physical therapist

order picker

patient services coordinator

program specialist

physical therapist assistant

Select Physical Therapy

If you’re looking to break into the PT career, then this is a good first step but not a great place to stay. Let me explain. 

Pay is enough to cover base expenses when first starting out (rent, modest savings) but definitely inadequate to progress your lifestyle (buying a home, starting a family, paying off doctorate loans, etc). I received 1% cost of living adjustment in a year that had 9% inflation. They also tout a $5k bonus when the clinic meets its budget. Spoiler alert, you will not meet the “budget”. 

Benefits are sub par. They do not kick in until 90 days of employment which is a pain. The 401k match is below average, there is no matching for IRA investments, and the mid-tier healthcare plan will still run you $100-150 per month per individual covered; if you cover a dependent (such as a spouse) then coverage jumps to closer to $400/month. Dental, vision, and other accident insurances will total around $35-50 depending on how much coverage you opt for. Ultimately that is less employer contribution than many other smaller companies. 

The documentation system is an absolute joke. The recently purchased the coding for it so that they can make adjustments, but it is still coding that was done in 2002. Too many drop downs, too many mandatory clicks, too slow (takes about 10 min for a daily note). 

You are salaried, so get ready to work 45+ hours a week. Your day is entirely filled with patients (usually) so there is little time for calls to physicians, answering emails, and office management. All of this will happen before or after your “day” ends. This comes on top of the remaining documentation you need to do. As they cannot retain marketing staff, the therapists are “voluntold” to assist with marketing events—during the weekend—for un-payed labor. 

You are expected to see 10.5 patients a day, but this number does not account for mandatory meetings and time off. That means you need to be shooting for 12-13 in order to offset inactive time. Remember, this is the number seen—not the number scheduled.

There is pressure on you to ensure patient arrival, but there is no consequence enforced on patients that no-show and late cancel. This is ultimately exasperating to therapists who cannot control the weather. 

PTO is alright, but very difficult to accrue unless you have been there >5 years. They also do not honor all national holidays (MLK Day for example). 

Con-Ed is unlimited! Hurray! But, we just need you to sign this contract of indentured servitude saying that if you leave in less than 2 years, you pay it back. 

Very modest tuition reimbursement exists for new grads. You can get something like $8k total, disbursed in $1000 a quarter. But, if you leave in less than 2 years, we’re going to need that back. 

Finally, and most importantly, Select (the corporation) cannot pay the front desk staff enough to maintain consistent employment. $16 an hour doesn’t cover much in Colorado. Most other clinics start at $18-20. The average life expectancy for a receptionist is 3 months. When they quit, you are assisting the recruiting, interviewing, and training of front desk staff on top of your other responsibilities. Stuff falls through the cracks as there are often periods where the desk is unstaffed—meaning you have to schedule, collect co-pays, and answer phone calls. All of this lands on your desk, and can turn a 45 hour week into a 55 very quickly.

It seems, for whatever reason, that they cannot treat the most simple position with respect. How then, will they treat you?


Typical work day was always busy and kept me going. Took over from a lady who had work there for 7 years. She never followed the process that the company demand. I had a mess on my hands when I was hired. I learned a lot about insurances, work-comp, VA and just in general how people want to feel special when they came in. They were in pain and we were here to help them. Plus I was the first one they would see and speak with so if I wasn't pleasant to them than their time there would be bad and they might not return. Us front desk people in my opinion make or break the environment. 

Select PT's management-Well they were mostly men and they treated the front desk ladies disrespectfully. They would just say sentences like......they are desperate and they will work for so much $$$. Only the desperate would take this job. I could learn their job in a week and do it well. I always told my head boss, fine than sit down and do. They thought we had an easy job. Just because they went to school for 7 years made them better than us. The PSS's have a lot to do and they forget that if we don't do our jobs correctly or with care, it effects their jobs. 

I loved all my co-workers. Some PT's I did not care for because they had big heads and could barely get through the door. 
But most of all, all the ladies were great to work with. Down to earth and easy to talk with when needing some support.

Hardest part of the job is when you are requesting paperwork from like DOL or work-men's Comp and they sit on it for days or even weeks. Dealing with them can get a bit tiresome or when the PT's would not finish their notes on time and it made it extremely difficult  on us ladies for batching. What a mess that was.

