Kelly AlhooiePelviBiz, Pelvibiz · Healthcare Business Strategy Assistant

Teletherapy or Coaching? Choose Wrong and Pay the Price #physicaltherapy #scope #practice

7 Aug 2026 · 1 min

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In this brief segment, Kelly Alhooie clarifies the fundamental differences between teletherapy and online coaching for physical therapists. Teletherapy is presented as a clinical service that requires a formal diagnosis, detailed documentation, coding, and the generation of a superbill for insurance reimbursement, focusing on solving a specific health problem. In contrast, online coaching is described as a non‑clinical, fee‑for‑service model that offers general advice without a specific diagnosis, notes, or coding. Alhooie illustrates the distinction with a concrete example: treating stress urinary incontinence would fall under teletherapy, whereas addressing "jumping with leakage" would be considered coaching. The explanation emphasizes scope of practice, billing implications, and documentation responsibilities.

Chapters

What's the difference between online coaching and teletherapy? Teletherapy is where they have an actual diagnosis. You do notes, you give them a super bill, and you're actually just trying to solve one problem. Coaching is more general advice, so it's not towards a specific diagnosis. So let me give you an example. Instead of saying stress urinary incontinence like it would be for teletherapy, it would just be solving jumping with leakage. That's coaching. There's no super bill, there's no coding, there's no notes that you have to do, and it's just a fee for service.