If you live in the United States and have any insurance, you don’t need a prescription to get a month of physical therapy. It’s called “direct access”, and you can call your local PT clinic and request a walk in appointment.
Here’s why this matters:
You hurt your back. Nothing major, you just moved wrong, maybe you heard a pop (or maybe not) and now it hurts to move. You could call to get in with an orthopedic specialist, but they’re booked a month out. You wait the month and see the doc who orders an MRI. That’s a 2 week wait. You do the MRI and have a follow up with the doc a week or two later. He sees something like degenerative disc/joint disease (which, if you’re over 25, you probably have) and sends you to PT. 2 months after your initial injury, you start PT. You have all sorts of weird compensatory movements due to the pain, everything hurts, and PT needs to work through months of guarding and compensations to make any progress.
Or.
You hurt your back with the same injury and mechanism as before. You call the doc and they’re booking a month out, so you make the appointment. In the meantime, you start PT. You work for a month to help stretch/strengthen/get things moving appropriately again. At the end of the month one of three things happens:
1. Your back feels better and you cancel your doctor’s appointment
2. Your back is getting better so you keep your appointment and request continued PT
3. Your back is NOT getting better, and you can tell your ortho that you’ve been doing PT for a month with no improvement, so they move alternative treatment options.
2. Your back is getting better so you keep your appointment and request continued PT
3. Your back is NOT getting better, and you can tell your ortho that you’ve been doing PT for a month with no improvement, so they move alternative treatment options.
In any case you’re in a much better situation than you were in the first situation.
***ETA: This is covered by insurance. Just pay your usual copay. The clinic will verify your insurance before you start to make sure you’re in network*** *See ETA 4 if you’re worried about deductibles or not having insurance*
ETA 2: [Here’s a link to what each state offers](https://www.choosept.com/globalassets/choosept/assets/pdf-downloadables/direct-access-by-state-map.pdf)
ETA 3: I used back as an example, but it’s anything you’d need PT for, from back to neck to knee or hip or shoulder…hell if your toe hurts and it’s been jacking up how you walk, we can probably help. We can also help with tension headaches!
ETA 4: I’m seeing a bunch of people rightfully worried about unmet deductibles and still having to pay out of pocket. Most clinics have a self-pay option which is substantially better than what we charge insurance (because we only get reimbursed a fraction of that). The self pay is basically just enough to cover overhead. If that’s not doable, many will also offer financing.
If you’re worried about the financial strain, *tell your therapist!!!* I’ve treated plenty of people who tell me at the evaluation that they’re strapped for cash. Instead of seeing them multiple times/week, I’ll do the eval to figure out what’s wrong, and then give them stretches and/or exercises, and educate how to progress them. I’ll have them come back in a few weeks and we can update the plan based on how they’re doing. It’s not ideal, but it’s better than living in pain!
Finally, if finances are absolutely limiting, a lot of public health clinics have resources for free or reduced cost/sliding scale PT. It’s generally one or two days per week and it’s therapists who are volunteering to help folks out.
The system is broken, but that doesn’t mean you have to live in pain.