A Cash Pay Physical Therapy Practice

By Heather Allen, MS, PT

Journeying into Healing, LLC

. http://www.journeyingintohealing.com/

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A Cash Pay Physical Therapy Practice

To best explain how a cash pay physical therapy practice works, there are a couple of terms you will need to know. First, what is a cash pay practice? A cash pay practice is a practice that takes payment in full at the time of the service rather than submitting a statement to a patient's health insurance carrier for payment.

This makes the practice an Out of Network provider. An Out of Network Provider is a health service provider who has opted not to participate with insurance companies for the payment of services provided, making them a cash pay practice.

What is the benefit to a patient seeing an Out of Network Provider? By choosing to be an Out of Network Provider your health care professional has more freedom to treat you in the manner that best fits your personal needs, removing restrictions that are often placed on the practitioner by third party, or insurance payers.

This better allows the patient to reach goals at their own pace and improves overall patient outcome with physical therapy care.

Participating in a cash pay practice is easy; all you need to do is show up for treatment and provide payment for services in full at that time.

The common concern that many have after learning how the cash pay practice works is that going cash pay means that all of the physical therapy expenses incurred are paid out of pocket. While this is true initially, you can submit your receipts to your health insurance carrier for reimbursement after the services have been rendered and paid for.

In general, therapy expenses billed in a traditional physical therapy clinic average around $300-350 a visit, while in a cash pay practice the expense is significantly less, typically under a $100.

The great news is that most cash pay practices make it easy for you to work with your insurance company to get reimbursement for services you have received and paid for. Often they will provide you with a form to submit to your health insurance carrier. This form will contain all the necessary information your health insurance company needs to process a claim.

Not all insurance carriers reimburse for services provided and may not reimburse in full. We recommend that you determine if your policy has out of network coverage before starting care to ensure no disruptions once treatment has begun.