Cash Physical Therapy | for Therapeutic Wealth

During this global economic crisis how can one even THINK of doing cash-pay physical therapy?  I NEVER wanted to hear of over 500,000 U.S. workers losing their jobs in a a single month?  As these workers lose their jobs their ability to pay for their own health insurance premiums decreases.  Many physical therapy clinics are experiencing a decrease in new patients and many clients are canceling their P.T. visits due to rising copays.  A local physical therapy clinic owner I visited last week (who incidentally sent me a cash-paying patient I’ve been treating since May) reported that his number of new patients for the year had gone up but his revenues had gone down.  He’d had to cut therapists’ salaries in order to avoid lay-offs.  He also reported that their cost of collection was about 6% (in-house) and their percentage collected was about 85%.  Many countries have many companies that are laying off employees.

Every “problem” can be seen as a challenge.  Every challenge is no more than a situation that may in fact need to be attended to.  If you are a physical therapist with a little extra time on your hands due to the recession it can be a great opportunity for you.  I heartily recommend our own “Cash Practice Secrets” home study course.  The intro is both excellent and free.  When you sign up for our “online training” you’ll really be glad.  Invest in our course and you’ll likely earn more than you did last year and feel better about it.  I’m trying out a free clinical home study course and will let you know how it makes MY “no longer 21 year old joints” feel.  If you’re still BUSY at work or busy studying to be a PT learn all you can to prepare you for possibly tougher times ahead.  You can only reap what you sow so…. Sow Seeds of Success!

All of us physical therapists must think of ourselves as marketers.  We should always be thinking of ways ways to boost sales. Read all »

“Try to give them hope”. “This is my Christmas gift to Dad”. “MY Christmas gift will be the next eight visits”. “Mine will be the next eight!” Those lines were spoken by a friend of the family who met me in the driveway, the patient’s’ eldest daughter, the patient’s wife, and the patient’s youngest daughter respectively all between 1:1o and 2:05 p.m. this afternoon.

Yesterday after telling the patient’s daughter Marie how much it they could save by buying eight visits in advance she said, “That’s a good deal!” . My fees are about 25% above the Medicare fee schedule.

After Wilbur’s first and second walk in over 6 weeks a mighty cheer went up from the family. Wilbur, my newest cash paying patient has a VERY good chance at improving his function no matter if he is on hospice. Read all »

I appreciate appreciation. Somehow with my cash-paying physical therapy clients I get appreciation more frequently and profusely than I did while relying on third party payers. Here’s an example from last Tuesday.

Lance (by cell phone): “I’ll be there to see your husband in ten minutes Mrs. Smith”.

Mrs. Smith: “Sounds good”! “See you then!” .

Ten minutes later I rang their doorbell, opened the door as usual and my jaw crashed to the carpet. The eighty plus year-old Mr. Smith was sprawled out in front of, instead of IN his recliner. I gasped.

Before I could say anything Mr. Smith piped, “How are you?”. He was thinking of ME first! Read all »

Many therapists are always wondering what the secrets to cash practice success are. Google searches are a very good way to find those secrets.

One secret that is very effective not only for cash practice but for anything under the sun is to take a home study course. In physical therapy, home study courses can help physical therapists to infuse more cash in their careers. This is the cutting edge of education.

Physical therapists taking home study courses do not need to reschedule sessions with their patients just to attend special classes anymore. Read all »

It’s great to get paid cash for physical therapy but all that matters is what you keep. There are three . Fewer support staff, lower rent, and little high cost equipment.

Fewer support staff.

An average traditional PT practice has 2.5 support staff per physical therapist. This includes a receptionist, a biller, possibly a PTA, and an aide / back office staff. With a cash practice no medical biller is needed and many practices have no support staff at all. Read all »

Today, blogs have two uses – advertising and making money online. These two uses depend on each other. Through advertising, blogs can be a money-making machine. Without blogs, there is no place for advertising. In physical therapy, marketing is not that easy since the target market is specific to age groups and health conditions.

Physical therapy marketing needs a lot of effort to attract, serve and retain customers. Positive feedback from previous customers is essential because it proves you, as a physical therapist has provided service with satisfaction guaranteed. Remember, the customer is always right and what they say to others matter most. Read all »

Excellent physical therapy skills plus excellent publicity equal the potential for a cash practice that leaves you feeling “therapeutic” at the end of the day. Expensive paid mass media advertising largely isn’t a part of cash-paid physical therapy.

Free publicity however is nearly priceless. This can be in the form of radio interviews, TV spots, or articles you write for targeted local papers or newsletters.

Larger cities however may ask you to buy advertising in order to write an article for their paper. That has never agreed very well with me. If you’re good at writing and put the word out, your copy will eventually get picked up. See the previous post and my physical therapy practice site for proof. Read all »