Frequently Asked Questions

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Asked Questions

In most cases, you do not. Under California's Direct Access Law (AB1000), patients can seek the care of a physical therapist without a prescription from a medical doctor for up to 12 visits or 45 days, whichever occurs first. After that, a physician must sign off on your plan of care or provide a prescription in order for you to continue your treatment.
Over the last 15 years, we have developed a large network of skilled physicians in the community that we can refer our patients to. Ask your physical therapist for a recommendation and they will be happy to provide you with physicians that can best help with your specific condition.
Since we treat a lot of patients, we want to ensure that other patients are able to take advantage of appointment times that become available. To allow ample time for us to fill your appointment, we kindly ask that you provide us with 24-hour advance notice for any cancellations. Cancellations and no-shows without 24-hour advance notice are subject to a fee.
Absolutely! In most cases, as long as your doctor has written a prescription for physical therapy, it's valid at any provider. That said, additional steps may need to be taken for HMO and authorization-based policies, so give us a call and we'll be happy to verify your benefits prior to your first visit.
If you are continuing your home exercise program with the frequency recommended by your therapist and you are aggravated by those activities, limit the program to the select few exercises that feel good for a few days to see if you can independently return to normal.

If modification isn’t working, call or email your therapist and trouble shoot your independent program.

Still having pain? Call our office and schedule an appointment with your therapist for a hands-on look with recommendations for progressing with further PT or a doctor’s follow-up.
Slowly reintroduce yourself to the activity with short bouts to judge your tolerance to increasing your activity.

Call or email your therapist to get recommendations on a progression.

Explore Rehab United’s Fit Societe classes (your 1st week is free) and personal training options to further prepare yourself for increased activity.
Contact the front desk and/or your therapist and they will be happy to put together a packet of exercises so that you can continue with your recovery.
If while you were being treated either heat or ice helped to control residual soreness from activity, continue to utilize these to allow you to be pain-free. Follow the guidelines set during your treatment for frequency and duration of heat or ice.

Contact your therapist if your pain is new/different or if there was a sudden increase in your pain levels.

Consider massage therapy to improve muscle extensibility and decrease soreness after activity.
We want to continue to help you with your pain. With a new area of pain, scheduling an injury screen will allow your therapist to quickly assess the area and determine if it was caused from the prior injury or if you should return to your doctor for a referral for physical therapy.
If it’s the same body part/injury, call the front desk and inquire about the current prescription on file and they can check if you need to return to your doctor.

A new injury may require a trip/call to the doctor to get a prescription to begin physical therapy.

We do not accept health insurance for custom orthotics. This is a fee for service that we offer our clients and the community due to our specialty and biomechanical expertise.
Our flat rate for custom orthotics covers a comprehensive foot and ankle evaluation to determine if you are a candidate for custom orthotics. If it is determined that you will benefit then the casting therapist will proceed with the full evaluation, measurement in weight bearing and non-weight bearing, the casting process, shipping the molds to our manufacturer, and the fitting phase of the device. Additionally, the casting therapist will cover all aspects of shoe selection, break-in period, and additional rehabilitation suggestions and follow through. The goal is to get them right, feel good, and we want you to use them.
Often clients are worried that by wearing orthotics they are creating a “crutch” or a false support for their foot or body. It is important to note that when a foot presents with a structural deformity, the body must compensate to get the foot flat on the ground. Those compensations can be very limiting and often are associated with non-foot injuries up or down the biomechanical chain.

An orthotic can be looked at similarly to wearing glasses -the eye has a biomechanical deficit that is being corrected to normal by an external device. The orthotic operates in the same way allowing the foot, the first part of our body to touch the ground in function/walking (gait), to go through normal sequencing, speed, distance, and mechanical form. This allows the rest of the body to engage in normal motion and function.

To help ensure accuracy and avoid a large balance at the end of your treatment, it is in our best practices to collect your estimated patient responsibility at each visit.
Rehab United is a contracted provider with most major PPO/POS plans, Tricare, Medicare, Workers Compensation, select HMO plans, and accepts auto claims with MedPay coverage.

For patients with policies that we are not contracted with, we offer competitive self-pay options to enable elective access to quality care.

For a list of insurances that we accept, visit our Insurance page and select the region where you will receive your care: California or Washington.

Each Policy is different which is why our staff will provide you with a “Quote of Benefits” prior to initiating your treatment. Based on your insurance’s contract with Rehab United and your policy limitation, we can determine an estimated patient cost for each appointment. (Please refer to Insurance Terminology for details)
YES! If you have ANY other health insurance, even if you do not feel it is relative, it is imperative that our staff be made aware. In order to ensure accurate billing, we need to be aware of any and all health coverage you are enrolled with.

AUTO ACCIDENTS – If you have an open Auto Claim due to a Motor Vehicle Accident, please inform our staff. If you have Medical Pay through your claim, billing would be submitted directly to the Auto Insurance Company.
There are several steps involved in billing physical therapy claims to an insurance company. Below is a brief breakdown of the standard process:

If you have a remaining balance after the claim has processed, you are expected to pay the difference. If you have a credit of overpayment on your account, Rehab United will issue you a refund accordingly.

Once Rehab United receives the Payment/EOB, our Billing Department will post the payment details to your account which will reflect the final claim determination.

Payment is assessed and issued with an Explanation of Benefits (EOB). The EOB will be sent to you as the member and to Rehab United as the billing provider.

Once your insurance receives the claim, the bill will be processed according to your policy benefits and the contractual fee schedule.

The CPT Codes generate a bill that is transferred to a HCFA-1500 Claim Form. The claim form is then submitted to your insurance either by Electronic File or mailed in paper form.

Based on the treatment provided within your appointment, your physical therapist will bill Common Procedure Terminology (CPT) codes.

Rehab United will obtain a Quote of Benefits to determine your estimated patient responsibility, which will subsequently be collect at the time of check-in for your appointments.

While the information provided is common billing practice, it is important to understand there are exceptions to this example and several steps in between to complete the process. Rehab United works diligently to ensure clean billing to avoid delay in payment, however, it is not uncommon for there to be interruptions. Generally, claims are expected to finalized between 30-45 business days. If there is missing information, incorrect details or a miscommunication between the provider and the payer, there may be a delay in the process. Rehab United monitors and actively works outstanding claims that have not finalized as expected to avoid unexpected cost to our patients.
Your insurance will process your medical bills in order that they are received. Your surgery may not have been billed to your insurance yet. Our office will agree to collect your copayment/co-Insurance amount rather that the deductible cost with the expectation that your deductible will be satisfied. If your insurance processes your physical therapy claims towards your deductible, you will be responsible for the balance owed.
When our staff obtains a quote of benefits from your insurance, they tell us what your benefits are and what your responsibility is for physical therapy. Based on the information provided, our staff estimated your patient responsibility for each visit. Once claims are submitted to your insurance with specific procedure codes, it's possible that your insurance will process it different than initially quoted.

In these (rare) instances when we are misquoted, our staff does our due diligence to contact your insurance regarding the discrepancy to see if the balance is valid or if your insurance made a processing error.

If your patient responsibility is a CO-INSURANCE, it is likely the reason for your balance. For example, your insurance covers your physical therapy treatment at 80%, leaving you with a 20% co-insurance responsibility. Because your coverage is based on a percentage rather than a flat rate, the amounts can slightly vary depending on the treatment codes billed at each appointment.

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