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Operations, billing, documentation and the software underneath it, written by the people building Orion and the clinics running on it.
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The one US study that split PT episodes by referral source found 28% self-referred. Its claims stop in 2007, and nothing since has measured the split again.
GuidePractice growth8 min readAug 30, 2026
Latest32 posts
The famous two-versus-eight exercise study had 15 participants and found no compliance difference. What trials really support about dose, format and follow-up.
Guide 8 minAug 29
Much of what ranks here still teaches a Medicare program that ended in 2019. The measures worth using, what a change means, and where reporting stands now.
Guide 8 minAug 29
Three numbers decide whether Medicare requires you to report at all. Run the threshold math before you pay for a registry or a dashboard.
Guide 8 minAug 26
The dropout stat every software blog repeats has no journal behind it. What peer-reviewed research actually says about who quits PT, and why.
Guide 7 minAug 25
Medicare does not require the SOAP format. It audits the contents. What each section has to say for the note to support both the care and the claim.
Guide 9 minAug 25
One half runs on published federal rules, down to a 30-day back-billing window. The other is a payer negotiation that publishes almost nothing.
Guide 8 minAug 25
The line is not cash versus insurance. It is whether the service was ever a Medicare benefit, and the form everyone reaches for does less than they think.
Guide 9 minAug 25
CMS blames 1.5% of improper payments to PTs on incorrect coding and 88.6% on thin documentation. That gap changes what a coding AI is actually for.
Guide 9 minAug 24
In 2024, 573 physical therapists billed the 20-minute RTM code. There were 77,901 of them billing Medicare that year. The arithmetic explains the gap.
Guide 9 minAug 24
CMS will require certain health plans to run new FHIR APIs in 2027. PT practices should know what changes at the payer boundary, and what does not.
Guide 6 minAug 22
The median reported private outpatient standard was 85% of worked time in billable units. CMS expects each timed unit to average 15 minutes. Do that math.
Guide 7 minAug 22
A state legislature set your rate, not a negotiation. What decides your margin is the authorization rule, the required form, and how you send the bill.
Guide 7 minAug 22
On October 1, 2026, M72.2 is deleted and plantar fasciitis moves to its own laterality-specific codes. The remap is small, but claims bounce if nobody runs it.
News 4 minAug 20
Every state allows direct access as of July 2025, and Aetna dropped its referral rule. Medicare still wants a physician's or NPP's signature on direct access plans.
Guide 8 minAug 20
An 8,581-clinician JAMA study clocked 16 minutes of documentation time saved per eight patient-care hours, and evenings did not budge. What the evidence says.
Guide 5 minAug 20
Aetna, Cigna and UHC each publish the test your PT notes must pass, and each runs a different clock. The policies are public. Few practices have read them.
Guide 8 minAug 20
CMS traced 88.6% of improper PT payments to insufficient documentation. The fix list is shorter, and more clerical, than the compliance guides suggest.
Guide 6 minAug 20
J.P. Morgan finds 58% of consumers would switch providers over the payment experience. In the deductible era, your front desk is a revenue department.
Guide 5 minAug 20
Congress extended PT telehealth through December 31, 2027, and CMS says PTs drop off the list on January 1, 2028. How to bill it now and plan for the cliff.
Guide 8 minAug 20
Providers think access is getting better; only 18% of patients agree. The booking window your phone line closes at 5pm is part of the gap.
Guide 5 minAug 20
A DPT student on rotation and a tech in the gym change what you can bill. The Medicare Part B rule is short, two decades old, and easy to bend on a busy day.
Guide 7 minAug 20
Health plans report cutting 11% of prior authorizations, with therapy on UHC's next list. Yet 80.7% of appealed MA denials were at least partly overturned.
Guide 5 minAug 20
Medicare dropped direct supervision of PTAs in private practice, and PTA job openings jumped 17.2% in a year. The schedule is the capacity lever now.
Guide 6 minAug 20
OCR presumes it is, and its April 2026 settlements show what investigators want afterward. Deadlines, the calls to make, and the paperwork that sets the fine.
Guide 8 minAug 20
Information blocking penalties reach $1 million per violation, and the federal portal has logged 2,450 possible claims. Read your contract first.
Guide 5 minAug 20
CMS proposes a $32.84 conversion factor and a $2,540 therapy threshold. The per-visit math is smaller than the headlines, and comments close September 14.
News 4 minAug 19
HHS pushed its Security Rule overhaul to July 2027. The proposed floor, MFA, encryption, 72-hour recovery, is still the standard your practice will be held to.
Guide 5 minAug 19
Private payers initially deny nearly 15% of hospital claims, and 41% of providers run rates of 10% or higher. Most numbers PT owners quote come from nowhere.
Guide 5 minAug 19
APTA Magazine just put ambient scribes in front of every PT in the country. Five questions separate a keeper from a canceled trial.
Guide 5 minAug 19
A record 19,236 people applied to DPT programs through PTCAS this cycle. APTA still projects the gap peaking in 2027. Both numbers are true.
Guide 5 minAug 19
The biggest study of PT attendance found 73% of patients miss at least one visit per episode of care. Here is what the sourced numbers actually support.
Guide 5 minAug 19
Exit fees, a productivity dip, and a legacy system on life support. What the sourced numbers say about switching costs, and how to shrink them.
Guide 6 minAug 19
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