FAQs

This depends on the insurance you have, but yes, some clients at Hartnett Physical Therapy send self-claims to their insurance companies. You should be able to print claim forms off your insurance company’s website. You can then send them in with the needed receipts and treatment codes that we will provide upon your request. The amount of reimbursement (or application to your deductible) is completely dependent on your insurance plan. If you are planning to submit self-claims you should call your insurance company to inquire about details. Ask about reimbursement for “out-of-network Physical Therapy” expenses, and make sure there are no other requirements like a pre-authorization before you get started.

Hartnett Physical Therapy is an out-of-network provider with insurance companies so that we can provide a higher quality of care to our patients. To be an in-network provider with an insurance company, you often only get paid a certain rate no matter how much time you spend with a patient or they limit the amount of time that will be reimbursed.

Due to that reimbursement model, in-network physical therapy clinics need to see a higher volume of patients to remain profitable. They often employ additional staff such as physical therapy assistants, athletic trainers and exercise technicians to provide patient care. The clinicians at these clinics often see multiple patients per hour, sometimes double-booking and patients may bounce around from clinician to clinician each visit. Due to less direct 1-on-1 time with your PT, patients spend more time performing exercises that they could do at home or on modalities (heat, ice, ultrasound, electrical stimulation). For those reasons, patients at in-network PT clinics often go to PT 2-3x per week for 4-8 weeks.

As a result of Hartnett Physical Therapy’s unique treatment model, we are able to treat one client at a time. With the undivided attention of your PT for the full duration of each visit, you only spend time on the things that you cannot do at home or in the gym such as manual therapy and corrective exercises. Clients at Hartnett Physical Therapy often require fewer visits to achieve better results compared to in-network PT.

The majority of our clients are highly active and motivated to move, look, and perform their best. Fitness and exercise are very important to them and they place a high value on their time. The typical age of our clientele is between 35 and 55 years old.

When they have pain that is keeping them from staying fit and performing well, they want the highest quality of 1-on-1 care. They usually don’t have the time to go to a clinic 3 times a week for 4-8 weeks. Most are proactive about finding a solution quickly once pain has begun limiting their ability to enjoy life, workout, or do their job.

Our goal to to help you get better as quickly as possible. Many factors contribute to how many treatments you will need. Your PT will be able to better advise you after completing your initial evaluation.

Getting in early nearly always means less time to recover and less PT sessions needed to ease your pain and restore your mobility.

No. In Delaware, you can be evaluated and treated by a PT for up to 30 days before needing a physician prescription.

We do our best to be make your PT experience as comfortable as possible; however, when dealing with tight muscles and stiff joints, some amount of discomfort should be expected. We will always explain what we are doing and why we’re doing it before we perform any new technique. If at any time you don’t feel comfortable doing something, just let us know. There are many different ways to treat an injury and we will work with you to ensure your best possible outcome.

Yes, we can help decrease stiffness. A lot of times, stiffness is due to muscle imbalances. The stiffer you are, the less resilient your body is. We can improve your flexibility by giving you a customized program of mobility exercises along with hands-on care consisting of massage, manipulation and stretching to speed up the process.

We can usually get you in for an appointment within days. If you need an emergency appointment, please let us know on the phone or in your email and we can arrange for a PT to help you within 24 hours.

You will NOT be wasting your time coming in for PT. Intermittent pain is common. We will evaluate your posture, movements, strength and balance. Oftentimes, people have problems with one or more of the aforementioned things. By addressing your limitations and restoring efficient function, you should feel much better!

You should come in as soon as possible to get the best results. There will always be a number of things that we can do to help. Sometimes it’s as simple as “Do this, but don’t do that.”

Every decision that you get wrong in the first few days will add to the length of time it will take to get better. We want to help you make the right decisions for a speedy recovery.

We will also use gentle hands-on techniques to relax acute muscle spasm or loosen a stiff joint.

That depends on what you do…If you keep doing the same thing that you’re doing now, your current problem will continue and likely get worse. When we have pain and/or stiffness, our body compensates to take stress off of that area. Those compensations lead to developing problems elsewhere. The longer you go with on with pain and stiffness, the lengthier your ultimate recovery will be.

If you don’t take action to get your problem fixed now, you may end up side-lined from the physical activities that you need or love to do. You may end up needing pain meds, injections or risky surgery down the road.

You may get better if you decide to see a different physical therapist, chiropractor, massage therapist, etc. If you don’t get results that you are satisfied with, please keep Hartnett Physical Therapy in mind. We frequently help people, just like you, that have been let down by other healthcare providers in the past.

If your problem or concern is one of pain and/or stiffness in your neck, back, shoulder, hip, ankle and foot, then it’s 99% likely that we will be able to help you out!

You should wear comfortable clothing that wont restrict your mobility. For best results, your PT should be able to easily access the area being treated.

Oftentimes, clients feel better after their first session of PT. Understanding what is causing your pain and limitations, and learning how we can help heal your problem often eases your concerns and gives you a feeling of relief.

In your initial evaluation, we will educate you on simple things that you can do on your own to ease your pain and improve your mobility. We will also initiate hands-on care to relax tight achy muscles and free up stiff joints.

The speed at which your physical problem resolves is dependent on many factors such as how severe it is, how long you’ve had it, your age, your compliance with your PT’s recommendations, etc. At your initial evaluation, we will give you a prognosis of how many visits you will likely need to achieve your goals.

Pain and dysfunction that has been present for a long time will usually take longer to fix than more recent problems. It is rare that we need more than 6-8 treatments for the average client, and quite often 4 or 5 treatments are all that is needed.

Hartnett Physical Therapy is a client-focused practice. Our goal is to help each client get better as soon as possible! Jay opened his PT practice because he wanted to offer a new and improved way of treating his clientele.

At Hartnett PT, each client is seen 1-on- 1 in a relaxed setting rather than a busy gym environment. Your treatment time will consist of skilled services such as hands-on massage, manipulation, and stretching as well as corrective exercise and education to empower you to help yourself. We wont waste your time at Hartnett PT by having you do exercises that you could do on your own at home or in the gym.

This level of personalized attention and expert hands-on care often results in clients feeling and moving much better in fewer visits compared to typical physical therapy.