TL;DR
Enrolling patients in remote monitoring programs means identifying eligible patients, obtaining documented consent, setting up the monitoring technology, educating patients on how to use it, and triggering the right billing codes. This guide walks through the full enrollment workflow for both Remote Therapeutic Monitoring (RTM) and Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM), covers 2026 code changes, and addresses the real-world friction points that trip up clinics.
Enrolling patients in remote monitoring programs is not a single checkbox. It is a clinical, operational, and administrative workflow that begins with screening and ends with a patient actively logging data from home. Most guides on this topic jump straight to CPT codes and reimbursement tables. That approach skips the part clinicians actually struggle with: getting patients into the program and keeping them there.
This guide covers the full enrollment process, compares RTM and RPM side by side, and addresses the practitioner pain points that billing guides ignore.
If you’re evaluating tools to support this workflow, explore AC Health’s pricing to see how automated RTM tracking works in practice.
What Does “Enrolling Patients in Remote Monitoring Programs” Actually Mean?
Patient enrollment in remote monitoring is the process of moving a patient from in-clinic care to a hybrid model where data is collected between visits. The enrollment itself includes five distinct actions:
- Confirming the patient is clinically and technically eligible
- Verifying insurance coverage
- Obtaining informed consent
- Setting up the monitoring device or app
- Educating the patient on what to do and when
Enrollment is not the same as prescribing a home exercise program and hoping for the best. It creates a documented, billable relationship where the provider commits to reviewing patient-generated data and the patient commits to submitting it.
In RTM, the enrollment step corresponds to CPT 98975, which reimburses providers approximately $21.71 for initial setup and patient education. In RPM, the parallel code is 99453. Both can only be billed once per episode of care.
RTM vs. RPM: Two Types of Remote Monitoring Enrollment
This is a consistent source of confusion. Practitioners on Reddit and in professional forums regularly conflate the two, which leads to billing errors and denied claims. Here’s how they differ at the enrollment level.
| Factor | RTM (Remote Therapeutic Monitoring) | RPM (Remote Patient Monitoring) |
|---|---|---|
| Data type | Non-physiological: pain levels, medication adherence, functional status, exercise completion | Physiological: heart rate, blood pressure, weight, blood glucose |
| Device requirements | Software-based solutions or mobile apps; FDA clearance not required | FDA-approved medical device that captures and transmits data directly |
| Who can bill | Physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, and physicians | Physicians and qualified healthcare professionals only |
| Enrollment code | CPT 98975 (~$21.71) | CPT 99453 |
| Patient requirement | Must have a therapy need that monitoring supports | Must be an established patient of the provider |
| Concurrent billing | Cannot be billed with RPM in the same month; can be billed with Chronic Care Management, PCM, and BHI | Cannot be billed with RTM in the same month |
For physical therapists, OTs, and SLPs, RTM is the relevant pathway. RPM is generally outside their billing scope. The rest of this guide focuses primarily on RTM enrollment, with RPM differences noted where they matter.
Chiropractors using remote monitoring should also note that RTM’s software-based flexibility makes it the more practical choice for most rehab settings.
Step-by-Step Workflow: How to Enroll Patients in Remote Monitoring Programs
Step 1: Screen for Eligibility
Not every patient belongs in a remote monitoring program. The screening conversation should confirm three things:
Clinical fit. Does the patient have a condition that generates meaningful remote data? Musculoskeletal rehab, post-surgical recovery, chronic pain management, and neurological rehab are strong candidates. A patient coming in for a single evaluation with no follow-up plan is not.
Technical capability. Can the patient access a smartphone, tablet, or computer? Do they have reliable internet? Are they willing to interact with an app regularly? Patients who are uncomfortable with technology or who lack device access will generate frustration rather than data.
Monitoring alignment. Does remote monitoring actually serve the plan of care, or is it being added purely for billing? CMS expects the monitoring to have clinical purpose. Enrolling a patient who doesn’t need between-visit tracking invites audit risk.
A good rule of thumb: if you would already be prescribing a home exercise program and wishing you could see whether the patient followed through, that patient is a strong RTM candidate. Understanding patient health literacy can also help you gauge who will succeed with app-based programs.
