As the leading international organization on digital therapeutic thought leadership and education, the Digital Therapeutics Alliance (DTA) welcomes the American Medical Association’s (AMA) Current Procedural Terminology (CPT®) Editorial Panel’s recent decision to clarify reporting of remote cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) monitoring services. The changes to the CPT code set reflect the growing recognition that digital therapeutics (DTx) are an effective treatment for patients with mental health conditions and physicians should ultimately be reimbursed for their time spent prescribing, monitoring, and supplying online CBT technologies.
… a number of DTA’s members are delivering online CBT through their innovative products, making evidence-based treatments more accessible and improving patient outcomes … These changes will allow providers to adequately describe time spent delivering these types of interventions, as Dr. Tom Megerian, MD, the Chief Medical Officer of one of DTA’s member companies, Cognito Therapeutics, recently stated, “As a prescriber, I have seen the value digital therapeutics provide to patients firsthand, but integrating them into patient care was challenging without a mechanism to report delivering these treatments. This update to the code set will help to ensure physicians are able to provide the therapies that work best for their patients.”
The AMA Decision:
CPT® Editorial Summary of Panel Actions September-October 2021 (opens PDF):
Tab # 43: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Monitoring – Effective Date January 2023
- Accepted addition of code 989X6 to report remote therapeutic monitoring device supply to monitor cognitive behavioral therapy;
- Revision of the Remote Therapeutic Monitoring Services guidelines and the Remote Therapeutic Monitoring Treatment Management Services guidelines to clarify reporting of cognitive behavioral therapy, and;
- Deletion of codes 0X47T, 0X81T (now final 2022 CPT® codes 0702T and 0703T)
News in Context:
- Click Therapeutics raises further $52M to build up digital therapeutics pipeline for depression, insomnia, smoking cessation and more
- Will digital therapeutics complement or replace stimulant medications to address inattention and “silent” cognitive issues?
- Pear Therapeutics expands platform via partnerships with Empatica, etectRx, KeyWise, and Winterlight