Most enjoyable part of my day is seeing my patients return with smiles on their faces and knowing that they are happy to be having PT done and that it is not a miserable place to be. My patients and I would talk about everything while waiting to be seen. My clinic was not quite. That to me is the worse thing in the world when a patient comes in and you have to whisper to your husband or wife because the clinic waiting room is boring or oh so quite. I love to interact with my patients and their family members. I was good at my job and my patients loved me. I miss them and my clinic. At Select someone had to quit, get fired or die before you could run your own clinic. I was lucky. They fired her at the Northglenn clinic and it became my baby. I loved every minute of it.

This is a job that should provide someone with amazing work/life balance. It should be the perfect escape from traditional athletic training. However, with the high turnover rate, inability to keep a full staff, and low hourly pay rate compared to the cost of living in the area, you are always working 6-7 days a week and possibly 50+ hours per week just to cover shifts and afford bare necessities. The plus side to that is that anything after 40 hours is considered OT, which isn't the case in traditional AT. It is easy money, but not decent money compared to the cost of living.

Another downfall is the management. No one communicates with each other let alone with the staff that works for them. The doctor that oversees the program does not respect ATs and the profession in general, so this hinders what the staff can do and overall success of the program. No one will stick up for you if anyone questions you or your ability. No one really cares about the staff and how they are doing. They only care about numbers and making the program look better than what it is based on numbers. The feelings and happiness of the customer are more important than those of the employee. 

This is not a job for newly certified ATs. You will lose skills that you just learned and you do not really learn anything new on the job. Be prepared to be glorified massage therapists. 

You cannot use management for references for new jobs, so how does anyone find a new job after being here. Eventually your undergrad, graduate and/or previous employer references are going to fall off, so what is one to do then. 

The free CEUs available to the staff are one of the good things about this job, but the weekend stuff is basically out of the question more often than not. The staff besides leads and managers have a hard time getting weekend or holidays off so if this is important keep that in mind. However, there are good online opportunities for everyone so this makes up for it. 

Another plus to the job are the people who benefit from the services provided, which is the only thing keeping most of the staff there. They are extremely appreciative of what is done for them, and they know that the ATs truly care about them.

I would never work for Select medical again and I would never refer someone to the company based on my experience here.

I loved my job here.
I was able to use all my skills and was given the freedom to govern myself, while also having a good support for training and guidance when needed.
My skills and hard work was acknowledged in a way that I had never experienced anywhere else.

BUT, the company's ethics made me end my time earlier than hoped.
Patients are merely numbers and the company prioritizes New Patients over the treatment of their current patients.
What I mean is, they care more about your very first appointment (which consists only of evaluating your injury) rather than all the follow up appointments (which is the actual treatment for your injury).
There was also a couple therapists that valued good reviews over patient recovery. Spending whole sessions doing massages, like a day spa, rather than actually encouraging their patients to do the work and get better. So, they would have patients coming in, sometimes paying high deductibles and copays, while never actually benefiting from the treatments.
There was one patient who, over the course of three years, not only made NO significant gains, but actually got worse. When I first started the job there was trouble with their insurance, which I'm positive ended up with them receiving hefty bills.

I loved my job.
I loved our patients.
I do not love how capitalism has forced the medical industry to dehumanize the people we're supposed to be helping.
And insurance is a scam - I know because I worked with it every day.

Select PT gives you resources to succeed; in house certifications, CEUS, modules (their hand therapy mentorship is excellent). Select PT will match your skills and experience to the right location for you and the market to be successful. 

My clinic director displayed integrity and transparency, and he/she was honestly caring of my personal life; it was not just about performance. My market manager and VP addressed my concerns for the most part and had an open door policy, They also understood family dynamics and were flexible with emergencies. 

Performance wise, Select PT is not really different from other big/small therapy companies. I felt that my high performance (consistent top 3 each quarter) was rewarded, and the meetings provided praise or constructive feedback on how to improve.  

Another great aspect of working at Select is the interdisciplinary teamwork between PT, OT and SLP per patient case need. The only cons are miscommunication of roles, below average work/life balance, lack of transparency and integrity with my particular situation during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Overall, there are alot more Pros than Cons. Would I work for Select PT again? Yup. I will be forever grateful for the opportunity that I was given to reach towards my career goal of being a CHT and CLT.

