How a Fee for Service or Cash Based Clinic SAVES You Money!

How a Fee for Service or Cash Based Clinic SAVES You Money!

If you value your health and your time, then the title of this blog is a 1000% true.

In a traditional physical therapy clinic, patients are very rarely seen on a one-on-one basis because insurance reimbursement is so low that they cannot keep the doors unless they see multiple patients an hour.

This model can delay the patient getting better because of the lack of one on one attention.

Lets look at some numbers.


If you do a Google search to find out how many visits physical therapy will take to fix back pain you will see a range of 8 to 20 visits depending on the source that you click on.  For the 15 plus years that I owned a traditional PT clinic, we averaged 12 visits.  So lets use that number.

The average co-pay is $35.  Patients tend to have huge deductibles now due to Obamacare.  With these large deductibles most people are paying out-of-pocket for services like physical therapy anyway.

I'm going to value your time and my time at $150.  For me, my free time is the most valuable commodity I have.  Its is certainly more valuable that $150 an hour, but, I will "low ball it" for the purpose of this article.

I will say that each PT visit is 1 hour of your time.

Here comes the math:

Traditional PT:  (12 Visit x $35 co-pay) + (12 hours of time ($150))= $2220

A cash model with ONE on ONE care will fix you faster.

With my method its 4 visits, so lets use that number.  Also, I give you the insurance forms to submit so that you can get reimbursed because I am out of network.

So lets use Blue Cross as the example.  Blue Cross reimburses about $88 for an hour of PT.

For my back program I charge $1000.00 so lets use that figure.

CASH PT:  $1000 + (4 visits x $150 per hour of time) = $1600  

Traditional PT = $2220   CASH PT = $1600   $600 Savings!

Don't forget the Out of Network Insurance Coverage:

CASH PT:  Blue Cross $88 x 4 visits = $352

CASH PT:  $1600 - $352 Insurance payment = $1248, now thats a $952 savings of your time and money.

AND...I didn't even put a number on how getting healthier faster will do to better your quality of life....

Those PT's who are fee for service or cash based are getting great results for their patients or they would not survive.  

The next time you need PT, seek out a private fee for service practice.