208100000X Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation Physician

Definition

Physical medicine and rehabilitation, also referred to as rehabilitation medicine, is the medical specialty concerned with diagnosing, evaluating, and treating patients with physical disabilities. These disabilities may arise from conditions affecting the musculoskeletal system such as neck and back pain, sports injuries, or other painful conditions affecting the limbs, such as carpal tunnel syndrome. Alternatively, the disabilities may result from neurological trauma or disease such as spinal cord injury, head injury or stroke. A physician certified in physical medicine and rehabilitation is often called a physiatrist. The primary goal of the physiatrist is to achieve maximal restoration of physical, psychological, social and vocational function through comprehensive rehabilitation. Pain management is often an important part of the role of the physiatrist. For diagnosis and evaluation, a physiatrist may include the techniques of electromyography to supplement the standard history, physical, x-ray and laboratory examinations. The physiatrist has expertise in the appropriate use of therapeutic exercise, prosthetics (artificial limbs), orthotics and mechanical and electrical devices.

— NUCC Health Care Provider Taxonomy, version 26.1

Where 208100000X sits

• Group: Allopathic & Osteopathic Physicians — code 168 of 238 in the group
• Classification: Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation 208100000X

This is the general code for Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation. 7 more specific codes sit beneath it; pick one of those when the provider's training or certification matches it, and this one otherwise. A provider may report more than one taxonomy code on an NPI but marks one as primary.

Medicare

CMS's taxonomy crosswalk links 208100000X to Medicare specialty 25 (Physician/Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation). That specialty — not the taxonomy code itself — is what Medicare enrollment records and uses for payment. 10,933 practitioners are enrolled under it nationally, and 6 other taxonomy codes map to the same specialty.

Other codes under the same Medicare specialty: 2081H0002X Hospice and Palliative Medicine (Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation) Physician; 2081N0008X Neuromuscular Medicine (Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation) Physician; 2081P0004X Spinal Cord Injury Medicine Physician; 2081P0010X Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine Physician; 2081P2900X Pain Medicine (Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation) Physician; 2081S0010X Sports Medicine (Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation) Physician.

Related codes

History of 208100000X

NUCC's earliest recorded change to 208100000X is from 2007 (definition added, source added), and has been revised 1 time since.

• 2007-07-01 — definition added, source added
• 2011-07-01 — modified source

Similar codes in other groups

If 208100000X is not quite right, these codes in other groups share a word with it — often the same field practised by a different kind of provider:

• 103TR0400X Rehabilitation Psychologist (Behavioral Health & Social Service Providers)
• 111NR0400X Rehabilitation Chiropractor (Chiropractic Providers)
• 125Q00000X Oral Medicine Dentistry (Dental Providers)
• 152WL0500X Low Vision Rehabilitation Optometrist (Eye and Vision Services Providers)
• 163WC3500X Cardiac Rehabilitation Registered Nurse (Nursing Service Providers)
• 163WC0200X Critical Care Medicine Registered Nurse (Nursing Service Providers)

Using 208100000X

The code goes in the taxonomy field of the NPI application in NPPES, and on claims where a payer asks for it — box 24J (shaded) or 33b on the CMS-1500 with the ZZ qualifier, or the PRV segment of an 837 electronic claim. Payers match it against the taxonomy on the NPI record and, for Medicare, against the specialty on the enrollment, so all three should agree. To see which code a provider uses, search their NPI in the lookup.

Sources: NUCC Health Care Provider Taxonomy code set, version 26.1 (CSV); CMS Medicare Provider and Supplier Taxonomy Crosswalk, August 2026; CMS Medicare Fee-For-Service Public Provider Enrollment, extract of 2026-09-29. Checked 2026-10-24. Methodology.