2027 ABA CPT Code Changes: Every New, Revised, and Deleted Code

Your ABA CPT codes are changing on January 1, 2027. Six new codes arrive, eight get reworded, and two disappear for good.

This is the biggest change to the ABA CPT codes since the permanent set landed in 2019, and it changes how you document, not just what you submit. Everything below is written so a brand new biller can follow it.

ABA CPT codes basics: units, descriptors, and who bills what

A CPT code is a five-character code telling an insurance company what service you delivered. Every ABA claim line carries one. The official wording attached to each code is the descriptor, and it decides whether your note supports the claim.

Almost every ABA CPT code bills in 15-minute units. One hour is four units. You don't have to land exactly on 15 either. Deliver at least 8 minutes and you bill one unit. Under 8 minutes, nothing.

Two roles matter. A QHP is a qualified health care professional, which in ABA almost always means the BCBA. A technician is usually an RBT. Some codes pay for BCBA time and some pay for technician time. Mixing these up is one of the most common mistakes new billers make.

Last pair. A base code stands on its own. An add-on code only exists to sit next to a base code, so billing an add-on alone gets rejected every time.

What is changing in the 2027 ABA CPT codes

Four things, all effective January 1, 2027:

1. Six new ABA CPT codes join the adaptive behavior family.

2. The eight codes from 97151 to 97158 get revised descriptors.

3. Coding guidelines and parenthetical instructions get updated.

4. Category III codes 0362T and 0373T are deleted.

The AMA CPT Editorial Panel approved the change in September 2025, on an application from the ABA Coding Coalition. Details then stayed private under AMA confidentiality rules for months. CMS finally published them in the proposed 2027 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule on July 14, 2026, on pages 146 to 149.

Why the 2027 ABA CPT codes are public but not official yet

You can read the new descriptors today. You can't bill them, and the wording can still change.

The proposed rule runs through a 60-day comment period and gets finalized in November 2026. Nothing is official until the AMA publishes the 2027 CPT Professional Edition later this year. That's why the six new codes still appear as placeholders: 97X1X, 97X2X, 97X3X, 97X4X, 97X5X, and 97X6X.

The ABA Coding Coalition has asked providers and payers not to reconfigure EMR systems yet. Follow that. Read the descriptors, plan around them, hold off on the build.

The two ABA CPT codes going away: 0362T and 0373T

0362T covered assessment support for a patient showing destructive behavior. 0373T covered treatment with protocol changes for the same population. Both needed two or more technicians, a QHP on site, and an environment customized to that patient.

Both are Category III codes. Category I codes are permanent and widely covered. Category III codes are temporary, and payers cover them at their own discretion. That single difference is why these two paid unevenly for years.

They're older than most people assume. The Category III adaptive behavior codes took effect July 1, 2014. When the permanent 97151 to 97158 set arrived in January 2019, most temporary codes were deleted. These two were kept and reworded instead.

Some payers gave up waiting. Arizona's Medicaid program, AHCCCS, stopped allowing both codes on July 1, 2023 and told providers to use 97151 through 97158 instead.

If you've fought these codes with payers, our ABA Billing Playbook covers the payer rules behind each ABA CPT code.

An overview of the 8 revised ABA CPT codes

These eight aren't going away. They're getting new descriptor wording, and one change is significant.

Code	Who delivers it	What it covers
97151	BCBA	Assessment with patient and caregivers, plus the desk work: scoring, reviewing past data, writing the treatment plan. Both kinds of time count.
97152	Technician	Assessment support tasks, face-to-face with the patient.
97153	Technician	Treatment following the BCBA's protocol, one patient. The code you'll bill most.
97154	Technician	Same as 97153, two or more patients at once.
97155	BCBA	Directing the technician and analyzing progress.
97156	BCBA	Caregiver training, with or without the kiddo present. Protocols, treatment targets, teaching caregivers to run them.
97157	BCBA	Same as 97156, several families at once, no patients present.
97158	BCBA	Group treatment delivered by the BCBA rather than a technician.

Two minor changes first. Codes 97156, 97157, and 97158 pick up "with analysis" language, and 97152 and 97153 drop the "under the direction of" phrasing. Neither changes who does the work.

97155 is the real one. Today it covers BCBA treatment with protocol changes, and it can include directing a technician at the same time. In 2027 it becomes direction of technician plus analysis, and the hands-on treatment part moves to a brand-new code.

So, if your team uses 97155 for both directing and treating, that work splits across two codes next year. Pull five recent 97155 notes and ask which 2027 code each supports. If the answer isn't obvious, your template needs work before January.

The Six New ABA CPT Codes

The six new codes add three capabilities: harmful behavior services, non-face-to-face BCBA work, and direct treatment by the BCBA.

Harmful behavior ABA CPT codes (97X1X, 97X2X, 97X4X, 97X5X)

Four of the six cover harmful behavior. Two are base codes and two are add-ons.

97X1X is the assessment base code. Two technicians work face-to-face with a patient showing harmful behavior, in a setting arranged for that specific patient. 97X2X is its add-on for technicians beyond the first two.

97X4X is the treatment base code with the same three requirements. 97X5X is its add-on, one line per additional technician. All four bill in 15-minute units.

