As we all know, the healthcare world is continuing to grow and shift to the needs of its providers and patients. These shifts include a transition to more and more practices offering virtual services to their patients, extending this shift to pelvic health practices.
Don't believe me? Learn about 10 interventions you can provide as a virtual pelvic health provider here.
As a pelvic health PT with the itch to dive into entrepreneurship, starting a practice might seem a bit intimidating. The exciting thing is that whether you’re opening a brick and mortar, offering mobile services, or going 100% online for your practice, the process of planning, research, and implementation is similar. In this post, we’re going to dive into the foundational concepts that each pelvic provider looking to start their own practice should first explore before making the leap.
Make a Pros and Cons List
As simple as it may seem, I encourage any physical therapist pondering private practice ownership to take time to physically write out a pros and cons list. I think this can be something that’s visually helpful for therapists because they can see side by side everything that could go right and everything that could go wrong.
The biggest piece with this is to sit with each side of things - the best that can happen and the worst that can happen. Ask yourself if you can accept both of these extremes if they are to come to reality. We are obviously hoping for the best of the best to occur, but the reality is there is a possibility that the worst of the worst could happen.
Once you feel like your own personal “worst of the worst” is something you can handle, you’re ready to take the next steps. If not, then becoming a practice owner may not be right for you.
Understand Your State’s Practice Act
Now that you’ve had time to get in the right mindset, start with looking into your state’s practice act. As boring as this may sound, it’s actually very valuable information to digest to better understand the limitations of what you can offer as a practitioner.
Look specifically for any stipulations regarding starting a therapy practice and if you’re looking to start a virtual practice, what does your practice act say about telehealth? As always, we want to stay within the confines of what our practice allows, following the guidelines that are readily available to us from our state board.
Does Your State Have Direct Access?
Moving in the direction of more legal technicalities, understanding direct access laws within your state is very important. This information should be something that is easy for Google to determine whether or not your state has direct access and limitations of those direct access laws.
For example, Kansas has a form of direct access in place. The limitation is that we as therapists are required to receive a signed plan of care from a medical doctor for that patient within 30 days of initiating care. Each state is often different, so understanding the guidelines set in place by your state of practice is imperative to move forward.
Choosing Your Business Structure
Within your professions governing bodies, and potentially a part of the state practice act, it’s possible that you will be required to structure your business in a certain manner based on guidelines. Some examples of different business structures include LLCs, sole-proprietorships, PLLCs, and so on.
If your state or practice act does not require a specific business structure for you to open a virtual physical therapy practice, the next step is for you to determine which business structure is right for your situation. Understanding the legalities of the different business structures and how they will best fit your operational needs and risk of lawsuit as a practice owner will help you to determine which one is right for you.
Obtaining State Licensure
Most of us, if not all of us, PTs, OTs, SLPs, etc. have completed our degree and chosen to sit for the state licensure exam within our state of practice. If this isn’t something that you’ve chosen to do and you’re not licensed to practice within your state, work to achieve the necessary steps that it takes to become licensed and credentialed within your state.
In that same token, if you are licensed in your state of residence but hoping to expand your practice’s reach, often true for a virtual practice, it is important that you look into the other states’ guidelines for becoming licensed in that state.
Decide On Your Payment Structure
I’ll be the first to tell you that if I were to start a physical therapy practice today, I would dive right into the cash payment model. As many of us practicing providers know, getting credentialed with insurance is a pain, receiving payment from insurance can be stressful, and there are often limitations to how we can treat our patients we bill under insurance.
Some benefits to cash based physical therapy services are:
You will get paid the fee you are charging for your service. So if it costs $200 for an evaluation, you’ll make $200, not the amount that insurance says you get.
You can treat your patients the way you want to treat them without insurance limiting your number of visits or the types of treatment techniques you can implement.
You can prioritize high-quality one-on-one patient care because the timeframe you set aside for that session is truly for that patient. No more PT mills.
You don’t have to worry about hiring a billing department to submit claims to insurance companies - saving you money in itself.
You can be fully transparent with your patient as to what your services cost and that there aren’t any surprises that come with dealing with insurance providers.
These are just a few things to consider when deciding how to accept payment for your practice. Your services and expertise are worth every penny.
Telehealth and It’s Cost Effectiveness
As I mentioned before, these foundational concepts for starting a practice can be true across the board no matter what your practice’s set up is - virtual, brick and mortar, mobile, etc. But I want to discuss the cost effectiveness of starting a virtual physical therapy practice.
When it comes down to it, starting a brick and mortar practice is going to have the highest overhead costs - facility rent, utilities, building branding, etc. A mobile practice will have different expenses - gas, drive time, and mileage put on your vehicle.
A virtual physical therapy practice doesn’t require the cost of any of these things. All you need is yourself, your laptop, a good internet connection, and a secure video streaming platform. Most people have these things already without realizing it.
Of course for every practice setting, you will need some basic equipment, documentation systems, etc., but that’s a topic for another day. But if you’re really working to keep the cost of starting your practice to a minimum, a virtual physical therapy practice is going to be your go-to.
Learn more about the benefits of starting a pelvic virtual physical therapy practice here.
Naming Your Business
Lastly are tips for naming your practice. This foundational piece can be more on the fun and creative side of opening your own practice. Take your time, try on some different business names, and have fun with it!
The key concepts to remember are to come up with a business name that resonates with your values, your brand, and your specific practice's niche. Learn more about "niching down" in your practice here.
At the end of the day, there is no right or wrong answer to naming your business. Start your LLC or business structure under your name (i.e. Taylor Kirk, LLC) and then you can change your “Doing Business As” to the name you want to your business to function under (i.e. The Pelvic Marketer).
Conclusion
In conclusion, starting a pelvic health physical therapy practice is not for the faint of heart but could be one of the most rewarding experiences in your life and as a clinician. Making sure to have done your homework, accepting the pros and cons to starting your business, and understanding the value you bring to the table are key before starting your practice - whether it’s virtual, brick and mortar, or mobile.
I hope that this information has been helpful and if you have questions about starting your practice or growing your practice through digital marketing, get in touch with me!