Direct Access

When injury-related or lifestyle-driven aches and pains become annoyingly severe and start impacting your normal activities, you may often find yourself searching online for instant relief solutions, based on your symptoms. If physical therapy is listed as one of the recommended lines of treatment, you should know that in the state of Pennsylvania, the Direct Access (DA) law allows you to see a DA certified physical therapist, without a prescription from your physician.

What DA means is that you can seek immediate care and attention without the additional wait for obtaining a physician’s prescription. Moreover, if you have a valid health insurance plan, your Direct Access treatment is covered for up to 30 calendar days from the date of the first treatment, with the following exceptions:

• A DA certified therapist is permitted to treat you only for neurological, muscular or skeletal conditions. If you have any acute cardiac or pulmonary conditions, or other issues that are beyond the specified scope, the therapist can start the treatment only after consulting your primary health care provider, or after referring you to one.
• If your DA treatment needs to continue beyond 30 days of the original start date, you will need to provide a referral from your health care provider. In the absence of this, the therapist cannot legally continue to treat you.
• A doctor’s referral is mandatory if your treatment falls under auto claims or worker’s compensation claims.

It is our intent to refer immediately any patient who upon initial evaluation demonstrates symptoms warranting further diagnostics.  Some insurances may still require a physician’s referral.  Chappell Physical Therapy will verify your specific benefits and discuss them in detail with you prior to your first visit.

Why would I use Direct Access?

Having Direct Access allows you to be evaluated and treated immediately by a physical therapist. If your condition is within their scope of practice, immediate treatment can result in better outcomes and reduced healthcare costs.