Step 2: Verify Insurance and Coverage
This step is easy to skip and expensive to skip. Before enrolling a patient, verify:
- Whether their payer covers RTM codes (Medicare does; commercial payers vary widely)
- Prior authorization requirements, if any
- The patient’s cost-sharing responsibility (copays, coinsurance, deductible status)
- Payer-specific documentation rules that may differ from CMS standards
Medicare patients with supplemental insurance tend to be the most straightforward. Clinics that succeed with RTM enrollment often start by targeting this population before expanding to commercial payers.
Skipping verification leads to one of the most destructive enrollment mistakes: the surprise bill. More on that below.
Step 3: Obtain Patient Consent
CMS requires documented patient consent before remote monitoring services begin. The consent can be verbal or written, but it must appear in the medical record either way.
The consent conversation needs to cover specific ground:
- What the monitoring involves (what data is collected, how often, by whom)
- How the patient’s health data will be transmitted and stored
- That participation is voluntary and the patient can opt out at any time
- That the patient may owe out-of-pocket costs, including Medicare Part B copays
This last point deserves emphasis. Practitioners in online communities consistently report that skipping the cost conversation during consent is the fastest way to kill patient trust. One physical therapist on Reddit described the copay issue as a major barrier, noting that enrolling patients without explaining cost-sharing leads to surprise bills, complaints, and program dropouts.
Write down what you disclosed and when. If verbal, document the date, what was discussed, and that the patient agreed. If your clinic uses a written consent form, keep a signed copy in the chart. Auditors will look for this.
Step 4: Set Up the Technology
This is where the enrollment shifts from administrative to hands-on. For RTM, the treating therapist:
- Helps the patient download and set up the monitoring app
- Walks through the interface: where to log exercises, how to answer surveys, how to message the provider
- Assigns the home exercise program within the app
- Confirms the patient can access everything independently before leaving the clinic
Document the education and training provided, the type of software or device, what data the patient should input, how frequently, and the exercise schedule.
Platforms like AC Health handle this through one-tap custom video creation during the visit itself, so the patient sees exactly what their clinician demonstrated rather than generic stock illustrations. The app setup, exercise assignment, and HIPAA-compliant messaging all happen in one place, which reduces the friction that causes enrollment to stall.
For RPM (where applicable), this step involves provisioning an FDA-approved device, demonstrating its use, and confirming it transmits data correctly.
Step 5: Deliver the Care Plan and Educate
The patient education piece is not a formality. Research consistently shows that as much as 80% of information given to patients during clinic visits is immediately forgotten. Remote monitoring works only if the patient understands what they’re supposed to do after they walk out the door.
Effective education during enrollment includes:
- Demonstrating each exercise in the home program (video-based programs have a clear advantage here)
- Setting expectations for frequency: “You’ll log your exercises at least 16 days this month”
- Explaining what happens with their data: “I’ll review your progress weekly and adjust your program as needed”
- Showing them how reminders and notifications work within the app
The goal is to make participation feel like an extension of the clinical visit, not a separate chore. For strategies beyond enrollment, this guide on increasing patient engagement covers the behavioral side in more depth.
Step 6: Monitor and Bill
Once the patient is enrolled and actively submitting data, the ongoing monitoring phase begins.
For RTM billing under current rules, the key threshold is 16 days: you bill CPT 98977 once your patient has recorded 16 days of activity within a 30-day period. An “activity” can be performing an exercise, answering a survey, or sending and receiving a message.
New for 2026: CMS introduced a companion code, 98985, which covers 2 to 15 days of data transmission within a 30-day window. This is significant because it eliminates the all-or-nothing 16-day threshold. Clinics can now capture revenue even from partially adherent patients, which directly addresses one of the biggest complaints in the field.
A second new code, 98979, covers 10 to 19 minutes of treatment management services, expanding the management billing options.
Starting January 1, 2026, all RTM codes are designated as “sometimes therapy” services. Therapy modifiers are required: GP for physical therapists, GO for occupational therapists, and GN for speech-language pathologists.
