How to Make More Money as a Physical Therapist: 7 Ideas to Boost Your Income
It is more competitive to be a physical therapist than ever.
Finding ways to increase your revenue while still delivering great patient care is essential.
Here are seven effective strategies on how to make more money as a physical therapist from diversifying your services to leveraging digital marketing.

1.Home health therapy services.
Offering home health services in addition to your regular practice hours could be a great way to earn some extra income.
Home health visits can vary in what you would charge depending on the area you’re visiting, so you would want to crunch some numbers beforehand to see if it’s a good fit.
Some benefits could include:
- Referrals: Visiting people in need of home health services often will have a social network with similar needs, so they likely know someone who could use it in office visits or home health as well.
- Functional Rehab: Because the patient is in their home, you can show them exactly how to do the exercises in a familiar environment with the equipment they have. This might help them progress quickly because they see how it can be done in their lives.
- Schedule: If you’re doing this on the side, maybe on the weekends, you still have control over how many patients you’ll schedule, so you don’t necessarily have to jump in the deep end.

2. Don’t be a “PT mill.”
A “PT mill” is a physical therapist that sees more patients than they can actually handle in an hour.
This results in more frustrations from the patient, and potentially not progressing, which could lead to some bigger issues down the road. Additionally, in the long run, it’s likely that patients won’t come back or refer any friends resulting in less business.
Who knows, with a PT rushing through patients they could potentially bill the wrong codes or get something else wrong leading to less income ultimately.

3. Expand your services and specializations.
You can learn how to do dry needling, cupping, and try getting certified in pelvic health. Many clinics may have someone on staff who is already trained or practicing as a pelvic health therapist. But if that spot is open it might be a good idea to fill it yourself.
It will take some time and is a bit of an investment, but this could lead to more business.
Here is a link to the Herman and Wallace page for their pricing:
https://hermanwallace.com/pelvic-rehabilitation-practitioner-certification/pricing-chart

4. Offer Telehealth services.
It might not seem like the most promising avenue, especially for physical therapy. But Telehealth can be a solid avenue for some extra income.
According to a study performed in 2020 by FOTO Analytics, telehealth visits and virtual therapy are as effective in rehab therapy as in-person care.
This could be a valuable consideration, and you wouldn’t have to leave the office.

5. Make sure you are correctly billing insurance.
Dealing with insurance is a pain, but not getting everything you should from them is a bigger pain. It is worth the time to make sure you are optimizing the best codes and time to submit to insurance.
It goes without saying not to be dishonest with how you bill, correctly billing will ensure you get paid on time and in full. Ensure you’re submitting everything so you don’t miss out on getting paid.
It might be a little thing, but a dollar here or there adds up.
Here is a link attached for a guide to ensuring you’re billing correctly:
https://www.webpt.com/guides/physical-therapists-guide-to-billing

6. Become a physical therapy consultant
If you have the expertise there is no reason you couldn’t try to share your experience.
You could create courses on something you do especially well, or connect with companies selling products that may be looking for insight from PTs.
You can charge expert rates for any of these and put more money in your pocket.

7. Consult with an SEO and marketing firm.
In today’s digital age, having a strong online presence is essential. It’s difficult to manage that on your own for multiple reasons.
An SEO and Marketing consultant can optimize your website for search engines, drive traffic to your site, and increase conversions from your website to future patients, ultimately boosting your practice’s revenue.
At PT Enhancement, we partner with physical therapists like yourself and help them get the most out of their online presence. We help your website become the worker it should be, bringing more patients to you.
Feel free to reach out to us today to see how we might be able to work with your practice.