SCOLIOSIS FAQ

You can request an appointment on the website by clicking “Appointments.” Click the link “Book an Appointment” to book an appointment online. Please select “Initial Evaluation” for your first visit. You may also submit a contact form, email info@align-pt.com, or call us at 678-671-6114 to book an appointment. Please note that we do not take phone calls while we are treating patients, so the fastest way to book will be using the online portal. Upon booking, you will be emailed an appointment confirmation and paperwork. Please fill out paperwork that is sent to you, then send it back.

Prior to your initial evaluation, please submit your paperwork electronically. The sooner you do, the better for you, as your treating therapist will have more time to review your record and prepare for your visit – preferrably at least 1 week prior to your evaluation or at the time of booking. Please arrive 10 minutes early to your initial evaluation appointment. Bring any imaging studies (X-ray, MRI) on the disks if you have them or as paper copies. We prefer to see the images of the x-rays rather than the report, but if you have had an MRI, the report is typically sufficient. If you have a physician referral or prescription, please bring it. We can see you without a referral if you do not have one. You can also send us the referral or x-rays ahead of time to: info@align-pt.com or fax to us at 855-655-5261. Wear exercise clothes (or bring exercise clothes to change into when you get here).  Women and girls should plan to wear a sports bra or swimsuit top as the therapist will need to see your back during the evaluation.

Arriving at our locations: When you book your evaluation, the email confirmation will remind you of the location and address where your session will take place. Here are some helpful tips to find our locations:

Our Atlanta, GA location is at 1610 Lavista Rd, Ste 9 in Atlanta (30329). It is a brown one-story building with a rock façade. Enter through either the front or back door and suite 9 is towards the back. We have reserved parking in the “tow away zone” specifically for Align PT patients.

Our Duluth, GA location is at 3400 McClure Bridge Rd, Building D, Ste A in Duluth (30096). It is in a complex of small yellow buildings. There is abundant free parking located immediately in front of and behind the building. Suite A is the door on the left when looking at the building. When you enter the waiting area, the door to Align Physical Therapy will be on your right.

Our East Cobb/Marietta, GA location is at 1501 Johnson Ferry Rd, Ste 106 in Marietta (30062). It is in a complex called Corporate Square located just north and west of the intersection of Johnson Ferry and Roswell Rd behind the Target. The parking lot is accessed by Johnson Ferry Rd. Once you turn into the parking lot, take your first left and we are located on the Terrace level of the 1501 building.

Our Dallas, TX location is at 6370 LBJ Freeway, Ste 271 in Dallas (75240). It is in a complex called Concourse Office Park on the south side of 635/LBJ on the access road between Preston Rd and Hillcrest. Turn into the parking lot past the marquee sign and there are stairs both inside and outside the building and an elevator inside.

The evaluation is a great opportunity for your physical therapist to get to know you – what makes you special, your concerns, and your goals. There will be a detailed history taken by your practitoner, a physical examination, and ample time set aside specifically to explain evaluation findings to ensure you understand what is going on with your body as well as we do. We will take time to address all of your questions. Our goal for the first visit is that you will leave our office understanding what we can do to help you, and why our treatment plan is designed to help you reach your goals.

At the time of the initial evaluation, you and your physical therapist will discuss the treatment plan going forward and decide on how frequently you would like to be seen initially. Visits can be purchased either on a visit-by-visit basis at a competitive cash-price rate, or you can elect to purchase a package of visits – a significant cost savings for you. All visits are 100% one-on-one, private, and 60 minutes long. Treatment time is spent providing skilled physical therapy services such as: manual interventions, education, exercise, and documenting progress. A main component of our care is an individualized home exercise program which aims to decrease pain and improve your ability to meet your goals. Treatment is tailored to each specific patient and the focus of each visit is determined by collaboration between the patient and the therapist.

Yes! Our clinicians are able to provide Schroth Intensive services. This can be especially helpful for our patients that live outside the Atlanta Metro area or are coming in from out of state. For more information about Schroth Intensives, See the Schroth Intensives page. To schedule a Schroth Intensive please use the contact form on the Contact Us page, email info@align-pt.com, or call 678-671-6114. We look forward to hearing from you!

Your appointment time is reserved just for you. A late cancellation or missed visit leaves a hole in the clinician’s day that could have been filled by another patient. As such, we require at least 48-hours notice for any cancellations or changes to your evaluation or treatment session. For intensive treatment, we reserve multiple hours of the clinician’s treatment time for you, and so require 2-weeks notice for any cancellations or changes. For your convenience, you may use the online booking portal at any time to modify, cancel, or reschedule your appointments up until the late cancellation window.

We understand that things can come up at the last minute. In the event that you must miss your appointment without providing adequate notice per our policy, instead of being responsible for the full cost of the visit, you will be assessed a late cancellation fee to your card on file.

That’s a great question. There are three main reasons we do not take insurance. First, without dealing with insurance companies we save money and can then offer our services at lower rates than other providers. Second, we save you time. Third, you get the treatment you need, period.

