What RTM is, and why it exists for behavioural health
Remote Patient Monitoring came first, and it covers physiologicdata — blood pressure, weight, glucose — captured by a device. That left out most of behavioural health, where the clinically meaningful data is what someone reports about their own days, and where many practitioners could not bill RPM at all.
RTM was introduced to cover non-physiologic therapeutic data: adherence to therapy, response to therapy, symptom reporting. Crucially, it permits self-reported data. That is the whole reason it applies to a therapy or coaching practice: a client rating their mood, energy, focus, stress and sleep each day is exactly the kind of data the benefit was written for.
The codes
The two treatment-management codes are the recurring ones. 98980 covers the first 20 minutes of treatment management in a calendar month; 98981 covers each additional 20. The time is cumulative across the month, not a single sitting, and it has to include at least one interactive communication with the client.
The dollar figures above are approximate national averages. Actual reimbursement varies by payer, locality and year, and commercial coverage varies more than Medicare does. Treat them as a way to size the opportunity, not as a quote.
What the record has to show
This is where most practices get stuck, and it is less exotic than it sounds. A defensible monthly record generally needs to establish:
- Setup and education — that the client was onboarded onto the monitoring and understood it.
- That data was actually collected during the period, with the days visible rather than summarised away.
- What you reviewed, and what you concluded from it.
- How long you spent, because the codes are time-based and untimed review does not count.
- That an interactive contact happened, with a date.
- What followed clinically — the decision or adjustment the review produced.
The recurring failure mode is not doing too little work. It is doing the work and documenting none of it, so a month of genuine between-session attention leaves no billable trace.
Why gaps matter as much as totals
A record that reports "16 days of data" and stops there hides the thing a reviewer and a clinician both want to know. Sixteen scattered days across a month and sixteen consecutive days followed by two silent weeks are completely different clinical pictures, and only one of them suggests someone who quietly disengaged.
This is why adherence, the longest gap, and direction of travel belong on the page together. It is also, incidentally, the most useful part of the record for the actual session.
The arithmetic
Working it through for a modest caseload: if ten clients are enrolled and you bill 98980 once each in a month at roughly $54, that is about $540 of monthly revenue against work you are largely doing already. Clients whose month warrants a second 20-minute block add roughly $41 each.
The point is not that RTM transforms a practice. It is that between-session review is currently unpaid labour in most practices, and this is the mechanism that makes it accountable and reimbursable — provided the record exists.
Where AntarLens fits, and where it doesn't
Your clients track free. You get a dashboard of their check-in activity with anyone who has gone quiet flagged, a session-prep note before you meet, and a printable monthly monitoring record per client: adherence, longest gap, averages, direction of travel, verified patterns with their sample sizes, the full daily log, and an attestation block for your review time and contact date. That is $99/month for unlimited clients.
The line we do not cross: we build the record, we do not decide whether the codes apply. Episode of care, medical necessity, consent and payer coverage are determinations for you and your payers, and none of them are things a software vendor can verify. The printed record says so on its face. Confirm with your billing provider before you rely on any of this — we would rather you check and stay than assume and leave.
Nothing here is billing, legal or clinical advice, and the patterns the product surfaces are not a diagnostic instrument.
Common questions
Can therapists bill for Remote Therapeutic Monitoring?
RTM was designed so that practitioners who cannot bill Remote Patient Monitoring — including many behavioural health clinicians — could bill for monitoring non-physiologic data. 98980 and 98981 cover treatment management time, and 98978 covers monitoring supply for cognitive behavioural therapy. Whether they apply to a given client depends on the episode of care, medical necessity, consent and payer coverage, which is a determination for the practice and its payers, not for a software vendor.
What is the difference between RTM and RPM?
RPM covers physiologic data such as blood pressure or glucose, collected automatically by a medical device. RTM covers non-physiologic therapeutic data — therapy adherence, response to therapy, symptom reporting — and permits self-reported data. That distinction is what makes RTM relevant to behavioural health, where the meaningful data is what the client reports about their days.
How much time does 98980 require?
98980 covers the first 20 minutes of treatment management in a calendar month, and 98981 each additional 20 minutes. The time is cumulative across the month rather than a single sitting, and it must include at least one interactive communication with the client. Review time only counts when it is documented.
What has to be documented for an RTM claim?
In practice: that the client was set up and educated, that data was actually collected during the period, what you reviewed, how long you spent, that an interactive contact took place, and what clinical decision followed. A monthly record showing adherence, gaps, trends and your attestation of review time and contact date is the shape most practices need.
Does the client need to check in every day?
Requirements vary by code and payer, and the number of days with data is one of the things reviewers look at. This is the practical reason adherence and the longest gap belong on the record: sixteen scattered days and sixteen consecutive days are clinically and administratively different, and a record that hides the difference is not much use to anyone.