09/29/2026
I’ve experimented with a lot of evaluation structures in my physical therapy days, and here’s what I found worked best for me.
In my opinion, the evaluation is the make-or-break event for a lot of clients, especially in the cash-based setting.
One trend I’ve seen is taking the evaluation you do in a traditional insurance-based setting and replicating it. But when consumers are paying out of pocket, this doesn’t work.
Once I had freedom to control my process, my evals were typically 75 minutes with a 15-minute buffer after. The last thing I wanted to do was rush through this.
The most important piece is the subjective. When you listen closely, it tells you 90% of what you need to know.
Then we move to objective testing. Sure, I used a few special tests, mostly to confirm my thoughts, but the real data I wanted helped me paint the picture of WHY something was happening.
What does their range of motion look like? How is that affecting the way they move or bias patterns?
How does this person produce force? Squat dominant vs. hinge dominant? Unilateral discrepancies? All things that help me create my plan.
Unable to perform that level of testing? No problem. Switch to tolerance testing. What loads, ranges, and intensities can they move at?
Now that I have my data, I want to provide some relief, even if it’s short term. I almost ALWAYS treated when I evaluated someone, but if I needed extra time elsewhere, this is where I sacrificed.
Because if you rush the summary of findings and game plan, everything falls apart.
This is another classic mistake I see. You crush the eval, then rush through the plan. And when you’re about to sell a $2k+ plan of care, you can’t rush this part.
We teach this entire framework in our Blended Practice Model so you have a seamless process that takes your evaluation data and helps you quickly create a virtual program, what we call a Prescriptive Exercise Program, to stack recurring revenue in your business.
If you want a free training on exactly what the model looks like, DM me “BPM” and I’ll send it over.