Direct Access to Physical Therapy

[Guest Prosoft Admin]

Great news for patients who wish to begin Physical Therapy treatments faster, depending on your insurance type, you can now choose to be treated by Mike Golisano, Mike Napierala or Karen Napierala without having to see your primary care or orthopedic doctor first!

It's called, Consumer Choice to Directly Access Physical Therapy or "Direct Access" and it is a great Law in New York State that allows you to seek treatment from a Physical Therapist for either 10 visits or 30 days whichever comes first without requiring a prescription from your doctor.

There are some exceptions to the Law of course, Worker's Compensation and No Fault patients are still required to have a valid prescription from their Primary Care or Orthopedic Doctor to begin and continue Physical Therapy treatments.

Most of the local Rochester Insurance Carriers do participate with Direct Access. However, certain insurance carriers, such as Medicare, choose to still require a prescription in order to pay claims submitted for Physical Therapy.

Also, in order to be eligible, the rendering Physical Therapist must have at least 3 years of full-time practice experience.

If you are unsure whether your insurance carrier will cover Physical Therapy services rendered under the New York State Direct Access Law you can always give us a call at 585-218-0240 and we will be more than happy to check for you!

Direct Access is a proven way to save employers, insurance carriers and patients money and time. Some key facts:

• Self-referral/direct access puts patients/clients in control of their care
• Patients/clients who refer themselves to physical therapy:
  • are more proactive
  • are more autonomous in making health decisions
  • take less time off work
  • return to work sooner
  • are more likely to complete a course of treatment
  • are more interested in self management
  • are more satisfied with their care
• Self-referral/direct access saves money through:
  • reducing costs of seeing other health professionals eg general practitioners/family physicians
  • less prescribing
  • less investigations
  • less secondary care
  • reducing costs to society eg through time off work
  • less administration costs

As you can see, Direct Access not only saves you time and money but can also help get you back to work or even just enjoying the things you love with less hassle.

If you have any questions about Direct Access and how it can help you, please don't hesitate to give us a call! 218-0240

 

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