Why Athletes Are Choosing Cash Physical Therapy Over Insurance Clinics

You tweak your shoulder lifting, your knee starts bothering you during runs, or your back tightens up after deadlifts. You go to physical therapy expecting individualized treatment — but instead you’re doing the same exercises as every other person in that clinic, you maybe get 10 minutes to talk with the therapist, and there is little to no change in exercises done each session. The same exercises, the same gradual progression through bands, for all different types of people with different goals. 

More doctors , less clarity 

For many athletes, this experience is frustrating. It’s also one of the main reasons more active people are choosing cash-based physical therapy.

The reality is that most traditional physical therapy clinics operate within a system that prioritizes insurance reimbursement and high patient volume. While this model works well for many conditions, it often doesn’t provide the level of individualized attention athletes need to recover fully and perform in their sport. 

Why More Athletes are Choosing Cash Based Physical Therapy

1. One-on-one Treatment, Increased Responsivity

   Individualized programming, real time adjustments to the plan of care, exercise variety every session based on how you feel in that moment. Not 3 weeks of the same exercises and begging for change in your plan of care. With consistency, and following the physical therapists plan of care recommendations, Progress should be seen within 2 weeks.

2. More Time with the Therapist

   -Trifecta therapists will listen and talk with you longer and more thoroughly than any PT you have been with before. “If you listen to a patient long enough, they will tell you what's wrong. If you listen even longer, they will tell you how to get them better.”

   -Trifecta therapists are constantly evaluating treatment effectiveness within each session.

   -Continued assessment = faster progression and return to sport

3. Faster Return to Sport

   Our physical therapists utilize objective testing for athlete readiness and progression, continual assessment of response to treatment, and cutting edge technology for optimized return to sport timelines. 
   

   Objective measures-

   • Force plate analysis for hip, knee, ankle, and low back injuries 

     -Assess asymmetry during squatting, deadlift, jumping

     -Assess vertical jump height, rate of force development and a variety of other metrics to assess readiness to perform in sport 

   • Hand Held Dynamometry strength testing for rotator cuff, knee, and other upper / lower body injuries

   • Joint Position Error testing for neck pain, vertigo, TMJ related symptoms to assess for possible dysfunction stemming from the cervical spine

   • Pressure Pain Threshold testing to assess systemic sensitization in chronic pain patients, and also used for a variety of injuries to assess intervention effectiveness on the ability of the body to accommodate specific forces in areas of concern. 

   • Golf launch monitor for our golfers with pain to assess swing metrics in combination with our golf swing analysis to unlock areas that may be limiting you from reaching your full potential within your golf game.

   • Video gait analysis for our runners or athletes returning to running to identify asymmetries, compensations, and create plans to address differences to maximize running economy. 

   Technology-

   • OVR velocity based training

   • OVR speed gates for sprinting, speed, and agility during return to performance testing and prep

   • Shockwave therapy

   • Dry needling

   • Biofeedback therapy for improved neuromuscular activation

   • Synaptec neurocognitive training 

   • Blaze Pods

   • Cupping 

   • Blood flow restriction training 

   • Pneumatic compression therapy

4. Less doctor office visits, more answers

   We are trained to triage and assess the need for further medical follow up. Our goal is to save you time and money with our thorough screening and plan of care designed to fit your schedule and goals.

5. Individualized programming

   • Sessions designed for you with your goals in mind.

   • Variety within every session: you shouldn’t be able to go through your entire PT session in your head before you show up for your appointment. There are a variety of ways to go about reaching your goals. PT sessions should have programming that is specific to you, with variety in each session. 

6. Fewer insurance restrictions

   Coming in for back pain, tweaked your shoulder? We can assess and treat it. Insurance does not limit what we can do within your plan of care.

Written by Dr. John Vizzini, PT, DPT, OCS, CIDN