In this solo presentation, physical therapist Aaron LeBauer (owner of Labourer Physical Therapy, a 100% cash‑based practice in Greensboro, NC) explains what cash‑based physical therapy (CBPT) is, how it works, and why it can be advantageous for both clinicians and patients. He describes CBPT as a direct, out‑of‑network contract between therapist and patient where the patient pays the therapist directly (via credit cards, HSA/FSA, PayPal, Venmo, Bitcoin, etc.) and receives a super‑bill to submit to their insurance for reimbursement. LeBauer contrasts this model with traditional insurance‑driven care, highlighting the ethical concerns of the triangular relationship among patient, insurer, and provider, and emphasizing that eliminating the insurer’s control allows therapists to treat patients as needed without arbitrary unit caps. He argues that because patients are financially invested, they are more compliant with home‑exercise programs, leading to faster recovery. The video also serves as a marketing piece, inviting viewers to subscribe, download his free "Cash PT Blueprint" book, and consider starting or scaling their own cash‑based practice.
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It allows me to work for patients, not insurance companies. Right. Hello, my name is Aaron Labourer and I'm a physical therapist and I own Labourer Physical therapy in Greensboro, North Carolina which is a 100% cash based physical therapy practice. For the last five years I've been helping passionate physical therapists just like you create, grow and scale successful cash based PT practices. So real quick, what we're going to talk about today is what is cash based physical therapy? Because a lot of people have questions or they're confused. So if you're following or you've been a subscriber for a while, thank you so much. If not, make sure you hit the subscribe button and at the end of the video I'm going to show you how you can get one of my free books. So what is cash based physical therapy? Well, it sounds really like it's only cash or it's a lot of money, etc. It's not a term that I would use with my patients. It's just a term that I use to describe what I do to other physical therapists and healthcare providers because you probably get it because it's a not insurance. But to say, hey, I have a not insurance physical therapy practice is kind of odd. So here's what I would say to a patient first and foremost is if they pressed and asked, I would say we're out of network. But if they said, do you take my insurance? The first thing I'm going to say isn't no, is to find out some more information about them. Just for instance, like does it matter if I really take your insurance if I can't help you? So that's not the first thing I'd say. I'd find out their name and what their problem was and what their motivation for coming to see me is and get to know them. So what is cash based physical therapy? It means that I form a contract directly with my patients, I treat my patients the way that they need. There's no one like a physician or insurance company dictating how I treat or how long I treat, or what codes I write down, etc. I don't even have a boss that tells me that you have to bill eight units an hour and you can't do X, Y and Z. As a cash based physical therapist, we accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, Health Savings Account, Flexfinity Account, shoot, I'll take PayPal, Venmo, Bitcoin, whatever. We're just not going to accept a third party payment from Blue Cross Blue Shield in Exchange for working with Mrs. Jones. Because here's the problem is that I know what I need to do with Mrs. Jones and I know what I need to do to collect payment from Blue Cross. This is really hard. This is easy, but this gets harder when that gets harder because she pays them, they pay me, I service them. That's a triangular relationship. If you've ever had that in like a family situation or personal life, a triangular relationship is really difficult and incongruent. And I believe it's one of the most unethical things that's going on in our healthcare system. So we take these guys and we kind of cut this road off here. We contract with the patient, patient pays us, we give them all the information they need to file a self claim. The insurance company sends them money. Simple. Now it's a little bit harder for patients, but in return they're invested in their healing process. They do their home exercise program. There's no question about how do we keep our patients compliant with their home exercise program, which is one of the most popular questions I see on forums and in Facebook groups, etc. And how do we get our patients to be compliant? Well, if the patients are paying us $100 or $300, they're going to be compliant with their home exercise because they're bought in and they're vested in their health and they get better faster. So cash based physical therapy is basically out of network. It's just you providing a super bill or a codes to patients and they get reimbursed from their insurance. It allows me to work for patients, not insurance companies. Right. It allows me to focus on them 100%. And if insurance company needs information, we provide it. We would work with them. And if they paid the same day, you know what, I would work with them a lot more. But they don't and they want to undercut my prices and they want to tell me how often I should treat. So if you've ever had that problem or been there or felt restricted in how you treat patients, then a catch based practice might just be right for you. If you're willing to take some risk and do all the hard work to create your own business, you get it. There's also being a business owner. So what is cash based physical therapy? I believe it is the truest form of therapy business because it allows me to contract directly with my patient and not have anyone else dictating the decision making process that I make as a doctor of physical therapy. So if you want to learn more about cash based physical therapy or just physical therapy Business and marketing. Be sure that you subscribe and check the links below because I've got a free book. It's called the Cash PT Blueprint. It details how I grew and scaled a 100% cash based practice right after graduating PT school. Click the link below, subscribe and I'll see you on the next video. Sa.
