5 Questions You May Have About In-Home Physical Therapy

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5 Questions You May Have About In-Home Physical Therapy

21 October 2020
 Categories: , Blog


If you've been injured and need to undergo physical therapy (PT) during recovery, you may wonder if there are at-home options during COVID-19. Thankfully, there are mobile physical therapists that can come to your home to work with you. Read on to find answers to questions you may have about this service.

What Injuries Can Benefit from In-Home Physical Therapy?

If your doctor has recommended physical therapy for your injury, then in-home therapy can often be sufficient. In-home physical therapists can help people with mild to moderate injuries, to severe post-surgical conditions, like total hip replacement.

Do In-Home Physical Therapists Have Training?

Yes. Some in-home physical therapists may actually have a hybrid schedule and work in a hospital or clinic as well as make scheduled visits. In-home physical therapists must get a secondary education degree and pass a state licensure exam to practice.

Will Your Insurance Cover In-Home Physical Therapy?

Every policy is different, so you'll need to contact your provider before starting a treatment plan. The good news is that many insurance companies will cover in-home physical therapy as long as you can demonstrate that there are significant barriers to you leaving your house, such as a lack of a vehicle, the severity of your illness/injury, or needing to self-isolate because of COVID-19.

Will You Lose the Benefits of In-Office Physical Therapy?

While an in-home therapist may not be able to bring larger machines, like a treadmill, to your home, that doesn't mean that in-home PT isn't helpful. While outpatient physical therapy may make initial gains sooner, one study found there were no differences in improvement between out-patient physical therapy and in-home physical therapy.

Another study found that at-home therapy was great at helping patients with low back pain. The important factors are that you have to keep up with prescribed exercises and be mindful of the proper form if unsupervised.

What are Some Advantages of In-Home Physical Therapy?

One benefit of in-home physical therapy is that you get one-on-one attention from the same person each time. When you are receiving in-office physical therapy, you may be seeing different people and lose that personalized connection.

Another benefit of in-home physical therapy is that your therapist can show you exactly how to use your environment for your stretches/exercises. For example, if you have a shoulder injury and need to lean against a doorway to gently stretch the shoulder and chest muscles, your physical therapist can show you right then and there how to do it.

Reach out to a mobile physical therapy professional in your area to find more answers to your questions.