Discover the benefits of choosing to go outside of your health plan for physical therapy services.

Private physical therapy is gaining popularity over the last few years. We all know that in recent years healthcare quality has become severely compromised. Many patients leave a healthcare experience feeling like just a number, and not getting answers to the questions they are looking for. 

Since many providers don’t have adequate time to spend with a patient, this leads to patients needing to see more providers, and spend more time at the Doctor’s just to try to get a solution to their symptoms. The physical therapy field is no different.

Due to insurance company reimbursement, many physical therapists see 3+ patients an hour. Many patients make decisions such as whether to have surgery, or have more invasive tests and procedures based on the success of physical therapy for they condition. Surgery has inherent risks, and many surgeries (especially pelvic surgeries) come with high rates of failure. This poses a problem if you are choosing to have surgery because you “failed” subpar physical therapy services.

Private physical therapy provides many benefits and offers patients a means to be the driver of their health decisions, and to give physical therapy a fair shot at working.

The benefits of private physical therapy include:

• One on one sessions for a full hour: This means that you will have your therapists undivided attention and can bring up any and all concerns that you are experiencing. 

• Since most insurance practices employ techs to lead you through exercises, you may get hurt, do your exercises incorrectly, or be unable to get assistance if something feels off.

• It could potentially end up costing you less for better quality care: Since we get so much done in a full hour, you typically will need less treatment sessions overall. At insurance based practices you will pay your copay 2-3 times per week for 12 weeks (A $50 copay paid 3 times per week x 12 weeks is $1800). At private physical therapists, you pay one flat fee and typically need far less visits than at an insurance based practice, this in turn can save you money in the long run.

  
  

• Meaningful treatments that are progressed and hands on the entire time. Since you are your therapists’s only patient, your therapist will be able to ensure you are doing your exercises correctly, and can spend the appropriate amount of time doing manual therapy with you. This in turn will get you better faster. 

• Many other physical therapy clinics have you doing the same exercises every session. By being hands on and progressing each treatment session, you have a better chance at quickly improving your symptoms at a private physical therapy clinic.

  
  

• More skilled physical therapists: Most private pay physical therapists are more skilled and invest more training into the specific patient populations they see. Unlike most insurance based physical therapists, private pay physical therapists typically specialize in a certain treatment population or diagnosis. The quality and skillset that private pay physical therapists offer is typically unmatched.

  
  

• Focusing treatment on your goals. By choosing to go with a private pay physical therapist, your entire treatment is designed to work towards your highest functional goal. The threshold for when you are better is set by you, not your insurance company. 

• With insurance based physical therapy, your insurance company may cut off your therapy sessions before you work on the tasks that are meaningful to you. In addition, you may not be able to progress you past a certain point because according to the insurance company standards, that you “met all of your goals” and are “functional”. 

  
  

• You are not just a number- everything is customized and individualized to you. Some busy physical therapy clinics see up to 4 patients per hour. This leads to physical therapist burnout and overall feeling like you are burdening your therapist when you need help with something. Since we treat you and only you for the hour that you are here, your therapist can give you the attention you deserve.

  
  

• The ability to look at all of the things playing a role in your symptoms. When you choose a private pay physical therapist, we can look beyond the body part that is giving you symptoms. 

• With an insurance model, the therapist is limited to treating one body part per day. Our body is a complex system that works as a whole unit, by only treating one body part, we are missing a huge piece of why you might be having symptoms. This often results in patients feeling like they need to “keep doing my exercises” in order to keep symptoms at bay. 

• Overall better experience. Many private pay physical therapy clinics invest more into their office spaces and the equipment that the facility offers. We truly want all of our patients to have the best physical therapy experience. This makes them more state of the art, and more comfortable for the patients that attend sessions there.

There are many benefits to choosing a private physical therapist. If your reasoning for choosing an insurance based provider is “they take my insurance so it must be cheaper”, we encourage you to crunch the numbers. Paying your copay multiple times per week, or paying for sessions out of pocket (if you haven’t met your deductible) could end up costing you more, for less quality care. 

Overall, choosing a private physical therapy is going to set you up to have the best physical therapy experience and the best chance of physical therapy working to improve your symptoms.

Vivid Women’s Health is a women’s health physical therapy practice located in Newtown, PA. We provide unmatched pelvic floor physical therapy to help women resolve pelvic floor symptoms. 

If you are local to the Newtown, Bucks County, PA area, please click here to find out more about our in person services. If you are visiting our site from afar, we offer virtual services to help you overcome your pelvic health concerns. For virtual services, please click here.

We proudly put our patients first by offer one-on-one appointments for a full hour. You will have time to be heard and we will take time to listen to your whole story. You won’t be passed between different professionals and we will work to get you a holistic solution to your pelvic health concerns. We choose to participate in a private pay model so that we can focus on putting patients first.