Remote Therapeutic Monitoring Gets Surprise Payment Increase from CMS

On October 31, 2025, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the calendar year (CY) 2026 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) final rule. At that time, we learned the payment rates for the allowed amount for each CPT code reimbursed under the MPFS. This includes outpatient physical, occupational, and speech therapy services including remote therapeutic monitoring (RTM).

For practices and organizations that have implemented RTM, most monitor the musculoskeletal system. This would be CPT codes 98977 and 98985. CPT code 98985 is a new RTM code for 2026 to monitor the musculoskeletal system 2-15 days in a 30-day period . CPT code 98977 came out in 2022 and is billed when monitoring the musculoskeletal system 16-30 days in a 30-day period.

When the 2026 final rule was released, CPT code 98977 national payment for 2026 was decreasing 6.83% compared to 2025 national payment amount. But wait, we got an unannounced surprise change in the allowed amounts for 4 RTM codes in 2026.

Beginning for dates of service January 1, 2026, and after, CMS increased