Want to watch a video summary? Video
If you are an athlete in any sense of the word, you will, at times, find yourself with some aches, pains, or injuries that need addressing. Whether you are a college athlete, an early morning crossfitter, an avid outdoorsman, or a weekend city-league soccer player, your body will at times be in need of more than just ice or a hot bath to keep moving forward with your favorite athletic pursuits. Finding a highly knowledgeable, movement and health based Physical Therapist is key to maintaining, healing, and protecting your body as you continue to age.
Having quick and easy access to comprehensive care that dives deep into not only what is ailing your body, but how and why it’s ailing your body, is quite possibly one of the best ways to continue living a healthy, active, and pain-free life. Here are three reasons why you need to have a direct care, direct pay Physical Therapist in your life and on your health and wellness team.
1) A direct pay Physical Therapist bypasses the traditional medical system.
They offer the ability to skip past the often notoriously quick diagnosis given by many providers, and head straight to the origin of your pain for healing. Comprehensive movement exams at the start of your physical therapy session mean the highest chance of pinpointing exactly what is going on with your body. Many times, one of two movement tests done in-office by the more traditional medical system will reveal “injuries'' that require further costly and time consuming testing. Physical Therapy first allows for more accurate assessments and a plan of action to be made before jumping into further, often unnecessary, testing.
Referrals and insurance approval for more traditional forms of diagnosis, like an MRI, can rob you of significant healing time at the onset of an injury. Treatment starting within a few days or week of a new injury gives you a better (and quicker) chance of recovery. We have seen people with low back pain who receive earlier treatment having less limitations faster than those who wait for treatment. Even though you are utilizing a direct pay PT, you are bound to save money over the expense of a costly MRI. Further, if the results of the MRI are not likely to change the treatment path anyway, then it’s clear that heading to the PT first is the best choice.
2) A direct pay Physical Therapist has a duty of service solely to you as the patient.
There are no insurance hoops for them to jump through. There are no unending insurance forms and papers and referrals to deal with. There is nothing they have to document or prove to the insurance before moving on to more sessions or different methods of treatment. They can simply, and devotedly care for you in the best ways possible.
Because the direct pay Physical Therapist has a duty solely to you as the patient, you can play a more active role in your own care. You can freely speak up if you aren’t fond of a particular method of treatment. In this set up, you also typically get to be one on one with your PT for the entire visit (as opposed to the more traditional set up of 15 minutes with the PT, and the rest with an assistant or doing exercises off on your own). This means that you have time to request more information about what is going on with your body, and the space to be able to discuss, understand, and even personally get to know and trust your PT.
Since there is less insurance related paperwork, and more time for you as the patient, your PT will often have more time to dive into understanding your sport-related movement patterns. This will help them establish a better plan of action for the types of movements you are doing, and how to best support your body as you return to those movements.
3) A direct pay Physical Therapist puts your health in your own hands.
Today, active adults are more ready to take charge of their own health than ever before. Eating healthy, sleeping well, and having good recovery methods have become more of the norm for adults wanting to live healthy and enjoyable lives. Having a team of people that help you to keep moving and doing the things you love is an easy extension to provide the lifestyle you desire. The ability to catch and treat minor injuries at their onset will keep you riding your bike, playing soccer, doing Jiu Jitsu, or showing up to your favorite CrossFit class. A PT who has your best interests at heart and wants to see you get back to your favorite sports ASAP will quickly become one of your favorite parts of your recovery process.
Finding a great direct pay physical therapist can be a challenge, but it’s a challenge that is wholly worth it. Once you find someone who has a similar outlook towards being active and healthy, always puts your interests first, and is relatively quick and easy to get in to see, you will never want to look back to your old ways of finding answers for injuries through long, arduous, and expensive traditional routes of care.
We have established The Health Lab with you and your individual needs in mind. We have established a practice that enables us to give you quick access to the highest quality care, tailored to your needs. We have cut out the mess of the medical system, allowing us to help you in the best ways possible.
Do you have an injury that just hasn’t been addressed by the medical system? Have you been told to rest and see if it gets better, only to find no next step when it isn’t actually better? Have you been told to stop doing certain activities without any regard for your own desires? If so, come see why The Health Lab is trusted by so many people. Call or book today to experience a 30 minutes free discovery visit, and see how we can work together to get you on the path to recovery and health.
Comments