ABA CPT codes 97151 to 97158: what each one covers and what changes in 2027

CMS describes this family as the ABA-specific CPT codes 97151 through 97158, billed in 15-minute units¹. Here is what each one is for, in our words, with the provider type CMS lists for it. QHP means the qualified health care professional, which in ABA is usually the BCBA or a licensed professional; technician means the RBT or behavior technician working under that professional’s direction¹.

Two details that avoid real billing errors. 97156 is caregiver training to put strategies to work at home or school, not direct treatment of the client¹. And RBTs or technicians cannot bill 97157: they may assist under the BCBA’s lead, but they cannot lead it or bill it¹. One more distinction the revised 2027 descriptors state outright: 97156 can be delivered with or without the client present, while 97157 is delivered without the clients present².

97154 and 97158 are the group codes, and CMS reports that coverage parameters generally limit groups to 2 to 8 participants to keep the therapy useful¹. Florida’s fee schedule caps its groups at 6 clients⁵. Before you bill either one, settle a question the code number does not answer: whether the payer counts the 15-minute unit per participant or per group, and whether the family guidance codes count per family or per person. CMS lists these as coverage parameters, which means they live in the payer’s policy, not in the code. Get it in writing from the plan.

A unit is 15 minutes, but that does not mean every fraction is payable. Florida Medicaid’s fee-for-service rules pay a unit only when the service lasted 8 minutes or more, and for longer sessions you divide total minutes by 15, counting a leftover of 8 minutes or more as one additional unit⁴.

Billable supervision is also narrower than supervision as a whole. CMS associates billable supervision activity with 97153, 97155 and 97156, and sets the general test as whether the activity is a direct, medically necessary individual service, as opposed to training, employment supervision or administrative work¹.

0362T and 0373T sit outside the Category I family. Both describe 15-minute blocks of technician time with a client who shows destructive behavior, in an environment customized to that behavior, and both require the qualified professional to be on site with the assistance of two or more technicians². 0362T is the assessment side, 0373T the treatment side¹².

These are the two codes the CPT Editorial Panel deleted for 2027, which we come back to below.

Florida does not invent its own ABA codes: it reports the current CPT codes, modifiers and units incorporated by reference in rule 59G-4.002, Florida Administrative Code⁴. What the state adds is modifiers that split the same code by provider level and by delivery method. Its behavior analysis fee schedule distinguishes services provided by a lead analyst from those performed by a BCaBA, each with its own modifier and rate⁵. This mirrors a pattern CMS describes nationally: states often differentiate the codes by site of service and by the credential level of the billing provider¹.

Florida’s schedule also still lists 0362T, with a maximum of 16 units per initial assessment or reassessment and prior authorization required⁵. For the rates themselves and the unit caps per code, see the Florida Medicaid ABA fee schedule guide; for what goes into the assessment that 97151 pays for, see the initial assessment report guide.

At its September 2025 meeting the panel did three things²:

1. Deleted 0362T and 0373T.
2. Revised the eight existing codes, 97151 through 97158.
3. Created six new codes.

The stated purpose is to specify time more precisely, define terms, close reporting gaps and clarify how technician and QHP work is reported, both face to face and not face to face². Reading the proposed rule, the six new codes cover two-technician work with harmful behavior on the assessment and the treatment side, a code for the QHP’s non-face-to-face work, and a QHP face-to-face treatment code for one client².

We are not publishing the new code numbers, because we could not verify them in the sources we consulted: CMS names them with placeholders, 97X1X through 97X6X², and the final numbers are in the licensed CPT 2027 code set. The AMA released the CPT 2027 code set on September 9, 2026, with 453 editorial changes in total and an effective date of January 1, but its announcement does not list the adaptive behavior codes³. Check the published code set, and until then treat any number you see in a webinar as unverified.

Keep the two tracks separate. The deletions, revisions and new codes are the AMA panel’s work on the code set. The CMS proposed rule only decides how Medicare pays. On that, CMS proposes to have its contractors price the six new codes and to leave the status of the eight revised codes unchanged, since 97151 through 97158 are already contractor-priced².

Contractor pricing means there is no single national amount in the rule: the Medicare contractor sets it. For an ABA agency billing Medicaid or commercial plans, the practical consequence is that this rule tells you nothing about your rate. Your rate comes from the state fee schedule or the contract.

The comment period on the proposed rule closed on September 14, 2026². There is no published date for the final rule, so do not plan around one.