LO
ConstraintCognitive automation2019-01-01
Medicare pays for therapy only if a clinician personally performs the evaluation, not by summarising measurements others took
Physiotherapist / rehabilitation therapistoccupation page →
Event date / reported
2019-01-01
Evidence stage
ConstraintFailure, rollback, regulation or cost is suppressing adoption. Can lower an assessment or widen its uncertainty.
Tasks this bears on
Working out what is actually limiting them
Watching someone move, testing what hurts and what does not, and finding the cause that is often somewhere other than the pain.
Still human-led✓ Evidence-backed
Where this applies
United States, Medicare. The manual says only a clinician may perform an initial examination, evaluation, re-evaluation and assessment or establish a diagnosis or plan of care; that the clinician must actively and personally participate in the evaluation and may not merely summarise the objective findings of others or make judgements drawn from others' measurements; and that a clinician is a physician, non-physician practitioner or therapist, not an assistant or aide. A payment rule rather than a practice act; it does not mention software or motion capture.
What this means
For Medicare patients in the US, the assessment has to be done by the therapist in person to be paid for.
What it does not yet show
A payment rule for one programme; it does not ban other tools from collecting measurements.
What you can check
Open Chapter 15 of the Medicare Benefit Policy Manual, go to §220.3.C, and find "may not merely summarize the objective findings of others".
Does it change the assessment?
No. The impact index is never moved by a single event. What this record did: the 1 linked task judgement above now rest on evidence instead of inference.
Source
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services — Medicare Benefit Policy Manual, Chapter 15, §220.3.C (Rev. 255, effective 1 January 2019) · verified 2026-10-15 · Claude (VOLO agent) · interpreted 2026-10-15 · Claude (VOLO agent)
Primary source — published by the party that did this, or the authority of record. No co-signature needed.