Physical Therapy Billing Services

Specialized billing for physical therapy practices — timed procedure coding, therapy cap management, and PT revenue cycle management. Serving practices nationwide across the United States.

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98%
Clean Claims Rate
PT
Billing Specialists
<30
Avg. AR Days
100%
HIPAA Compliant

What We Handle

Comprehensive billing coverage for your specialty

Timed Code Billing

Accurate 8-minute rule application for timed therapy codes, ensuring maximum units are billed based on treatment time documented.

Therapy Cap Management

Tracking Medicare therapy caps, applying KX modifiers for medically necessary services exceeding the cap, and managing exceptions.

Functional Limitation Reporting

Accurate G-code reporting for functional limitation severity and discharge status required for Medicare PT billing.

Denial Management

PT denials for medical necessity and documentation issues are appealed with functional outcome measures and clinical notes.

Prior Authorization

Managing authorization requirements for PT visits, tracking visit limits, and requesting extensions when medically necessary.

Revenue Analytics

Monthly reports on units per visit, collections per visit, payer mix, and therapist productivity.

Common Codes We Handle

97110 – Therapeutic Exercise97530 – Therapeutic Activities97010 – Hot/Cold Packs97012 – Mechanical Traction97035 – Ultrasound97140 – Manual Therapy97150 – Therapeutic Group97162 – PT Evaluation Moderate97014 – Electrical Stimulation97016 – Vasopneumatic Devices

What's Included

  • Timed & untimed code billing
  • 8-minute rule compliance
  • Therapy cap tracking & KX modifier
  • Functional limitation G-codes
  • Prior authorization management
  • Denial appeals & resubmission
  • Plan of care compliance
  • Monthly performance reports

Why Choose Us

  • 98% clean claims rate
  • Specialty-trained billing team
  • No long-term contracts
  • Free 1-week trial
  • Dedicated account manager
  • Works with your existing EHR
  • Full credentialing support
  • Monthly performance reports

Physical Therapy Billing: Where Minutes Become Money

PT billing is arithmetic under audit: timed codes governed by the 8-minute rule, visit counts governed by plans of care and payer thresholds, and payment differentials based on who delivered each minute of treatment. No specialty has a tighter link between documentation habits and revenue — and none gets audited on that link more routinely. Disciplined PT billing is mostly about making the minutes defensible.

The 8-Minute Rule, Done Right

Timed CPT codes bill in 15-minute units, and Medicare's 8-minute rule decides how documented minutes convert to billable units across all timed services in a visit. Total the timed minutes, divide, apply the remainder rule — and reconcile against per-service minutes in the note. Commercial payers may follow Medicare's math or substitute their own (some count per service, not in aggregate). Unit errors in either direction are chronic in PT: undercounting gives away treatment; overcounting is the finding auditors love most.

Timed vs. Untimed Codes and the Daily Mix

Evaluations, re-evaluations, unattended modalities, and supervised modalities bill once per session regardless of duration; therapeutic exercise, manual therapy, and neuromuscular re-education bill by time. The daily mix matters: payers watch for template billing (the same four codes every visit, every patient) and for combinations their edits bundle. Treatment notes that support each code's distinct skilled service — not just its minutes — are what keep the mix paid.

Plans of Care, Certifications, and Progress Notes

Medicare PT runs on paperwork checkpoints: a plan of care certified by the referring provider (and recertified on schedule), progress notes at required intervals, and treatment consistent with the certified plan. Miss a certification window and every visit after it is technically unbillable — a five-figure problem discovered in audit, not in the EOB. We track certification and progress-note deadlines per patient the way we track authorizations: as revenue infrastructure.

The Therapy Threshold and KX Modifier

Above Medicare's annual therapy threshold, claims need the KX modifier attesting continued medical necessity — with documentation that genuinely supports it — and above a higher threshold, targeted medical review becomes possible. The KX isn't a magic 'keep paying' switch; it's an attestation auditors test. We monitor each patient's accumulation, apply KX where documentation supports it, and flag cases approaching review territory before they get there.

Assistant Modifiers and Payment Differentials

Care delivered by PTAs bills with the CQ modifier (CO for OTAs) and pays at 85% under Medicare — with specific rules about when a visit becomes 'assistant-delivered' based on minute shares. Group versus one-on-one time, student participation, and supervision requirements add more layers. Getting the delivery attribution right protects both the revenue and the practice; payers reconcile staffing patterns against billing in PT audits. When visit caps and thresholds do produce denials, our CO-151 and CO-119 playbooks cover the recovery paths.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does the 8-minute rule actually calculate units?
Add all timed-code minutes in the session, divide by 15 for whole units, and the remainder earns one more unit if it's 8 minutes or greater — then allocate units to the services with the most minutes. Example: 24 minutes therapeutic exercise + 23 manual therapy = 47 minutes = 3 units (45 + remainder 2, under 8). Per-service minutes must appear in the note; aggregate math without them doesn't survive review.
What happens if a plan of care certification lapses?
Visits delivered after the certification period technically lack the physician certification Medicare requires — payable only if you obtain a delayed certification (allowed, with the provider's signature and reasonable timing). Left unfixed, they're audit liabilities. The operational answer is deadline tracking with alerts before expiration, not heroic paperwork recovery after.
Is the KX modifier just automatic after the threshold?
No — it's an attestation that continued therapy is medically necessary, and documentation must demonstrate ongoing skilled need and progress (or skilled maintenance justification). Automatic KX on every over-threshold claim is a known audit trigger. Applied thoughtfully with supporting notes, it's routine; applied as a reflex, it's a target.
How do PTA modifiers affect our revenue model?
CQ-modified services pay 85% under Medicare when a PTA furnishes more than 10% of the service — which makes staffing patterns a revenue variable. Practices heavy on assistant-delivered care need the differential modeled into scheduling economics, and the minute-share rules applied honestly per service. We report assistant-delivered share monthly so the economics stay visible.
What is the 8-minute rule?
Medicare's 8-minute rule determines how many timed units can be billed based on total treatment time. We calculate this precisely to ensure you bill the maximum appropriate units.
How do you handle Medicare therapy cap issues?
We track each patient's accumulated therapy spending against the Medicare cap. When medically necessary services exceed the cap, we apply the KX modifier with proper documentation.

Related Billing Specialties

Specialties that generate the referrals behind most therapy plans of care.

Orthopedic Billing

Most therapy referrals originate post-operatively, where the global period governs what is separately payable.

Pain Management Billing

Therapy is paired with interventional treatment, and both must document functional progress.

Neurology Billing

Neurological rehabilitation requires plans of care with different documentation standards to orthopedic therapy.

Podiatry Billing

Gait and lower-limb rehabilitation is co-managed, particularly in diabetic patients.

We bill all of these in house. If your group spans several of them, multi-specialty billing keeps one team across every line — or see the full list of services.

Free tool: 8 Minute Rule Calculator — convert treatment minutes into billable units.

Free tool: Medicare Therapy Threshold & KX Calculator — see whether this patient has crossed the KX threshold.

Ready to Optimize Your Physical Therapy Practice Revenue?

Get a free billing audit and see how much more your PT clinic can collect.

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Free resources: Denial Code Lookup  |  RVU Calculator  |  AR Days Calculator  |  Modifier 59 — distinct PT services & NCCI