Pay or not to pay for physiotherapy?
Are you limited by pain, have you visited a doctor and left with a recommendation for physiotherapy and a FT referral in hand?
Are you now wondering where and how to make an appointment for physiotherapy?
Then you've come to the right place! Our article is just for you and will make it clear and help you make a decision.
10 differences between physiotherapy covered by the client and the health insurance company
Making an appointment for physiotherapy can sometimes be difficult and confusing, especially if it is your very first experience. That is why we have written for you a detailed comparison of physiotherapy here at Physiohub (paid by the client) and physiotherapy in facilities where care is covered by the insurance company.
If you do not want to read the entire article, we have created a clear table and a proposal for a solution to the question of whether or not to pay for physiotherapy. Go straight to summary.
Physiohub
Health insurance
1. Waiting time for an appointment
1 - 5 days
1 - 2 months
If you are suffering from acute pain, you want to start rehabilitation as soon as possible. In the case of care provided by an insurance company, usually you wait up to two months for an initial visit. It is very common for clients to come for an initial examination, but the pain has gradually disappeared.
With us you get your appoitnment very soon, so it is possible to solve the problem immediately, get rid of the pain effectively and thus avoid prolonged pain.
2. Examination by a doctor
A doctor's examination is an advantage, not a necessity
It is always necessary to visit a doctor
A previous examination by a doctor is of course an advantage. On the other hand, appointment times for doctors are long and the journey to visit a physiotherapist is significantly longer.
At Physiohub, we welcome previous medical examinations as well as results from imaging methods. However, they are not a necessity, and if we suspect a more serious problem that does not fall within our competence, we will first of all send you to a doctor.
3. FT referral
FT referral is not needed
You must have an FT referral
Obtaining a FT referral is related to a previous visit to the doctor. The voucher always contains the diagnosis, numerical codes, descriptions and the number of individual procedures.
Disadvantages reducing the effectiveness of care
-
Increased waiting time - due to the previous doctor's visit and their waiting times.
-
Request for specific codes - individual facilities may request specific procedure codes and their numbers from you, so that their care is adequately paid for by insurance companies. This means in practice that you need a new referral. In the second case, some facilities do not take external FT referrals and require an examination by their doctor (our own experience). In other words, you will have a second visit to the doctor and postpone the visit to the physiotherapist by another month.
-
One FT referral per year - as physiotherapy facilities are paid by the insurance company mainly for the number of treated patients (for the number of birth certificate numbers), they provide patients with only one referral per year, usually in the range of 5-6 therapies. After that, you pay for everything as a self-payer.
4. Administrative fee
0 CZK
200 - 800 CZK
This fee includes services not related to physical therapy. So, for example, booking appointments, consulting via email, providing a clean towel/slippers, disinfection or lending exercise equipment during therapy (information from the facility where we worked ourselves).
At Physiohub, you have all care, including changes of appointments, consultations via email or phone included already in the price. Providing a clean towel, lending exercise equipment during therapy, or even using disinfectant comes as a matter of course to us, and charging clients extra money for this would feel really inappropriate.
5. Additional payments
Electrotherapy and ultrasound - 0 CZK
Kinesiotaping - 0 CZK
Documentation abstract - 0 CZK
Electrotherapy and ultrasound - 100 - 300 CZK
Kinesiotaping - 100 - 300 CZK
Documentation abstract - 100 - 500 CZK
The administrative fee is not the only payment you will make. If you do not have electrotherapy or ultrasound prescribed as part of the referral, you must pay extra for it, as well as kinesiotaping.
At Physiohub, we will be happy to provide you with electrotherapy or ultrasound, kinesiotaping or a documentation abstract at no extra charge, everything is included in the price.
6. Therapy time
50 - 60 minutes
20 - 30 minutes
Health insurance companies rules indirectly force facilities to do a large volume of patients. The physiotherapist thus has to treat 2-3 patients per hour, even with the writing of extensive administration. In such a system, there is usually no time and space for sufficient listening to the patient, detailed examination, finding the cause and precisely targeted treatment. If you want to have more time with the physiotherapist, you have to pay extra 400 - 700 CZK for another 30 minutes.
With us, we always have 60 minutes reserved for everyone, so that we can listen to you properly, find the basis of the problem together and set up a suitable procedure and treatment plan.
7. Number of therapies per year
Unlimited
5 - 6 per year
One FT referral and 5-6 visits per calendar year in one physiotherapy facility (not valid for very serious diagnoses). You pay for other therapies as a self-payer - 1000 - 1400 CZK per visit. In addition, your visits are often scheduled at the reception with a frequency of 1x per week, and time variability due to the overcrowding of these facilities is minimal. Somewhere you may also encounter fixed times (for example, your therapy will be every Tuesday at 11:00 a.m.) regardless of your options.
