Physical therapy places great emphasis on the evaluation process. Your physical therapist will take the time to talk with you and perform a thorough physical evaluation to identify the dysfunction that causes your pain. Your physical therapist will plan a treatment regimen suited to your individual problem and begin working to restore proper motion and ease discomfort.

Forty-three states have some form of direct access. Some state physical therapy practice acts require a diagnosis before a patient can see a therapist (this is the case in California, Michigan, and Colorado to name a few). Other states allow patients to go directly to physical therapists. In most cases, if you are not making significant improvement within 30 days, the therapist will refer you to/back to your physician.

Sandy Physical Therapy we treat a wide variety of injuries stemming from work, car accident, sports or disease. We specialize in treatment of orthopedic problems. These include neck and low back pain, shoulder, elbow, knee, and foot injuries, posture problems, TMJ and repetitive work injuries. We also provide rehabilitation after surgery for rotator cuff repair, total knee replacement, ACL reconstruction, ankle reconstruction, disc surgery of the spine and sport or exercise related injuries.

Who is better to see, a PT that works for a physician or a PT that owns a private practice? We leave it up to you to draw your own conclusions but here are some facts. The studies indicate there were more treatments (visits per patient were 39% to 45% higher in physician owned clinics) and the cost was greater for those patients that attended a physician owned physical therapy practice (both gross and net revenue per patient were 30% to 40% higher) (1).

Oftentimes, your physician will give you a recommendation or a listing of physical therapists in your area. Sometimes your insurance company will guide you with regard to who is "in network" for your insurance plan. If you have a specific request, you need to let your physician or insurance company know. Ultimately, however, the decision as to where you receive your care is up to you. Back to Top

The answer to this should be a resounding yes! Some healthcare offices and even a few doctor's and chiropractor's offices are billing for physical therapy by non licensed personnel. Not only is this unethical, in some cases it is fraudulent. You can find out if your therapist is licensed by checking with the Kansas Board of Healing Arts here: http://www.docboard.org/ks/df/kssearch.htm.

Recently, the State of New Jersey has passed a Direct Access law allowing physical therapists to see patients without a written prescription from a physician. However, since this is a recent change in the law, most insurance companies have not recognized this fact and still require proof of obtaining a written prescription from the physician to allow payment for physical therapy.

The physical therapist will communicate with your physician most commonly by written report. The physical therapist will send a complete written report outlining the findings of their initial evaluation as well as their assessment of the problem and an outline of the general treatment and frequency with which they intend to see you. The physical therapist will continue to update your physician with written reports as appropriate and most specifically prior to your return to the physician.