For a full breakdown of documentation and coding requirements, see the RTM billing requirements checklist.
The Enrollment Code: CPT 98975
CPT 98975 specifically reimburses the enrollment and setup work described above. Under 2026 national rates, it pays approximately $21.71.
Key rules:
- Billed once per episode of care, per patient
- Cannot be reported again until the treatment goals from the current episode have been reached and a new treatment order is initiated
- Covers initial setup, device/app education, and onboarding
- Must be supported by documentation showing what education was provided and that the patient was properly onboarded
While $22 sounds modest on its own, it’s the gateway to ongoing monthly revenue. A fully qualifying RTM patient can generate approximately $135 per month in ongoing reimbursement (98977 + 98980 + 98981), or about $157 in the first month including the setup code. The detailed RTM clinician workflow explains how these codes chain together.
Common Enrollment Mistakes That Cost Clinics Money
Skipping Insurance Verification
Enrolling a patient whose payer doesn’t cover RTM creates unbillable work. Worse, it creates a billing attempt that gets denied and potentially flagged. Verify coverage before you invest clinical time in the enrollment conversation.
Surprise Copay Bills
This one destroys programs. If a patient doesn’t know they’ll owe a copay for remote monitoring services, the first bill they receive will feel like a betrayal. Discuss costs during the consent step, every time. Some clinics include a line in their consent documentation specifically noting the estimated patient responsibility.
Enrolling Patients Who Won’t Use the Technology
Enthusiasm during the clinic visit doesn’t always translate to compliance at home. Patients who express discomfort with apps, who don’t own a compatible device, or who have caregivers managing their health decisions need a different approach. Enrolling them and hoping for the best wastes staff time and generates incomplete data that can’t be billed.
Treating App Access as RTM Without Clinical Purpose
Giving a patient access to an exercise app is not, by itself, remote therapeutic monitoring. RTM requires that a clinician is actively reviewing the transmitted data and using it to inform care decisions. If nobody is monitoring the dashboard, it’s a home exercise program with a fancy delivery method, not a billable service.
No One Assigned to Monitor the Data
This is the operational failure that sinks many RTM programs. Clinics that find success typically designate a specific person (or give a clinician a split clinical/monitoring role) to manage dashboards, follow up with non-compliant patients, and escalate issues. Without that role, data piles up unreviewed and the clinical workflow breaks down.
One PT on Reddit described RTM as “a lot of squeeze for not a lot of juice” when carrying a full caseload while also managing app use, patient buy-in, and documentation. The clinics that avoid this burnout are the ones that build the monitoring role into their staffing model rather than layering it on top of existing duties.
For multi-location practices, this staffing question becomes even more critical, since centralized monitoring across sites can be more efficient than expecting every clinician to manage their own dashboard.
Why Enrollment Matters: The Adherence Problem Remote Monitoring Solves
Home exercise program prescription is universal in physical therapy. Adherence to those programs is terrible. Studies consistently report HEP non-adherence rates as high as 70%, meaning only about 30% of patients successfully complete their prescribed exercises.
This is the fundamental problem that enrolling patients in remote monitoring programs addresses. When patients know their data is being reviewed, when they receive reminders and feedback, and when their clinician can adjust the program based on real activity data rather than self-reported estimates, adherence improves.
The evidence supports this. A 2024 retrospective case-control study published in PMC found that 72% of PT + RTM patients achieved their Functional Status Benchmark, compared to 63% in the control group. The same study found that 36% of RTM patients attended more than two visits per week, versus 24% in the control group. Remote monitoring didn’t just improve home exercise compliance; it improved clinic visit attendance too.
On the RPM side, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center reported that remote patient monitoring reduces hospital readmission risk by 76%, a staggering number that underscores the value of keeping patients connected between encounters.
The 2026 code changes make enrollment even more forgiving. With CPT 98985 now covering 2 to 15 days of data transmission, clinics no longer lose all reimbursement when a patient falls short of the 16-day threshold. Patient compliance has been the number one complaint among clinic owners implementing RTM. When reimbursement depended on patients remembering to log data for 16 out of 30 days, clinics were fighting an uphill battle. The new tiered structure rewards partial engagement instead of punishing it.
