Billing for therapists
- Timed units under the 8-minute rule
- 3
- Units on the claim, timed plus untimed
- 4
- Minutes documented for the visit
- 55
Every figure on a worksheet comes from the inputs you enter and the method stated beside it: your minutes, your charges, your EOB amounts and your month's counts. Where a guide names a published rule, the document is cited with a path to the clause, and the figure is licensed in this repository's claims ledger before it appears on a page.
Billing for therapists is the part of running a therapy practice that nobody trained for: the claim built from the visit, the units counted from the minutes, the EOB that comes back weeks later with an allowed amount that is not the charge, the denial that has to be worked before it times out, and the patient balance that has to be right on the statement. For a physical, occupational or mental health therapist billing their own practice, or the one person at the front desk doing it for them, the question is what a claims register has to keep so that all of that is a list rather than a memory. This guide sets out the register, how to judge billing software against your own claims rather than a vendor list, and where the free worksheets on this site fit.
Open the PT billing units: 8 minute rule therapy calculator Free to use. No account, no card, no sign-up.
Build the claim from the visit, with the units counted the same way every time
The note gives the timed minutes and the untimed codes; the claim carries the units. Under Medicare's 8-minute rule the timed minutes are added across codes and one unit is billed for the first 8 to 22 minutes, two for 23 to 37, and so on. The free billing units worksheet on this site works that count from the minutes, so every claim leaves the practice with the same arithmetic behind it.
Check the plan before the visit, and put what it said on the register
Eligibility for the date of service, the therapy benefit and its visit limit, whether a referral or an authorization is needed and the visits left on it, the deductible met so far and the copay today. Written against the patient's plan on the register with the date it was checked, it is the reason the claim does not come back CO 96 or CO 197 six weeks later, and it is the copay the front desk collects at the door rather than bills for in a statement.
File the claim in the register with its payer, its date of service and its charge, and follow it
A claim that lives only in the clearinghouse portal is a claim nobody follows. The register holds the payer, the date of service, the charge and the status, submitted, denied, appealed, paid, and it is the list the biller works from each week. The EOB reconciliation worksheet here shows what the register posts when the EOB arrives: the allowed amount, the contractual adjustment, the payer payment and the patient share.
Work every denial against its code and its deadline, and post every EOB against its claim
A denial recorded with its reason code, the fix and the appeal date is a denial that gets paid; one worked from memory is one that meets the filing limit, which for Medicare is 12 months from the date of service under 42 CFR 424.44. Posting each EOB against the claim it paid, rather than as a lump, is what makes the patient statement right and the month's collection rate a real number.
Close the month from the register, not from memory
Every remittance in the month posted line by line, every denial recorded with its code and its date, statements run from the balances, write-offs approved with reasons, and the month's counts and totals into the claims cycle worksheet on this site: the denial rate, the clean-claim rate, the collection rates and the days in receivables, kept beside last month's. A practice that closes this way knows in the first week of the month whether the billing got better or worse and which reason codes say why.
Will Eobify keep what you need for Billing for therapists?
Tell us what you bill, roughly how many claims a month go out, and where the register lives today. Never send us a patient's details.
Billing for therapists: what billers ask
Is billing for therapists different from billing for a medical office?
The claim forms and the EOBs are the same. What differs is the timed codes and the 8-minute rule, which decide the units on almost every therapy claim, and the volume of small claims across a few payers, which is why the denial rate matters more than any single claim.
Do I need a clearinghouse as well as a claims register?
Yes, if you submit electronically: the clearinghouse carries the claim to the payer and reports the rejection or acceptance. The register is where the claim's whole life is kept, from the visit to the posted EOB, which the clearinghouse does not do.
How long do I have to resubmit or appeal a denied claim?
For Medicare, the claim must be filed within 12 months of the date of service under 42 CFR 424.44, and commercial payers set their own limits in the contract. The register's job is to show every denial with the date it was received so none of them meets the limit unworked.
What goes on the register for each claim?
The patient and the plan as verified, the date of service, the codes, units and modifiers as billed, the charge, the date sent and the clearinghouse acceptance, then every remittance line posted against it with the adjustment and the patient share, every denial with its reason and remark codes and dates, the corrected claim or the appeal, and the balance. One line per claim, its whole life, in a form the practice can export.
Eobify Pro
Keeping the claims register instead of the spreadsheet
Upgrading turns a worked claim into a register. The EOB you reconciled on the worksheet is posted against the claim it paid; the denial is recorded with its code and the appeal with its date; the patient balance carries forward to the next statement; and the month's denial rate, clean-claim rate and days in A/R are a report rather than a spreadsheet nobody trusts.
- Download the superbill or the statement as a file
- Your superbills and statements without our name on them
- Save a claim and reopen it when the EOB arrives
- Your practice name and logo on every printed superbill and statement
- Take every claim, posting and statement out at once
- Send a patient their statement from inside the register
- Not sold on this hub: a practice collects its copays at the desk, not through us
- Not sold on this hub: the month's figures export to your accountant instead
$49per month, whole team
Start Eobify Pro Free for 14 days. No card needed. PricingThe first 14 days are free and no card is asked for. Add a card during the trial and the first charge is on the day it ends; do not, and your workspace becomes read-only with nothing deleted. Eobify Pro is $49 per month for your whole practice, billed monthly, and renews each month at that price until you cancel. The price and the renewal terms are shown again before checkout.