Frequently asked questions

Yes! In New York State, you have “Direct Access” to physical therapy. This means that you are permitted to see a physical therapist (PT), without a prescription from a physician, for up to 10 visits or 30 days, whichever comes first.

Direct Access lets you start being helped more quickly since we can usually begin treatments on the very first day you come in! Studies show that Direct Access PT can lead to excellent results, fewer total visits and lower costs for you (and the healthcare system in total).

Most insurances cover Directly Accessed Physical Therapy. (Exceptions include Medicare, Worker’s Compensation, and No Fault motor vehicle accident injuries, along with some select other private insurances.)

To find out if your health insurance plan covers Direct Access visits, call Peak Performance at (585) 218-0240.

Physical therapists are experts in musculoskeletal problems, and as teammates in the traditional healthcare system, are the preferred healthcare providers to treat those types of conditions/injuries. Once your PT evaluates your condition if they believe you should be evaluated by a doctor, you can decide whether to contact/see your primary care physician (PCP) or we can help you get an appointment with the appropriate specialist. Peak Performance has close relationships with many area physicians!

Before your first visit: We’ll send you some reminders about your visit and also some important outcome surveys that the Physical Therapist uses to help define how you’re handling daily and work-related activities. These outcome tools take just a few minutes to complete. They let us and you compare your function before you begin your treatment to key times along the way during your recovery. They help us ensure you’re improving at a normal rate.

At your first visit: Your Physical Therapist will thoroughly evaluate your condition/injury. They’ll ask more about your history, what your symptoms are like, and what makes them worse and better. They’ll want to know about any other treatments you’ve had and if these have been effective. The real key is the hands-on evaluation, where we let your body speak for itself. By watching and measuring how you move, how your muscles perform, the status of your nerves, the integrity of your ligaments (they hold your bones together), how various life tasks (movements such as reaching into a cupboards, work-related tasks like lifting boxes, or sports movements like throwing or hitting a ball) and special orthopedic tests, your PT will gain a better understanding of what your problems are, what is causing your symptoms, and help identify where treatments should begin.

This first visit will last about an hour. Please dress so that the therapist can easily examine the area that is bothering you. Here are some guidelines:

• Hip, Thigh, Knee or Ankle problem: Shorts
• Shoulder, Arm, Elbow or Wrist problem: Tank top or loose-fitting t-shirt
• Neck problem: Tank top or loose-fitting t-shirt
• Back problem: Shorts and tank top or loose-fitting t-shirt

That’s a great question! At Peak Performance we’re proud to stand by the phrases, “you are more than just a protocol” and no “one-size-fits-all” protocols for your treatment. Why is this important? First off, let’s say you’re coming in for pain in your lower leg. There’s a number of different conditions that could cause you to have leg pain…a spine joint being “stuck” or pinched in your lower back, a sciatic nerve pinched in your buttock, arthritis in your back, a lower back disc problem, stress fracture in your leg, a muscle strain or overuse pain, tendonitis in your leg…and even more.

Treating someone without first knowing the cause would be a bit like throwing darts blindfolded. Chances are you might not even get on the dartboard, let alone score points…and, it’s even possible that you’d cause injury.

Even when you first see a physician who makes a diagnosis, there are often numerous different underlying causes that could be contributing. Testing you helps us identify key areas needing attention so that you don’t spend time chasing symptoms around but end up feeling like a yo-yo going up and down…feeling better temporarily only to have that same problem come right back. That’s just frustrating and depressing.

But it’s usually avoidable! A thorough evaluation identifies what tissue is injured and causing your symptoms, or confirms that your physician’s diagnosis matches what we find. Sometimes we need to contact your physician because our findings are different.

You are unique. Your history is unique. Your goals are unique. Even injuries or surgeries with the same “name” present themselves uniquely in each person. You deserve physical therapy that is customized for you.

Some patients come in having “failed” traditional physical therapy or other care. Often they comment that nobody has ever tested them like we did. That thorough evaluation is the foundation of effective treatment. Too often the cases we see who “failed” prior care sound like cookier cutter, one-size-fits-all “follow this exercise sheet” sort of approaches were used.

You deserve better. Whether you’re seeing a physical therapist, a physician, a chiropractor, a podiatrist or massage therapist…time spent testing you to understand what’s wrong and how it’s affecting you is an absolute necessity!

We hear this all the time. Oftentimes people think of healthcare much like a can of soup. Like a commodity…something that is the same wherever it’s obtained, and just depends on the best pricing. Like a can of Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup maybe. You could get the same soup from Wegmans or TOPS or ALDI or Rite Aid or wherever. It’s the same soup. Just depends on the price, right?

But things like physical therapy and doctor care and dentistry and auto mechanics and so many other services are NOT simply a commodity. Price and how close you are don’t begin to differentiate the value you’re getting.

Think about that phrase again: “I already tried physical therapy and it didn’t work.” Apply that same idea to your car. The car is making a noise and not running properly. You take it in and the mechanic replaces some parts but two days later the same problem is happening. You wouldn’t say, “I’ve already tried car mechanics…it didn’t work and I’m not doing that again,” right?

You’d find another mechanic. Otherwise, you can’t drive your car.

Isn’t your body even more valuable than your car? Different PTs have unique amounts of experience, specialization, skill sets and approaches to care. It’s been compared to professional sports. All PTs are agreeing to “play the same game,” but we have differences in approach, in specialization, in nuances that make each team a bit unique. And that’s okay. In fact, it’s great for you as a consumer of health care. If medicine and physical therapy were simply just a commodity, then when one provider failed to help you’d have no hope of finding another option to help you.