You can of course come to Physiohub as many times a year as you want. Appointments are planned by the physiotherapist and always according to the acuteness of the problem, the development of the condition and your time and financial possibilities. As the condition improves, the interval between appointments will be extended, so that we can control the positive development of difficulties over time.
8. Number of patients and amount of energy
6 patients a day
(maximum)
16 patients a day
(maximum)
With an eight-hour working day and 30 minutes per patient, some physiotherapists really have to treat 16 people a day. That's around 300 people a month at full time! Just by looking at these numbers, it is clear that such a way of working must be really exhausting in the long term.
With us, we only have as many clients per day (or even per week) as we can manage without losing enthusiasm for our work or reducing the quality of care. It is important to us that the first and last client on a given day receive the same quality care.
9. Application of electrotherapy, ultrasound etc.
According to the needs of the patient
According to the doctor's prescription
For insurance treatment, the basis is a doctor's prescription, who also chooses the use of physical therapy. We know from our own experience that such a prescription is more often based on a certain long-term habit of the doctor and not on the individual needs of the patient or new scientific knowledge about physical medicine. The treatment is then ineffective and time-consuming for the patient. For example, he has to attend magnetotherapy 2x-3x a week with minimal effect for his condition.
At Physiohub, the physiotherapist himself decides on the use of physical therapy. At the same time, we try to find out the latest scientific knowledge about the use of physical medicine, so as not to waste the client's time on ineffective means.
10. Treatment of symptoms, not causes
Looking for the cause
Just treating pain
Of course, we would not like to touch anyone here, because this is far from a general rule. We are based here on our own experience, which we gained while working as employees and now in our own practice.
The combination of a large number of patients, a short time for therapy, lengthy administration and the application of physical therapy and other procedures according to the decision of the doctor, not the physiotherapist, significantly complicates the possibility of focusing on the real cause of the problem.
Here we would just repeat the previous points and therefore we will just conclude by stating that effective relief from pain is a priority for us.
What to expect with physiotherapy covered by health insurance?
Disadvantages
– A prior visit to the doctor and obtaining an FT referral is required
– Second visit to the doctor and obtaining a new FT referral for incorrectly written procedure codes
– Only one FT referral per year in one physiotherapy facility
– Long waiting times for a first appointment
– Appointments made by receptionist according to the capacity of the facility, not your needs
– Limited number of visits per year (5 - 6)
– Low time variability for making appointments
– Application of physical therapy (ultrasound, electrotherapy, etc) based on doctor´s decision
– High number of patients that physiotherapists have to treat per day (up to 16 people per day)
– As a result, physical therapists may naturally become exhausted or demotivated
– Alternation of physiotherapists in the care of one patient
– Therapy covered by health insurance lasting only 20-30 minutes
Adventages
+ Therapies are covered by health insurance
However, it is important to know that it is not usually completely free. Entry fee and extra charges for physical therapy or taping are standard. If you want the physiotherapist to spend only 25 minutes on you, you must pay extra for a longer time as a self-payer.
Example:
At the beginning, you pay an administrative fee (200 - 800 CZK), then you extend your 5 visits by 30 minutes (5x 400 - 700 CZK) and as part of the therapy, the physiotherapist will provide you 2x kinesiotaping (2x 100 - 300 CZK). Physiotherapy will cost you an average of 4100 CZK at the moment. For a comparison, 5 visits with us at Physiohub will cost you 6000 CZK.
What is the solution?
If you have read this far, it is clear to you that the question is not To pay or not to pay for physiotherapy?, but How much to pay for physiotherapy?. The price here is not only the amount itself, but also the time/waiting or quality of care.
One possible solution may be to use the advantages of both systems. So that you don't have to endure pain for two whole months while you wait for an appointment with the insurance company for rehabilitation, use a quick appointment with us at Physiohub. During one or two visits, we will be happy to provide you with a detailed examination, help you with acute pain and advise you on suitable exercises and ways to relieve pain.
As a result, you may no longer need to pay extra for extended therapies when visiting rehabilitation at the insurance company. You may even find that the pain has disappeared after two visits with us and you do not need further rehabilitation or you will use it as prevention.
Shorten your waiting time for a rehabilitation and get help with acute pain.
Conclusion
We know very well how demanding providing physiotherapy care covered by health insurance companv is for a physiotherapist. We would not like this article to sound like a denigration of the work of our colleagues. From our point of view, the first place to blame is a poorly set up system on the part of health insurance companies. Secondly, the owners of medical facilities, who are often from a different field, do not understand our work, and for them rehabilitation is primarily about business, can be to blame. Physiotherapists are usually in last place. Even if they do their job to the best of their ability, this system makes it really difficult for them, including low pay.