New billers tend to read "customized environment" as a fancy clinic. It isn't. It means the space is set up so the specific behavior can be handled safely. Swapping a hard object for a foam one. A padded room for a kiddo who head-bangs.

Here's what the add-on structure does to a claim. Say a kiddo with severe self-injury needs four technicians for a 60-minute treatment session. Under 0373T you billed one code, four units, one line. Now you bill the base code at four units, plus an add-on line for the third technician and another for the fourth.

Same session. Three lines instead of one.

Your note has to hold up all three lines. Names, roles, and time in and out for every technician in the room. A note that says "multiple staff assisted" loses the add-on units even when four people really were there. That's the kind of gap covered in step by step guide to reducing claim denials.

Two open details. The treatment add-on says each additional technician, while the assessment add-on uses the plural and drops the word each, so the two may not bill the same way. And the on-site QHP requirement that 0362T and 0373T carried doesn't appear in the proposed descriptors. It could return in the coding guidelines. Don't assume either way.

The non-face-to-face ABA CPT code (97X3X)

Face-to-face means in the room with the patient. Non-face-to-face is work done away from them, and until now that BCBA work mostly wasn't billable at all.

97X3X changes that. It covers reviewing and analyzing treatment data and session notes, deciding whether to change targets, goals, or protocols and making those changes, deciding whether more assessment is needed and building or revising assessment protocols, writing a discharge or transition plan, and training technicians on revised protocols.

Every BCBA already does this. What changes is that it becomes billable and auditable.

The descriptor says personally performed. That word matters. This isn't time you can hand off and still bill. It's a 15-minute code like the rest.

Most practices have no record of this time, because it was never billable. If 97X3X holds, you need a contemporaneous log. Not a January reconstruction.

The direct BCBA treatment ABA CPT code (97X6X)

97X6X is adaptive behavior treatment with analysis, delivered by the BCBA or physician, face-to-face with one patient, each 15 minutes. This is where hands-on BCBA treatment lands once 97155 shifts to direction and analysis.

Payment and telehealth under the new ABA CPT codes

CMS extended carrier pricing through 2027, covering your current ABA CPT codes and all six new ones. Carrier pricing means no national Medicare rate exists. Each contractor and each payer sets its own, so your rate comes from negotiation, not a fee schedule you can look up.

On telehealth, CMS proposes keeping 97151 through 97158 on the permanent list. The six new codes weren't addressed, and the Coalition plans to request their addition during the comment period.

Even if Medicare is a small slice of your book, many commercial payers use Medicare policy as their starting point. That's why revenue cycle management starts with payer policy tracking.

Mistakes to avoid with the 2027 ABA CPT codes

The 2027 ABA CPT code changes will affect documentation, authorizations, billing, and payer workflows. A few simple steps now can help you avoid claim issues later.

1. Build your crosswalk. A crosswalk maps which old code becomes which new one. Build it before January 2027, not during.

2. Pull your baseline numbers. Twelve months of 0362T and 0373T volume, units, and paid rate by payer. That's your crosswalk evidence and your rate negotiation ammunition.

3. Count technicians in your notes. Read five multi-technician notes and ask whether they'd survive an audit as a base code plus two add-ons. "Probably" is a no.

4. Log non-face-to-face BCBA time now, while the stakes are low.

5. Call payers about prior authorizations crossing January 1. A prior authorization is payer approval before you deliver a service, and most ABA treatment codes need one. Any auth spanning the cutover may need a mid-stream code change, so start in Q4 2026.

6. Ask your EMR vendor specific questions. Not "will you support the new codes." Ask how it schedules multiple technicians on one session and captures QHP non-face-to-face time separately.

A code transition is also where AR quietly ages. If claims start rejecting in January, Our Accounts Receivable Management Services keeps a coding change from becoming a cash flow problem.

Frequently asked questions about the 2027 ABA CPT codes

When do the 2027 ABA CPT codes take effect?

January 1, 2027. Six new codes are added, 97151 through 97158 get revised descriptors, and 0362T and 0373T are deleted. The AMA approved the change in September 2025, and the descriptors became public in the CMS proposed rule on July 14, 2026.

Will 0362T and 0373T still be billable after January 1, 2027?

No. Both are deleted nationally on that date, and some payers dropped them years earlier. Plan your crosswalk to the new harmful behavior codes before the cutover.

Are the new ABA CPT code numbers available yet?

No. The descriptor language is public through the CMS proposed rule, but the numbers are still placeholders like 97X1X. Final numbers arrive with the 2027 CPT Professional Edition in late 2026. Keep billing your current codes until then.

How to Prepare for the 2027 ABA CPT Code Changes

The practices that handle this well won't be the ones who memorize six new numbers. They'll be the ones whose notes already prove technician counts and whose BCBAs already log non-face-to-face time. That work can start now.

At Cube, ABA CPT codes get checked against payer rules, units, and authorizations before a claim goes out. That's how we hold a 98.9% clean claim rate, 18-day average AR, and a denial rate under 3%. Proactive denial management is cheaper than appeals every time.

Curious what your 0362T and 0373T volume means for 2027? Book a free billing audit and we'll build your crosswalk.