What It Means to Be Independent

Before my wife Kristen and I started Forward Physical Therapy, we both worked in large corporate physical therapy systems. Those jobs were always stepping stones — places to learn what we’d need to know to build our own practice. Different roles, same vantage. We saw how the business of physical therapy actually works.

We’ve always been motivated by one thing: to deliver physical therapy at the highest level we know how. We started Forward PT to make that possible — a practice with no ceiling on the quality of care, no constraints between us and the work. Independent.

I’ll say this clearly: I could not do this work alone. Kristen is my wife and my business partner. Everything I get to focus on — clinical care, the technology we’ve built, the protocols we develop — is only possible because she’s running this practice alongside me. Forward PT has two founders, and that matters.

That word — independent — gets used a lot. Sometimes it just means “not part of a chain.” That’s a low bar. At Forward, independent means something specific.

It means our decisions are clean. Our recommendations come from one place: what’s best for you.

When a patient asks me who I’d send my own family to for a hip replacement, I tell them. We don’t have reciprocal referral arrangements with surgeons. I refer to whoever I think will give that patient the best result — based on outcomes, period. Nothing else.

That’s what independent means.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

• Our clinicians take the time each patient needs — every visit is a full hour.
• The research and the patient drive the plan, week by week, phase by phase.
• Our pricing is published. Clear. No surprises.
• Our referrals are based on outcomes, not on relationships.

When you choose us, you’re choosing a clinic built around your care.

In Practice

Independence isn’t a tagline. It’s a list of decisions we make every day.

We see the majority of our patients first. No referral required. Wisconsin is a direct access state — call us today and you’ll likely be seen this week, often within 48 hours.

We design care around the patient, not a protocol. Plans are built on peer-reviewed research and adjusted to how your body actually responds. The plan adapts to you.

Our pricing is published. $125 per visit in Edgerton. $135 in Fitchburg. A full hour with a Doctor of Physical Therapy. If you’re paying cash, you know what you owe before you walk in. If you have insurance, we verify your benefits before your first visit.

We accept most major insurance plans — Anthem BCBS, Aetna, Medicare, Quartz, UMR, Workers’ Comp — and HSA/FSA. Insurance is part of healthcare. Visit limits, prior authorizations, and copays exist. We’ve built our internal administrative system specifically to navigate those rules so patients get the most out of their benefits — not the least.

When you call our clinic, you might be talking to an owner. Forward Physical Therapy is owned by Doctors of Physical Therapy who work in the clinic every day. Independence isn’t theoretical here — the people building the practice are the same people treating patients.

If your financial situation is unique, talk to us. We can work within your means so cost doesn’t keep you from getting better. Being independent means we can make those calls — we don’t have to send the question up a chain of command.

We built our own clinical software. Most clinics use off-the-shelf record systems. We built ours — called Lune. It tracks objective outcomes, supports our return-to-sport testing, and gives clinicians the tools to make care decisions based on real data, not guesswork.

It also does the quiet work patients never see: flagging insurance authorizations before they expire, catching documentation gaps that would otherwise turn into surprise charges, and handling enough of the admin load that our clinicians can spend more of every visit actually treating you. The result is better care, more time with your provider, and fewer billing surprises.

We didn’t have to wait for a vendor to build it for us. We just built it.

Why Patients Choose Us

200 five-star Google reviews. That’s not a marketing claim — that’s a record.

Patients stayed long enough to finish their care, and then they took the time to write about it. Because their care wasn’t generic. The clinician they saw at visit one was the same clinician they saw at visit ten. The plan adjusted as they healed. They got better.

And when they got better, they told their family. They told their friends. They told the next person who hurt their shoulder. That’s how a clinic grows on patient choice — and that’s how we’ve grown.

“Patient Chose Forward Physical Therapy”

Many of the referrals we receive come with a small annotation in the chart: “Patient chose Forward Physical Therapy.”

The patient saw their primary care provider, or their orthopedic surgeon, or their pain physician — and asked for us specifically. The provider noted that the patient made the choice.

We’re grateful for that note. Every one of those notes is a patient using their voice.

Be Your Own Advocate

You can choose where you go for physical therapy. You don’t need permission. You don’t need a referral. You can ask questions before you commit.

Good questions for any PT clinic — including ours — before your first visit:

• How long is each visit?
• Will I see the same clinician every visit, or rotate?
• What does a self-pay visit cost?
• How is the plan adjusted as I improve?
• What outcomes do you track?

You should expect clear answers. Your care is your decision.

Working for the Patient

Every decision in this practice serves one principle: we work for the patient. That’s the through-line.

Independence is what makes that possible. The custom software, the full-hour visits, the doctor-led plans, the financial flexibility, the clean referrals — every angle of how we operate is built to keep care faithful to what each patient actually needs.

The result is high-fidelity care. Care that’s true to the research, true to the individual, true to the outcome you’re working toward. From intake to discharge, nothing compressed, nothing templated, nothing routed through a corporate filter.

That’s the standard Kristen and I set when we started this practice. It’s also the standard you should expect from any clinic you choose.

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