Frozen Shoulder Physical Therapy - Will My Insurance Cover It?

The unfortunate individuals having to deal withPT. Make sure you, as the recipient of health care, do
adhesive capsulitis (also known as frozen shoulder)your due diligence towards what your individual policy
many times end up choosing frozen shoulder physicalmay cover regarding therapy.
therapy as their treatment choice. If the person hasIndividuals injuring there shoulder on the job may be
decent insurance this is a wise choice, however sincecovered by Workmans compensation. All employers
this condition knows no economic boundaries, manywith greater than 5 employees are required by law to
times the sufferer has less than adequate insurancecarry Workmans compensation insurance. This does
and is faced with the possibility that their particularnot necessarily mean treatment for your injury is
policy will not cover such services.covered. The resulting injury and development of
Traditionally in the past Medicare has always coveredadhesive capsulitis must be documented as work
physical therapy services provided they are medicallyrelated. Therefore all work related accidents or injuries
necessary. However there has been an ongoing battlemust be reported to a supervisor who documents the
in congress on whether to cap physical therapydates and times of the occurrence as the first step. It
services after a certain amount has been paid. A capis also a good idea to keep your own log of dates and
is very limiting as it usually encompasses other ancillarytimes, mileage, etc... if you are injured during the course
services. This means that if someone has extensiveof performing work duties.
medical problems they may have very little if anyMedicaid recipients will need to check with their
therapy covered by the time they need it. Frozenprovider to see if Medicaid is accepted. If it is, then
shoulder physical therapy in particular requires multipleconsult with the therapist directly as to how many units
sessions with one-on-one joint mobilization in order toor allowable charges his or her plan of care may
achieve functional range of motion.require. Medicaid restricts certain charges to a finite
Recipients of Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance typicallynumber per year.
have been covered at the rate of 80/20 - that is 80%All-in-all, frozen shoulder physical therapy is covered by
insurance responsible and 20% patient responsible.most insurance plans in some form or fashion, but
However it is becoming more frequent to see someeach individual will need to due a little investigation to
BCBS policies limiting outpatient therapy to a numbermake sure they are covered and do not end up with
of visits per year. Good luck if you have a particularlyout-of-pocket expenses.
bad year with more than one injury or surgery requiring