It’s simply not  cost-effective for either you or us to deal with insurance. Take the following example: a patient of ours with a health insurance plan from a major private insurer visited a Schroth-trained therapist at a local metro Atlanta children’s hospital network to try to take advantage of their health insurance coverage. After insurance benefits were applied, the patient was charged $500 for a 45-minute visit. Again, this was after insurance benefits were applied and the patient’s family was responsible for paying $500 for every 45-minute visit that patient had at that facility until their deductible was met. When the same patient visits Align PT, the family pays a literal fraction of that cost per visit for a longer treatment session. Our pricing is clearly and transparently posted on our “Pricing” page. We do not maintain the staff required to deal with insurance companies – and we would have to if we took insurance. Those costs would be passed on to you, the patient. At Align PT you pay less for exceptional care – this is the core of our business model – patients get the excellent, specialized care they need at a reasonable cost.

At Align PT, we also save you time. Insurance providers do not distinguish between specialized or basic treatment; between a common and straightforward diagnosis and a more complex diagnosis.  They reimburse based on the treatment codes that are billed by the therapist at time of service. These reimbursement rates get lower each year and have made it near impossible for practices who take insurance to maintain a model where patients get one-on-one care during their whole treatment session. This reimbursement model incentivizes providers to see multiple patients at a time in order to remain profitable. The more patients you see, the more codes you can bill, the greater your reimbursement will be. It means the practice is forced to focus on numbers, not patients. One significant failure of this system is that when patients do seek physical therapy care, they do not get a full treatment session with a provider. The patient takes time away from work, school, or family, then pays a copay or coinsurance, and is at the clinic location for an hour or more, but only gets a fraction of that time one-on-one with the therapist. In order to get a full 60 minutes with a therapist, you may have to do 2, 3, or even 4 sessions on separate days. That means 2, 3, or even 4 copays/coinsurance payments and time away from work, school, or your family. With copayments rising and high-deductible plans becoming the norm we knew there had to be more efficient way for patients to get better care, for a better price….and get better.

Our solution? Payment occurs at time of service, and you file with your insurance provider for reimbursement that comes straight back to you – no middleman, no waiting for authorization – just exceptional, personalized, compassionate, one-on-one care. Rather than paying for 2, 3, or even 4 treatment sessions to see a physical therapist for 60 minutes, choose Align Physical Therapy. At Align Physical Therapy, all treatment sessions are always one-on-one and private for the full 60 minutes

Finally, at Align PT, the patient gets the treatment they need. There are insurance plans that require pre-authorization in order to pay for physical therapy services. Frequently that requires patients to wait until the insurance company reviews the evaluation and the treatment plan for the patient to start therapy (sometimes weeks later). The insurance company will then decide what billing codes the physical therapist can bill or charge. If you need different treatment (and therefore billing codes) than the insurance company decided you need, they don’t pay for it. So either you pay for it out of pocket or your therapist cannot provide the treatment.  Most of the time, the insurance companies use an algorithm to decide what care you need and how much they’ll pay. In addition, insurance companies will send you to an in-network provider. They likely do not have a Schroth scoliosis specialist physical therapist in-network to send you to (we are few and far between!), so they might send you to a regular physical therapist instead. A regular PT is great for most orthopaedic conditions, but they do not have the advanced training required to treat patients with scoliosis. The insurance companies do not distinguish between specialists and generalists that are not trained to see patients with scoliosis. Therapists who are not trained to work with scoliosis patients may unintentionally apply treatment that actually makes your scoliosis worse.

At Align PT, we work for you, the patient – not the health insurance company, and not a large healthcare network. We work with the patient and family to determine a treatment plan and then we execute the plan. If we need to change it, we do. We help you take control of your own health in a cost-effective manner – avoiding limitations related to decisions by the insurance company as to what treatment they will cover, when you can access that treatment, and which professional provides it.

We are able to see patients who are members of Medicare. However, we are non-participating providers with Medicare. That means patients with Medicare are unable to pay a flat rate for our services. Medicare requires that we bill per billing/treatment code, and each code has a different rate/price. Cost per visit will depend on the treatment we provide during that visit and payment is required at the time of the appointment using a credit card on file. Align PT will submit your claim to Medicare on your behalf and Medicare will reimburse you directly some percentage of the visit. If you have a secondary or Medigap plan, Medicare will generally, as a courtesy to you, send your claim on to your secondary for processing. If you have a Medicare Advantage plan, we are not able to submit claims on your behalf and the visit pricing will be our typical flat rate listed on the pricing page of our website. If you are a member of Medicare, we will need a copy of your Medicare card which you can submit electronically with your secure online intake form or you may bring it with you to your first visit. Without your card, we are unable to submit your claims to Medicare. While we do not need a referral to evaluate or treat patients, we do need a referral from your physician to submit your claims to Medicare.