Healthcare Insights
Top rehabilitative procedure codes
In the U.S., about one in four people experience a disability that affects their ability to live a day-to-day life comfortably and independently. Medical specialties like physical medicine and rehabilitation aim to help improve the quality of life for those with disabilities by restoring physical and functional abilities.
What CPT codes are used for rehabilitation?
The Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) code set is used to report medical services and procedures in a standardized fashion. Within the code set, CPT codes ranging from 97010 to 97799 indicate services relating to physical medicine and rehabilitation services.
The Definitive Healthcare Atlas All-Payor Claims dataset tracks physician procedure claims. Using the dataset, we have ranked the top 15 most common rehabilitative procedure codes by the percentage of total physical medicine and rehabilitation procedures billed in 2023 through September.
| Rank | HCPCS/CPT Code | HCPCS/CPT Description | Percent of total physical medicine and rehabilitation procedures in 2023 | Explore dataset |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 97110 | Therapeutic exercises | 28.70% | Explore |
| 2 | 97530 | Therapeutics activities | 19.80% | Explore |
| 3 | 97140 | Manual therapy | 16.30% | Explore |
| 4 | 97112 | Neuromuscular reeducation | 15.10% | Explore |
| 5 | 97116 | Gait training therapy | 2.70% | Explore |
| 6 | 97535 | Self care management training | 2.50% | Explore |
| 7 | 97014 | Electric stimulation therapy | 2.00% | Explore |
| 8 | 97010 | Hot or cold packs therapy | 2.00% | Explore |
| 9 | 97161 | PT evaluation low complex | 1.60% | Explore |
| 10 | 97012 | Mechanical traction therapy | 1.30% | Explore |
| 11 | 97162 | PT evaluation mod complex | 1.20% | Explore |
| 12 | 97150 | Group therapeutic procedures | 1.00% | Explore |
| 13 | 97035 | Therapeutic ultrasound | 0.90% | Explore |
| 14 | 97016 | Vasopneumatic device therapy | 0.60% | Explore |
| 15 | 97032 | Manual electrical stimulation | 0.50% | Explore |
Fig. 1. Data is from the Definitive Healthcare Atlas All-Payor Claims dataset, which is updated monthly. Data in the chart represents claims billed in 2023 through September. Data accessed October 2023.
What is the most common rehabilitative service?
The most common rehabilitative service is therapeutic exercises, accounting for 28.7% of all physical medicine and rehabilitation procedures in 2023 through September. This type of procedure is a physical therapy exercise typically used for injury-related disabilities to help patients increase mobility and fitness ability.
The second most common rehabilitative service is therapeutic activities, accounting for 19.8% of all procedures. This type of rehabilitative service involves a provider engaging in direct contact activities with the patient to increase the patient’s functional performance. While therapeutic activities are similar to therapeutic exercises, this type of procedure involves a wider range of movements that are meant to replicate real-life activities like walking up stairs or bending over.
In third place is manual therapy, accounting for 16.3% of all rehabilitative procedures in 2023. Manual therapy is another form of physical therapy that involves using hand movement and pressure applied to soft tissues and joints to improve mobility and alignment, aid tissue repair, and treat conditions like chronic pain.
Like rehabilitative medicine, physical therapy (PT) and occupational therapy (OT) are also fields of medicine aimed at providing treatment that improve health and functioning related to day-to-day life activities. Many of the same CPT codes used for rehabilitative procedures are used for PT and OT procedures.
How do top rehabilitation procedure codes compare to top occupational and physical therapy procedure codes?
When comparing the most common rehabilitative procedures to the most common physical therapy (PT) and the most common occupational therapy procedures, we see quite a bit of overlap.
The top rehabilitative procedure above also ranks in first place in both lists of top physical therapy and occupational therapy procedures. Therapeutics activities, which ranks second on the list above ranks third on the lists of top physical and occupational therapy procedures. Additionally, manual therapy, which ranks third on our list of top rehabilitative procedures, ranks second on the physical therapy and occupational therapy lists.
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