care patients whose recovery depends on doing the right things at home. An ACL reconstruction, a rotator cuff repair, or a non-surgical low-back protocol all hinge on adherence between appointments. RTM gives the practice visibility into whether the patient is actually progressing, and reimbursement for the monitoring work the practice is, in many cases, already attempting to do by phone and memory.

Pain management

Chronic pain is an engagement problem as much as a clinical one. Pain levels fluctuate, adherence to activity and self-management plans drifts, and the most important data often lives in the weeks between visits. RTM's inclusion of pain and therapy-response data makes it a strong fit for pain practices looking to monitor flare-ups, adjust plans earlier, and reduce the guesswork of the next in-person visit.

Occupational and speech therapy within health systems

Hospitals and multidisciplinary groups often house occupational therapists and speech-language pathologists who, like PTs, can bill RTM. OT-led RTM can support functional and hand-therapy programs; SLP-led RTM can extend swallowing, cognitive, and communication therapy beyond the clinic. For a health system, that is RTM revenue and engagement across an entire rehab service line, not a single discipline.

2026 RTM CPT codes and reimbursement rates

The financial case for RTM got stronger in 2026. As part of the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, CMS finalized updated national average payment rates and added two new RTM CPT codes that make shorter, more episodic monitoring billable for the first time. National non-facility averages effective January 1, 2026:

Actual reimbursement varies by locality and provider classification.

The two new codes, 98985 (2–15 days of device data) and 98979 (10–19 minutes of management time), matter most for physician practices, because physician populations do not always engage in tidy, full-month windows. Recovery happens in bursts: the two weeks after surgery, the flare that lasts ten days, the early stretch of a new plan of care. The 2026 codes let practices bill for those shorter, high-value windows instead of forgoing reimbursement when monitoring does not fill a full 30 days. Stacked across a panel of post-surgical and chronic patients, those per-patient amounts add up to a predictable, recurring revenue line.

Why physician practices are well-positioned to win at RTM

Patient volume and continuity. Orthopedic, sports medicine, and pain practices see a steady flow of exactly the patients RTM is designed for. The eligible population already walks through the door.

Existing billing and supervision infrastructure. Physician practices operate inside the Physician Fee Schedule with clinical staff, supervision structures, and revenue-cycle teams already in place. RTM extends an existing system rather than requiring a new one.

A referral and care-continuity story. For health systems, RTM strengthens the connection between surgical, specialty, and rehab services. Monitoring that follows the patient across the episode, from surgery to recovery to therapy, reinforces continuity and keeps care, and revenue, inside the system.

The barrier has never really been eligibility. It is workflow: enrolling patients, capturing adherence data reliably, documenting management time, and billing cleanly enough to withstand scrutiny. That is an operations problem, and it is a solvable one.

How to start: a practical on-ramp

1. Pick one high-fit population. Post-surgical orthopedic patients or a defined chronic pain cohort are good first targets, with clear clinical need and clear adherence dependency.
2. Build the workflow into existing care. RTM should complement the visit cadence you already run, not bolt a parallel process onto it. The data should reach the clinician inside the tools they use.
3. Get documentation right from day one. Clean records that reflect actual monitoring and management time are what make RTM both compliant and durable.
4. Use the right platform. Manual tracking does not scale past a handful of patients. Automation for enrollment, adherence capture, time tracking, and billing-aligned documentation is what turns RTM from a side project into a service line.

The bottom line

Remote Therapeutic Monitoring is not a physical therapy feature. It is a between-visit care model with a clear reimbursement pathway that physicians, hospitals, and specialty practices are fully entitled to use, and structurally well-equipped to run. The 2026 code updates make shorter, episodic monitoring billable, which fits the way physician populations actually recover.

The practices that recognize this early get two things at once: better visibility into how patients do between visits, and a recurring revenue stream tied to outcomes they already care about. The ones that keep thinking of RTM as “a PT thing” leave both on the table.

Frequently asked questions about RTM

What is the difference between RTM and RPM?

Both are remote monitoring programs, but Remote Therapeutic Monitoring (RTM) tracks non-physiologic data such as musculoskeletal status, therapy adherence, and pain, while Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) tracks physiologic data like blood pressure, glucose, and weight. A key practical difference: therapists can bill RTM, but generally cannot bill RPM.

Who can bill RTM?

RTM is billable by physicians and qualified healthcare professionals, as well as physical therapists, occupational therapists, and speech-language pathologists. In physician practices, treatment-management time can often be delivered by clinical staff under general supervision and billed under the physician or QHP.

What are the 2026 RTM CPT codes and reimbursement rates?

The 2026 RTM CPT codes are 98975, 98977, 98980, and 98981, plus two new codes, 98985 and 98979, for shorter monitoring windows. National non-facility averages range from about $21.71 for setup to $54.11 for 20–39 minutes of treatment management. See the rate table above for the full breakdown.

Does Medicare cover remote therapeutic monitoring?

Yes. RTM is reimbursed under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, with national average rates updated annually. Coverage and rates vary by locality and payer, and many commercial and workers' compensation plans reimburse RTM as well.

Can RTM be used outside physical therapy?

Yes. Any practice managing musculoskeletal, post-surgical, or chronic pain conditions can use RTM, including orthopedics, sports medicine, pain management, and occupational and speech therapy within health systems.

How much revenue can RTM add per patient?

It depends on enrollment and engagement, but practices commonly see meaningful recurring monthly reimbursement per enrolled patient. EverEx providers see an average of 20% more gross revenue per plan of care. Use the RTM Revenue Calculator to model your own numbers.

Bring RTM into your practice

EverEx helps physician practices and health systems run RTM as a real program: automating patient enrollment, adherence tracking, and documentation aligned with Medicare billing standards, across musculoskeletal and rehab care settings.

See how much RTM could be worth to your practice → Try the RTM Revenue Calculator, or request a demo to see how EverEx supports RTM for physicians and hospitals.

This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal or billing advice. Practices should consult qualified experts regarding CMS regulations, Medicare RTM billing, and CPT coding.