I am going to be attending the University of St. Augustine this upcoming May; however, I am concerned about the financial debt that I will be in. Close to 170K when its all said and done with my undergrad debt. That being said, I intend on working close to 60 hours a week out of school for a couple of years to get a ton of experience but then intend on opening up my own outpatient clinic. I guess I am looking for some advice from other owners on how long it took for them to attract referrals from Doctors and Patients and if they use their business to pay their debts?
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Joined: February 7, 2007
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I wont be answering your question and maybe I am showing my age and just want to vent but..... 170 in debt when you enter the workforce. This kind of debt (when you look at salaries) is what will hurt the profession in the future. I worked through school (part time) and was able to graduate in 1993 debt free. If I had not worked debt would have been 20-30000 max with starting salaries around 40-50000/year. You will have to make the equivalent of 300-350000 to make things comparable. The price of becoming a therapist will become cost prohibitive/already is.
I wish you luck in your studies - it sounds like you have a sound plan in place to assist with retiring your debt.
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From: boynton beach, fl
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Don't be discouraged or don't shoot the messenger, but I can only mirror ortho's sentiment. It does not monetarilly make sense to be a PT. Go to any CPA, tell them you have a business plan, a loan for 175K payable at X % over 25 years and in an industry that is in the decline as far as reimbursements, and your expected yearly revenue is 50-75K and they will tell you to stay away. Go become and ER doc or PM and R doc. Or go into medical device sales like for ortho knees etc. I think we have ALREADY priced ourselves out of our profession for the most part. sure I can tell you stories of PTs still making big money because of their entrepreneurial spirit but even of those, most of them could have done it without a PT degree and debt. Just really think this over, and I welcome this advice to ALL PT school applicants. Ask the BS PT from 2000 what their debt was, and OF COURSE it makes sense, ask someone lik me who got the Masters of PT, and it becomes not as good, and now the DPT and the reduction of reimbursements and pending doom of medicare etc. just think hard about this decision. Sure this will effectively KILL the PT profession, but it is not this sentiment as much as the costs of the education that are doing this. These schools need to bring tuition down to say 10K a year to make this profession viable for now and the future.
I understand all of your concerns. Although reimbursements may be not as much, what do you think about direct access? There will be other ways to see more patients and weed out the bad therapists and clinics that are not getting results. Additionally, you could funnel your clients into personal training or other health preventative services for revenue. I am by no means a therapist, but I look at this as an opportunity as other therapist have continually slandered.
As far as Pt School goes, I plan on finding a few personal training clients down in St. Augustine to help pay for tuition and living expenses.
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Joined: February 7, 2007
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With direct access access to clients will obviously increase, and possibly salary. However I also see much higher insurance premiums since we will be the initial access point to care....
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