Getting started is simpler than you think
There is no portal to register for and nothing to submit online. You call, we check your benefits and explain them to you, and most people are on the schedule within 48 hours.
One phone call is the whole first step.
Most people wait longer than they should, and it is rarely about the pain. It is not knowing whether you need a referral, not knowing what it will cost, and assuming there is a stack of paperwork and a two-week wait standing between you and an appointment.
There is not. Getting started is one step: call (508) 675-3200 and ask for an appointment at Swansea or Providence.
If you are using health insurance, the team verifies your benefits by phone before you commit to anything and walks you through exactly what you will owe, including how your deductible is handled. That is a set amount toward your deductible at each visit, confirmed with you before your first appointment. You will know the number before you arrive rather than after you leave. If you would rather not use insurance at all, self-pay rates are published on the insurance and billing page.
Then you get a time. Patients are seen as soon as possible, usually within 48 hours of the call.
You do not need a physician referral in either state. In Massachusetts you can be evaluated and treated without a referral, with no visit limit. In Rhode Island you can be seen without a referral for up to 90 days, and we share your plan of care with your physician. The one thing worth checking is your policy: some insurance plans still require a prescription even when state law does not, so bring one if yours asks for it.
What to bring, and what the first visit is.
What to bring
A doctor's prescription for physical therapy, if your health insurance plan requires one. State law does not, but some policies do.
Insurance information for the condition you are coming in for: your health insurance card, plus auto insurance information or workers' compensation information if either applies. The list of accepted plans is worth a look first.
Anything you already have about the injury: medical tests, MRI or X-ray reports, surgical reports. Your therapist can perform a far more useful evaluation with that history in front of them than without it.
Your completed registration forms. Print the packet from the registration page, fill it in at home, and bring it with you.
Clothing that gives the therapist access to the area of complaint. Shorts for a back or lower-body problem. A T-shirt, tank top or sports bra for anything in the upper body.
What actually happens
The first visit is an evaluation, and it runs longer than a standard 40-minute treatment session. It starts with the history: what happened, what you have already tried, and what you are trying to get back to. Then it becomes physical, and head to toe rather than pain-site only, because the tissue that hurts is frequently not the tissue that is failing.
The core assessment is the Selected Functional Movement Assessment, SFMA, which screens how you move before it examines where you hurt. It looks at soft tissue, joints and nerves, and at the firing patterns and postural habits that keep reloading the painful area. That is what your plan of care gets built from.
You leave with an honest estimate: what is going on, roughly how long it should take, and how often to come in. Most patients come two to three times a week. Every treatment session after the evaluation is 40 minutes, one-on-one, with a licensed physical therapist, and about 95% of visits happen with the same clinician.
Swansea and Providence share one number. Call (508) 675-3200 and tell us which one is easier to get to.
Registration is paper on purpose. Print the packet, complete it at home, and bring it with you: there is no online form to submit. Arriving with it finished means your clinician spends the first minutes of your evaluation on your history rather than on a clipboard.
Ready when you are.
Fri: 7:00am - 3:40pm