subject: 8 minute rule medicare [print this page]
The 8-minute rule in Medicare is a billing guideline used in outpatient therapy services to determine how many units of treatment a provider can bill for a patient in a single session. It applies mainly to time-based services such as physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech-language pathology. Under this rule, a therapist must provide at least 8 minutes of a specific timed service to bill one unit of that service. The total treatment time is calculated by adding all direct, one-on-one therapy minutes, and then dividing them into billing units based on Medicare’s conversion table (for example, 8–22 minutes equals 1 unit, 23–37 minutes equals 2 units, and so on). This rule ensures that billing is accurately tied to the actual time spent delivering skilled therapeutic care rather than estimated or rounded figures.
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