The Many Benefits of Physical Therapy Definitely Add Up
Share the News: Physical Therapy Is a Cost-Efficient Way to Improve Your Health, Well-Being, and Quality of Life
It’s no secret that healthcare in the United States is costly. Doctor’s visits, medical prescriptions, hospital stays: all these things can add up fast. And as the US population ages, many people will realize just how expensive healthcare can get.
The good news is that physical therapy offers a solution. Many of the most common medical complaints worldwide–conditions like back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, and osteoarthritis–can benefit immensely from physical therapy as a frontline treatment. With physical therapy, you can avoid costly medical procedures like surgery, saving you money in the long run.
At Recovery Physical Therapy, we encourage our patients to share their positive experiences with physical therapy. By letting others know it’s a viable option, you might help change someone’s life for the better!
Keep reading to learn more about the economic benefits of physical therapy.
Why Physical Therapy is a Cost-Effective Choice
Any physical therapist can list off the benefits of PT: it can help reduce your pain, improve your function and quality of life, and eliminate the need for surgery or pharmaceutical painkillers. For these reasons, most of us have long suspected that physical therapy is cost-effective in the long term. Now, the APTA offers evidence that it is.
APTA researchers chose eight common conditions to review in-depth, using a scientific methodology to determine the benefits of PT as expressed by a monetary number. Here’s a sampling of what they found:
- Osteoarthritis patients who choose physical therapy over steroid injections can save around $14,000 (including the cost of physical therapy appointments and the hidden costs of a patient’s time spent in physical therapy).
- Someone with tennis elbow would have a similar experience, saving around $11,000 with physical therapy.
- Treating carpal tunnel syndrome with physical therapy instead of surgery could save you nearly $40,000.
Why is physical therapy so cost-effective?
One of the main reasons is that we strive to identify and address the underlying cause of your pain or discomfort. For conditions like back pain, joint sprains, strained muscles, and other musculoskeletal injuries, this typically means we can typically resolve your pain for good.
For chronic conditions like osteoarthritis, which can’t be fully resolved, we can provide the tools you need to manage your symptoms and delay the progression of the condition (which can help you avoid costly surgery and pain drugs).
We can also help people successfully navigate the physical and sensory changes that often accompany growing older, such as an increased fall risk of developing conditions like Parkinson’s disease. These techniques can reduce the likelihood of you ending up in a hospital while improving your overall quality of life.
What Conditions Can Physical Therapy Help Treat?
Physical therapists are movement specialists with a keen understanding of the body’s musculoskeletal system, making us ideal healthcare providers for a number of different conditions. Here are a few of the conditions we can help with:
- Back Pain: Back pain can have several causes, such as a herniated disc or weakened back muscles. By identifying the cause, we can provide you with a tailored treatment plan. Generally, we address back pain through targeted exercises, hands-on pain management, and mobility techniques.
- Arthritis: Regular movement and exercise can alleviate arthritis symptoms (particularly osteoarthritis). We’ll develop a customized exercise program that suits your interests and abilities. We can also help manage your pain and improve your mobility so exercise becomes easier.
- Balance Disorders and Fall Risk: Falls are a significant source of hospitalization and injury. We can provide a personalized fall prevention program to improve your balance with dedicated balance exercises while addressing muscular weakness or gait abnormalities.
- Neurological Disorders: Physical therapy plays a significant role in managing neurological disorders such as stroke, multiple sclerosis (MS), and Parkinson’s disease. We’ll work with you on functional training so you can more easily navigate your day-to-day life.
- Sports Injuries: If you’re an athlete, physical therapy can help you save money, too! Our team has experience working with common sports injuries, such as ACL tears, sprained ankles, or shin splints. Physical therapy alone can resolve many of these injuries, especially if they’re mild–plus, we can help you avoid another injury.
Help Your Friends Make the Cost-Effective Choice with Physical Therapy
Physical therapy is an excellent choice for people struggling with joint pain, balance issues, and more–but many don’t realize the extent of its benefits or assume it’s only useful for someone rehabilitating after surgery.
If you’ve experienced firsthand the many benefits (economic or otherwise) physical therapy offers, take a moment to share them with friends and family. You might be able to make their lives more comfortable while saving them time and money.
And if you know anyone in the NYC & Larchmont, NY area looking for experienced, dedicated physical therapists, have them call Recovery Physical Therapy. We can treat all the conditions listed above–and many more!
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