For more on how improving patient experience drives revenue, the connection between enrollment, adherence, and financial outcomes is worth understanding beyond just RTM codes.
Enrollment Checklist for Clinics
Use this as a quick reference when enrolling patients in remote monitoring programs. Print it, pin it to the front desk, or save it in your clinic’s shared drive.
- [ ] Eligibility confirmed: Patient has a qualifying condition, a compatible device, and willingness to participate
- [ ] Insurance verified: Payer covers RTM/RPM codes; patient responsibility calculated and communicated
- [ ] Consent documented: Verbal or written consent obtained; scope of monitoring, data handling, voluntary participation, and costs discussed; documentation in medical record
- [ ] App or device provisioned: Patient has downloaded the app or received the monitoring device; login confirmed; test data submitted successfully
- [ ] Home exercise program delivered: Exercises assigned within the monitoring platform with video or visual instructions
- [ ] Patient education completed: Patient demonstrated understanding of what to log, how often, and how to contact the clinic through the platform
- [ ] Monitoring schedule set: Staff member assigned to review dashboard; frequency of review documented
- [ ] Billing codes flagged: CPT 98975 (RTM setup) or 99453 (RPM setup) queued with appropriate therapy modifier (GP/GO/GN for 2026)
- [ ] Follow-up trigger established: Automated or manual check-in scheduled for 5 to 7 days post-enrollment to confirm patient is actively using the system
FAQ
Do I need written consent, or is verbal consent enough?
Both are acceptable under CMS rules. Verbal consent is valid as long as it is documented in the medical record. The documentation should include the date, what was discussed (scope of monitoring, data handling, costs, voluntary participation), and that the patient agreed. Many clinics prefer written consent because it creates a cleaner audit trail, but it is not required.
Can physical therapists bill for RTM enrollment?
Yes. Unlike RPM codes, which are restricted to physicians and qualified healthcare professionals, RTM codes (including 98975 for enrollment) can be billed by physical therapists, occupational therapists, and speech-language pathologists. Starting in 2026, the appropriate therapy modifier must be appended: GP for PTs, GO for OTs, and GN for SLPs.
What happens if a patient drops off before 16 days?
Under previous rules, you couldn’t bill CPT 98977 (the monthly device supply code) unless the patient logged 16 days of activity. Starting in 2026, the new CPT 98985 covers 2 to 15 days of data transmission within a 30-day period, so clinics can now capture partial-month reimbursement. This is a major change that makes enrolling patients in remote monitoring programs less financially risky.
Can I enroll the same patient in both RPM and RTM?
Not in the same calendar month. CMS prohibits concurrent billing of RPM and RTM. However, RTM can be billed alongside Chronic Care Management (CCM), Principal Care Management (PCM), and Behavioral Health Integration (BHI) services.
How much revenue does one enrolled RTM patient generate?
In the first month, a fully qualifying patient generates approximately $157 ($22 for 98975 setup + $40 for 98977 + $54 for 98980 + $41 for 98981). Ongoing months generate approximately $135. These are national averages under 2026 rates and will vary by locality.
What’s the biggest reason RTM enrollment fails?
Patient buy-in and sustained compliance. The clinical setup is straightforward. The hard part is getting patients to consistently use the app after they leave the clinic. Practitioners in online forums repeatedly point to workflow friction, cost-sharing surprises, and staff bandwidth as the real barriers. Clinics that designate a specific person to manage outreach and monitoring tend to have much higher success rates.
How long does the enrollment process take per patient?
Most clinics report that the enrollment conversation, consent, and app setup take 10 to 15 minutes during an existing visit. The time investment is front-loaded. Once the patient is active, the ongoing monitoring and management is what generates the bulk of the reimbursement.
Ready to simplify how you enroll patients in remote monitoring programs? AC Health automates RTM tracking, generates compliance reports, and keeps patient communication inside a HIPAA-compliant channel. Schedule a demo to see the enrollment workflow in action, or see how other clinics have implemented it.
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