Starting a Physical Therapy Practice in Louisiana?

Question

Does anyone know how PT companies are paid by insurance. Is it X amount per visit, or per hour or what? My wife is a PT and would like to open one in the next five years and was wondering if anyone had any insight on this matter. If you do own one, what is your opinion of owning your own practice vs working for someone else or a hospital? Is the money that much better and is it worth the extra headaches? Thank you very much in advance.

Answer 1

How long has your wife been practicing as a PT? She should already know the answers to these questions. First, she should join the private practice section of the APTA ( http://www.ppsapta.org/ and http://www.apta.org ) and gather resources on starting a practice. There are many books on this subject (example: Starting and Managing Your Own Physical Therapy Practice by
Samuel H. Esterson, PT, MBA, DSc). Second, consider a partnership with a company that supports and promotes private practices (ex: USpt http://www.usph.com/index.asp ). Third, to actually answer your question, a PT practice holds contracts with insurance companies. The insurance company pays a set percentage of each charge. Example: The PT performs an initial evaluation ($100), manual therapy ($50) and electric stimulation ($25). An insurance company may reimburse 62.45 for the eval, 23.56 for the manual therapy, and 9.23 for the electric stimulation. Many insurance companies have limitations on number of visits per year or amount reimbursed per year.

Answer 2

I'm going for my major in PT as well and i've been told by many people that the real way to make money is to open your own buisness. You're on the right track