What is the difference between therapeutic exercise vs therapeutic activity?
Therapeutic exercise is billed as 97110 and Therapeutic activity is billed as 97530. Both are CPT codes that are commonly used in occupational and physical therapy billing.
These codes are very similar and are often confused. So, when and what do you document for each of these codes?
The therapeutic exercise code is not considered a dynamic code. It typically involves looking only at one parameter being measured such as active range of motion, prom, a/arom, endurance or strength. All of these are separate activities and therefore billed under therapeutic exercise.
Therapeutic activity typically is considered a dynamic activity and usually looks at multiple parameters, these could even be functional parameters. It is typically used when you are looking at range of motion and strength, or range of motion and endurance, etc.
For example, if you were having a patient use Puttycise tools this would be looking at range of motion as well as strength, therefore would be billed under Therapeutic Activity. Pushing a cart or cooking would be considered therapeutic activity as well. Therapeutic activities typically are real life movements or simulated activities of real life.
You can often think of Therapeutic Exercise as being the building block for Therapeutic Activity. For instance, if you are working with a patient with a tendon laceration initially you may be having the patient perform gentle short arc range of motion, once the patient has progressed and can safely perform towel walking with light resistance, now the movement is therapeutic activity, as a second parameter has been added to the first.
Questions, please shoot us a quick note on ‘therapeutic activity vs exercise‘ topic! Thanks for reading.
3 Comments
Leave a Comment
More To Read
The Importance of Purposeful Activities Following Surgical Repair of a Distal RadiusFracture
By: Kelsey Melton Collis, J. M., Mayland, E. C., Wright-St Clair, V., Rashid, U., Kayes, N., & Signal, N.(2022). An evaluation of wrist and forearm movement during purposeful activities andrange of movement exercises after surgical repair of a distal radius fracture: A randomizedcrossover study. Journal of Hand Therapy. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jht.2022.07.009 The Skinny: This randomized crossover study…
Splinting Options for Stiff Finger Joints
Following an injury to the proximal interphalangeal joint, there is often a loss of range of motion, typically in both the flexion and extension planes. Therefore, we have compiled a list of helpful splinting options for stiff finger joints. To Improve PIP Joint Flexion Flexion Wrap with Elastic Tape (Coban): This is a very easy…
Dorsal Scapular Nerve Entrapment and Thoracic Pain
Don’t Forget to Evaluate for Dorsal Scapular Nerve Entrapment By Delaney Wright If your patient presents with any upper thoracic pain, it is critical to take measures to evaluate for dorsal scapular nerve entrapment. In a study completed by Sultan et al. (2013), 55 patients with interscapular pain were evaluated clinically and via nerve conduction…
Top 5 Hand Therapy Toys for Kids
Many therapists in hand therapy clinics have a lot of tools for their adult patients, but may not have as many tools for the less common pediatric patient. With nearly 20 years experience in pediatrics, we’ve compiled a list of our top 5 picks for tools to use with pediatric patients in hand therapy. We…
Sign-up to Get Updates Straight to Your Inbox!
Sign up with us and we will send you regular blog posts on everything hand therapy, notices every time we upload new videos and tutorials, along with handout, protocols, and other useful information.
Nice blog
Thank you!! There will be more to come!
Simple direct explanation!! I’m adding this to my student handbook for my fieldwork students