Why is Pursuit Physical Therapy Cash Based?

There is no doubt that reimbursement for medical services regardless of whether the patient is insured by Medicare or other insurance companies will continue to decrease.  The needs for healthcare services will continue to increase, especially with the baby boomers coming through, but reimbursement will continue to decrease.  This presents a major problem that is quickly becoming reality for many private practices.  Healthcare providers will be forced to see more patients a day, double and triple booking patients, placing patients with assistants that are less qualified, having decreased one-on-one patient care, that all lead to poor outcomes and a decreased quality of care.  Many clinicians already find it difficult to provide the desired quality of care when treating multiple patients at once, and it is even harder with the constraints and guidelines placed on by insurance companies.  

The reason Pursuit Physical Therapy is a cash-based service is because there is no way to treat patients the way that we feel is most effective and accept insurance, without going bankrupt.  Insurance companies only reimburse about half what is billed.  In order to make a profit, clinics that handle insurance have their patients be seen by assistants and less qualified clinicians.  They are also forced to see multiple patients at the same time, so if you would go to an insurance based clinic, you will be double or triple booked with another patient.  We spend 30 or 60 minutes of one-on-one time with each one of my patients, primarily using manual therapy that has been shown to show superior outcomes and better results than standard care. No physician script is required so we can treat you now, and you do not have to wait weeks to be seen or treated.  While you are being treated here, you will not be charged for exercises that you can easily do at home on your own.  With this approach, we feel confident that we can get you better in less than half of the number of visits they would need at an insurance based clinic.  With the time savings of fewer clinic visits, and the value of feeling better sooner, most patients feel the out-of-pocket expense is more than worth it. We can also provide receipts with codes needed to send self claims to your insurance company.  Depending on your insurance plan, many of my patients receive some level of reimbursement or have the cost of their treatment applied to their deductible.