The GT Modifier Is Gone in 2026: Here Is What That Means for Your Claims

If your behavioral health practice is still routing telehealth claims with the GT modifier appended to CPT codes like 90837, 90834, 90792, or H0001, you are already behind. The GT modifier, which for years served as the primary indicator that a service was delivered via interactive audio-video telecommunications, has been formally deprecated by CMS for Medicare claims. The transition has been rolling forward since 2022, and 2026 is the year we are seeing commercial payers and Medicaid managed care organizations complete their own system updates to reject GT-modified claims as invalid or redundant. At Revenant Care Group, we are actively working with approximately 50 behavioral health practices across multiple states, and the pattern is consistent: practices that have not fully migrated their telehealth billing protocols are absorbing a preventable denial rate of 8 to 14 percent on their telehealth line items.

This post is not theoretical. We are going to walk through exactly what replaced GT, which modifiers and Place of Service codes are now required by claim type and payer class, what the dollar impact looks like at different practice sizes, and what you need to audit in your system before the next remittance cycle.

What Actually Replaced the GT Modifier

The short answer is that the Place of Service (POS) code now carries most of the weight that GT used to carry, and modifier 95 has become the operational standard for synchronous telehealth services under Medicare and most commercial contracts.

Here is how the current framework maps out for 2026:

• POS 02: Telehealth provided other than in patient’s home. Use this when the patient is located at a telehealth originating site such as a clinic, hospital, or community health center.
• POS 10: Telehealth provided in patient’s home. This is the code you should be using for the vast majority of outpatient behavioral health telehealth sessions post-PHE, where the patient is at home.
• Modifier 95: Appended to the CPT code to indicate synchronous real-time interactive audio-video telecommunication. This is now the required modifier for Medicare and is accepted by most commercial payers.
• Modifier 93: Indicates synchronous telemedicine service rendered via telephone or other real-time interactive audio-only telecommunications. This applies under specific CMS waivers for audio-only services in qualifying circumstances.

GT is not a valid modifier for Medicare claims in 2026. Appending it does not cause universal rejection in every clearinghouse today, but an increasing number of payers are now returning CO-4 or CO-16 denial codes specifically citing modifier-procedure code incompatibility. We have seen one mid-sized outpatient BH group (24 clinicians, roughly 1,800 claims per month) lose $31,000 in a single quarter to GT-related denials before they engaged us for an audit.

The CPT Codes Most Affected in Behavioral Health Telehealth

Not all telehealth CPT codes are equally exposed. In behavioral health, the highest-volume codes being hit are:

• 90837 (60-minute psychotherapy): Highest RVU code in outpatient BH, and the one where a billing error costs the most per claim. The Medicare national payment rate for 90837 in 2025 was approximately $174 in non-facility settings. At POS 10 with modifier 95, that rate is preserved. With an incorrect or missing modifier, you are looking at outright denial or payment at a reduced non-telehealth rate.
• 90834 (45-minute psychotherapy): Similar exposure, slightly lower unit value at approximately $131.
• 90792 (psychiatric diagnostic evaluation with medical services): Commonly billed by prescribers doing telehealth intakes. This code also requires the correct POS and modifier 95 to pay at the intended rate.
• H2019 (therapeutic behavioral services, per 15 minutes): Frequently used in SUD and crisis stabilization settings where telehealth delivery has expanded. Medicaid billing on this code is highly payer-specific but GT is increasingly rejected.
• 90853 (group psychotherapy): Telehealth group billing has its own audit risk, particularly around the documentation of synchronous connection for each group member. POS 10 and modifier 95 still apply per claim.

Dollar Impact by Practice Size

We want to give you a realistic benchmark, not a hypothetical. Based on the practices we work with, here is how the exposure scales:

• Small practice (3 to 5 clinicians, 400 to 600 telehealth claims per month): A denial rate of 10 percent on telehealth claims at an average allowed amount of $130 translates to roughly $5,200 to $7,800 in monthly gross revenue at risk. Annually, that is $62,000 to $94,000 in either denials or underpayments that require rework.
• Mid-size group (15 to 25 clinicians, 1,500 to 2,500 telehealth claims per month): The same 10 percent denial rate at $130 average produces $19,500 to $32,500 in monthly exposure. That is $234,000 to $390,000 annually in preventable revenue leakage.
• Large outpatient BH or SUD program (50 or more clinicians, 5,000-plus telehealth claims per month): At this scale, even a 5 percent error rate costs $32,500 per month or more. We have seen practices at this level recover $40,000 to $60,000 per month after modifier and POS corrections combined with payer contract renegotiation.

These numbers assume only the telehealth modifier issue. If your practice also has underpayment issues tied to parity violations, the combined impact is significantly higher. We have written about that exposure separately in our analysis of MHPAEA parity appeals and where behavioral health practices are leaving money on the table.

What Medicaid and Commercial Payers Are Doing Differently in 2026

One of the most operationally complex realities we are managing for clients right now is that payer behavior is not uniform. Medicare has the clearest mandate: GT is deprecated, POS 02 or POS 10 is required, modifier 95 is the standard for synchronous audio-video. But Medicaid managed care organizations and commercial payers are in varying stages of their own system transitions.

The pattern we are seeing across about 50 BH practices:

• Roughly 60 percent of commercial payers have fully deprecated GT in their claims adjudication logic as of early 2026.
• Approximately 25 percent of Medicaid MCOs are still accepting GT but issuing it alongside updated contract language requiring migration to modifier 95 and updated POS codes by mid-2026.
• A small number of regional payers and Medicaid fee-for-service programs are in active transition with no formal provider notification yet issued.

This means your billing team cannot apply a single rule across all payers. The correct approach is a payer-by-payer matrix maintained in your practice management system, updated quarterly. If you are using a clearinghouse, confirm whether their rules engine is flagging GT as invalid per payer. Most are, but not all have completed updates for Medicaid MCO variations.

The Audit Steps You Should Run Before Your Next Claim Cycle

If you are an RCM director or CFO reading this, here are the concrete steps to run before the end of this billing week:

• Pull a 90-day telehealth claim report segmented by modifier used. Identify the volume of claims still carrying GT versus modifier 95 versus no modifier.
• Cross-reference denial reason codes on telehealth claims. CO-4, CO-16, CO-97, and PR-204 are the codes most frequently associated with modifier and POS mismatches in telehealth claims.
• Verify your POS mapping in your EHR and practice management system. Confirm that telehealth appointment types are defaulting to POS 10 for home-based patient sessions and POS 02 for facility-based originating sites.
• Review your payer contracts for telehealth billing requirements updated in 2024 or 2025. Many contracts contain telehealth addenda that specify modifier and POS requirements that differ from the base CMS guidance.
• Check your clearinghouse edit library for GT modifier suppression rules by payer ID.

If your practice also provides SUD services with drug screening, note that coding accuracy on high-complexity screens using codes like G0480 through G0483 follows a similar pattern of systematic under-coding and incorrect modifier application. We covered that in detail in our post on G0480 to G0483 drug screen coding and the revenue SUD practices are missing.

Take Action Before Denials Compound

Telehealth billing errors compound quickly because they tend to repeat across every clinician and every claim until someone identifies and corrects the root configuration. The GT modifier deprecation is a known, fixable problem with a clear correction path. What makes it costly is delay. At Revenant Care Group, we offer a free 30-day denial audit where we identify exactly where your telehealth claims are leaking revenue, which modifiers and POS codes need correction, and what your estimated recovery looks like. There is no commitment required to get the audit. If you want to know what your practice is actually leaving on the table, schedule your free audit directly on our calendar here and we will get started within 48 hours.