Should I Contract with Medicare?

Pelvic PT Rising

Today we're diving into Medicare - should you contract with Medicare or not?
As always, it's going to depend on you. Your goals, your vision for your practice, your reason for starting. But here are a few pros and cons to help you along the way.
Many practices begin to take Medicare because they're afraid they can't fill their schedule. Or afraid they have a large retired population and won't be able to serve them. Or afraid of what physicians might say. A lot of 'fear' around this decision.
So ask yourself - "If I knew I was going to be successful....what would I do?" It often is as simple as that! Do you have heart for treating Medicare patients, or would you prefer to work with a different population?
In terms of pros - if you contract with Medicare you'll be able to fill your schedule. Your patient volume should be significantly higher, and you'll be more easily able to market to physicians in your area. These are relatively big pros to contracting with Medicare!
The list of cons - as you probably are already expecting - is going to be quite a bit longer. You lose control over what you charge and your profitability drops dramatically. It becomes difficult to ever hire someone, pay them a good wage and remain profitable. You'll spend far more time on documentation, have to use a more robust EMR and wait for weeks for reimbursement. You'll have to pay a percentage to a biller.
Ultimately, with Medicare you'll have high volume and low margins. Without, you might have low volume and higher margins. With Medicare you'll be seeing almost twice as many patients to make the same amount of money as you do with a cash-based practice.
So what do you envision doing in your practice? You can absolutely be successful (if you need help, let us know!) with whatever you want to do - so built towards your vision!
State of Pelvic Rehab Survey
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About Us
Nicole and Jesse Cozean founded Pelvic PT Rising to provide clinical and business resources to physical therapists to change the way we treat pelvic health. PelvicSanity Physical Therapy together in 2016. It grew quickly into one of the largest cash-based physical therapy practices in the country.
Through Pelvic PT Rising, Nicole has created clinical courses (www.pelvicptrising.com/clinical) to help pelvic health providers gain confidence in their skills and provide frameworks to get better patient outcomes. Together, Jesse and Nicole have helped 500+ pelvic practices start and grow through the Pelvic PT Rising Business Programs (www.pelvicptrising.com/business) to build a practice that works for them!

Get in Touch!
Learn more at www.pelvicptrising.com, follow Nicole @nicolecozeandpt (www.instagram.com/nicolecozeandpt) or reach out via email ([e-mail]).
Check out our Clinical Courses, Business Resources and learn more about us at Pelvic PT Rising...Let's Continue to Rise!

Chapters

1. Should I Contract with Medicare? (00:00:00)

2. Contracting With Medicare (00:00:02)

3. Accepting Medicare Pros and Cons (00:13:16)

4. Building a Successful Cash-Based Practice (00:16:50)