“2 Questions You Need To Ask Every Cash-Pay Patient”

If you’re a physical therapist who wants to work with more cash-pay patients but struggle to differentiate yourself from other clinicians or your competitors, this article is perfect for you. 

Anytime you treat a cash-pay patient, you have to understand that they’ve likely been to insurance-based providers and through the medical system. Now, you have to separate yourself from traditional insurance-based care and other cash-pay PTs in your town. What are you doing, aside from “better” clinical skills, that is different than everyone else?

Instead of focusing on developing clinical skills different from your competitors, think about the person you are serving. Think about the patient and what they’re looking for. They’re likely looking for a different experience and someone who understands them. So, you need to figure out what they want from you so you can deliver on it. The best way to describe this is you have to understand where they want to go (ie, the destination) and where they’ve been (ie, the past). This gap is where you can help them the most. The bigger the gap, the more you can help them. 

However, most clinicians will focus on what they can do for the person without a clear understanding of what the patient expects. What if the patient doesn’t expect to be pain-free? What if they don’t want perfect posture? Then what are they doing for them? This will stump most physical therapists. 

Only the patient knows what they want and you have to dissect this to get a clear picture of what they expect from you. Then you have to figure out what went wrong with previous providers so you can avoid doing the same thing again. 

So if you want to become the expert in town and want to work with more cash-pay patients, figure out out what they want and what went wrong in the past. Then, you can start with solving their true problem. Most start-up cash-pay PTs will apply the traditional impairment-based approach to help but this doesn’t work in cash-pay PT. 

Try this strategy the next time you have an evaluation. It makes it crystal clear to help support the person in front of you. The patient gets faster results and you gain confidence knowing you’re on the right path with your clinical approach. It’s a win-win. 

If you’re a visual learner, check out the YouTube video I created for cash-based physical therapists on this topic:

If you have any questions, please email me at drchris@drchrisgarcia.com.

Sincerely,

Dr. Chris Garcia, PT, DPT, SCS, CSCS, USAW