Management had no idea what they were doing. You were expected to preform front desk duties while also being a tech and one person cleaning crew for the whole office. Typical day starts out with you needing to code and bill out everything by 10am, but you're not in the office until 9. Take all patient calls, verify every insurance, desk with billing, call doctors, make sure all the notes are getting done, track every patient's authorizations by hand because the therapists never do their notes, send out auth, field calls, and all this before noon because then you have to spend the rest of the day helping the therapists in the back while they yell at you cuz you still need to keep running back to the front to answer the phone. You are responsible for inventory and ordering supplies, but can't get approval so the therapists take their frustrations out on you. You're not valued in the least, and honestly abused but emotionally and mentally. If a note isn't done for 30 days is your fault, but you aren't the therapist. Most of the day you're running around trying to make the therapists happy but they never are. You're overworked with very little compensation and don't ever be a minute late because you're an automaton with no family. Heaven forbid you actually know what you're doing and show it, they'll beat you down till you do things their way and then get in trouble when their way is wrong. Basically run away from the company. If you're not in the in- crowd you're never going anywhere here. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
The quality of clinicians we have on staff are what Keeps the patients happy and, commonly, returned to us. I will say that in relation to other similar jobs within the medical reception or medical admin field, Select pays far below average.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
There can often be a breakdown in communication between upper management and then thusly clinic managers, and then finally trickling down to those of us in patient services.  We’ve found that if you ask 4 of us the same question regarding insurance, you will more than likely get 4 different answers. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
We are all very focused on putting patient care first, and that makes it enjoyable to know your main goal is to help someone on a healing journey. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
I, singularly, run a smaller clinic. So my day to day  can include a myriad of activities. Everything patient centered- including arriving patients, collecting co-pays, scheduling patients on multiple clinicians, verifying insurances, etc. There of course are other things to be done in terms of managing the clinic including ordering supplies, answering the phones, ensuring that we are up-to-date with Medicare compliance, scheduling any necessary equipment inspections, etc.

Those that work the hardest are the most under appreciated. The moment they aren’t there nothing gets done.
When they get back, they return to mountains of work that the substitute just didn’t bother doing or did incorrectly. If they voice any frustration about it they are lectured through their unpaid lunch break on how they should be grateful they got any time off at all. 
If they just so happen to work at the same place as relative they are treated as one in the same. They don’t get nearly enough hours to do everything that everyone else isn’t doing. The Therapists will expect one to do something for them (cause they don’t want to) when one has already been clocked out for awhile and is in the process of exiting the building.
If one refuses to do unpaid work, one will then be badmouthed to the rest of the coworkers. It’s not all stress and being severely underpaid for all the work one puts into it though. Sometimes management buys everyone lunch. The people one can meet while working there can be pretty cool. The job itself can be reminiscent of various stress inducing video games. But if they were combined into one super stressful job. Though like those video games, hardly anyone really appreciates one for putting so much work into it.

Select has several clinics in the City I live in, different culture and vibes at all of them im sure, Ive seen a few other clinics than the one I work for.  Select has great benefits (medical, dental, vision, PTO, 401K, paid CEUs but you have to agree to work for Select for x years after some CEUs).  Your independent and able to treat freely most of the time unless MD's have any specific guidelines, although you can be working along side many other Therapist which can be challenging with so many people in one area.  Ive only worked at this Company so I dont know how raises are with other companies but these are not impressive raises they give you, but if you meet budget you can get a pretty nice bonus, doesn't happen often but it helps. I really enjoy the people I work along side with but the clinic itself (the one I work for at least) is very busy and PTs perform many other job duties which I didnt know when hired, such as FCEs and employment testing for companies.  You can advance higher up but you take on alot more responsibility, which you can say is expected but from what I see you take on ALOT more responsibility. 

Co-workers were always nice to be around. Management needs a lot more help. The interactions were usually passive aggressive or plastic and there were not any real relationships between management and the employees, felt soulless for a clinic, individuals who are suppose to be professional healthcare providers.. No group activities or growth, felt we had to walk on glass around them. A lot of the times when there is an issue, you are on your own, even after trying to discuss it to them multiple times. Hardly get praise for the hard work that's been done, usually a simple thanks here and there. Not much privacy for patients or employees. I can recall a few times a manager would yell at an employee in front of patients, unprofessional. On top of that clinic needs an update. I've worked at other clinics that have a separate room where you can speak with patients about their financial situations, but this place did not have that, so everyone's business and information would be heard and not many patients appreciated it. Maybe they're trying to be cheap so they are not provided with much leeway. That's how it usually goes for bigger corporations. All about the money. Have so many crews come and gone from this company due to not agreeing with management. Then again, no where is perfect. At least be happy with where you are at in the end of the day.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Physical therapist 1 salary reported	$62.50 per hour
Order picker 10 salaries reported	$37.75 per hour
Patient services coordinator 1 salary reported	$13.00 per hour
Program specialist 1 salary reported	$24.50 per hour
Physical therapist assistant 1 salary reported	$50,000 per year

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