TLDR: You deserve better physical therapy care than what your insurance company is dictating to you. Ditch the insurance and come see us and we can get you better!
When I was a new physical therapist and still in the insurance world, where all of my patients were just a number and I was treating multiple people all at once, it felt like I was getting people to “good enough”. Based on insurance regulations and restrictions, people would come to me with an injury and we would work together for a few visits and then the insurance would have you do a progress note or re-evaluation and show the progress the person has made so far. Based on the progress and whether they have made very little progress or too much progress, the insurance company makes the decision of whether that person gets to continue with their physical therapy. This goes for people who came to me in outpatient (think work, sports, life injuries) and in a skilled nursing facility (think more of the older population and hip replacements, strokes, falls, etc).
The decision of whether that person would get to continue with their physical therapy was based solely on the insurance company and “trigger words” that they saw in notes from physical therapists. They look for certain things, such as a person’s pain level or level of function, or if they are walking, etc, to determine if they need to have more PT or not. They do not however take into consideration anybody’s personal goals or needs in daily life. For example, when I was in a skilled nursing home this was a specific situation that I ran into multiple times. I would have a person who was strong enough to walk with a walker with just somebody standing near them for supervision. But they didn’t have the strength or balance yet to be able to do the stairs yet, and they have a flight of stairs to get into their home, with only 1 railing or no railing at all. Even with assist from the physical therapist (or 2), it still wasn’t safe. So because the person needs to be able to do stairs to get inside, the physical therapist knows that they need more PT to be able to get to the point where they can do that! However, the insurance company sees that they can walk with only supervision, and they make the decision that they can go home safely! Why? Because they don’t look at the full picture. They see certain things that they are trained to see and that’s all that matters.
Most insurance companies and the people who are making these decisions for whether somebody is “appropriate” for PT have no medical background. They are not PTs or doctors or any other type of medical professional or medical background, besides the insurance training that they are given when they start their job. They do not have the appropriate background or qualifications to be making these decisions when it comes to people’s safety and function. That is what the PT is for!
So why don’t we work with insurance companies with Live Without Limits? Because everybody deserves better care and to reach their full potential. You can come to us without a doctor referral and you can come to us for injury prevention, an injury, stretching, mobility work, pain, mobility assessment, wellness and continuation of care after you have reached your PT goals. Everybody can benefit from physical therapy and here it is not limited to getting you good enough based on an insurance company.
Your goals and your physical therapy care are developing every time we meet. We meet every time one on one so you get the care that you deserve and so we can focus on specifically what you want and need. If you come to us with one goal in mind, and over time you decide you want to work on something else, your plan of care evolves with it. Why? Because you deserve that care!
You deserve better care than what insurance companies are dictating! So come on down to Live Without Limits Physical Therapy and Wellness and let’s get you destroying the goals that you want to and living the life that you deserve and want to!
Thanks for being here!
-Dr. Katie
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