physical therapy aide

front office specialist

physical therapist

account specialist

therapist

Spooner

This is the perfect place for you if you would like to get micromanaged on literally everything (from the actual documentation and billing to having a friendly conversation with your coworker between patients to where you stand to document), be compared to other PTs on everything from treatment to billing (& even told about your coworkers billing issues in private), not actually get that dedicated tech after over 3 months, have the director pass his responsibilities onto you (like calling patients who are angry about getting rescheduled), see patients that get flipped around on multiple different PT's schedules who all have crazy different treatment philosophies - good luck figuring out why they aren't getting better due to the lack of consistency with PT (& putting out those fires because patients aren't told who they are being scheduled with), if you like harassing patients by calling them twice a week if they fall off the schedule, have meetings and new hire trainings (onboarding) over your lunch breaks multiple times a week for a year, have to co-treat (you should look up the legality in that), have to pay back your con ed $ if you took the course within 2 years of leaving the company, like to maximize billing ("put that manual technique in with your ther ex or neuro re-ed charge... reimbursement is higher"), have a director who only communicates through email, have to market for the clinic, show up on multiple days with an overly full schedule and no tech scheduled to work with you, Clinicient is horrible for documentation not to mention the wifi goes in and out and you have old computers, have your director talk down to you and your peers and still get paid poorly (but keep hearing about this Level 2 PT position which was promised in 4 months after hire in which you can bonus - which is based on a lot of subjective info too)... This may be dependent on location and director. I highly recommend you do your research first.

When I started at Spooner Physical Therapy I had no experience as a Payment Poster.  I learned everything on the job.  We had no procedures manual, it was strictly face to face training, and daily inquiry.

My typical day at work was to first check the Daily to see which EFTs and Lockboxes needed to be posted.  To prioritize posting, retrieve EFTs and document EFT identifiers (check numbers or EFT numbers).  After that my entire day would be spent entering payments from insurance companies and patients according to the EFT or Lockbox that I was posting.  We entered insurance payment first and any co-pay was added secondarily.  

Any posting issues, such as denials, overpayments, and underpayments were rolled back to the insurance company's responsibility and a task was written for the collector simply stating the problem with the post.

I had some amazing co-workers.  Collectors who were expert at doing their job.  They were friendly and we created a great team.

The managers of the department were in constant flux.  A few months after I was hired the manager of our department was let go.  We then had an interim manager/director.  Finally, they hired a permanent manager.  We were always rolling with the new management styles. 

What some people would call the hardest part of the job aligns with my definition of the most enjoyable part of the job, that is, the act of posting.  I really like to post, even though it is a position that some would find tedious, I enjoyed finishing large lockboxes and EFTs.  It gave me a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction.  I was truly concerned that the documentation was correct and the patients and therapists would be well served.

This is pre COVID-19. Transitions resulted in low census. Competition between same discipline, causing 1 way tension which divided the small team.  Like other companies, to build your caseload; you had to self market, going office to office of physicians. I had job stability concerns, so one director stated do not worry about the productivity goals because even more experienced therapists have a hard time reaching and that nothing will happen to me. HR manager/director at that time stated that I would only lose health benefits if I didn't reach the marketing goal. Several meetings later, I was told that nothing needed to improve. Census was a slow but gradually increased. With the job stability question answered, that gave me reassurance to stay. I actually was interviewing for other jobs and got 1-2 offers. Near the end, the former co-worker went on PTO and I provided coverage. Following week, I see that my entire schedule is blocked with meetings; feeling concerned, I contacted one director who said that the HR manager and other director only wanted to chat. Believing him, I went to the meeting instead of quitting ahead of the meeting. I was terminated due to low performance. HR manager said that I would do well in my career, but it won't be at Spooner. My experience caused trauma for several years due to the lack of integrity. I am gradually improving myself to trust others. It took me years to forgive and ability to write this review without getting upset.

On the positive side, I am grateful for the short term experience as it led me to reach closer towards certain goals.

Absolutely no job security, my job as a patient services coordinator was only safe if the location had enough therapists to support my job, if any of them left, my job was at risk. It did not matter how well I performed. Headquarters (outside of the clinic directors) did not care about me or any of my coworkers. We were in trouble all the time for not doing our work properly without the initial training. When we asked questions or time for proper training, they were too busy. 

We switched to a new EMR system aroun March, never got the proper training for that either and so I had to teach myself. Every question was judged, and I was confronted by my direct supervisor with, "What does your typical day look like? Because the work is not getting done." I responded with, "I need more time and training with the new EMR system because I am struggling with it." Never got the training and was constantly in trouble. 

The positive take aways from this experience is that I learned alot about EMR systems and health insurance. The most enjoyable/rewarding was educating patients who wanted to learn about their insurance and helping them out.

Independently evaluated and treated pediatric, adult, and geriatric patients with lumbar and cervical pain, sacroiliac joint dysfunction, osteoarthritis, ligamentous tear, severe muscle strain, knee and hip arthroplasty, post-surgical shoulder repair, and cancer-related fatigue. 
Performed treatments using various evidence-based theories, including Applied Functional Science, Functional Movement Systems, Institute of Physical Art, and Mulligan Mobilizations. 
Safely and efficiently treated up to 16 patients per day, designed and implemented home exercise programs, and documented point of service treatment notes.
Supervised physical therapy assistants and aides in order to ensure maximal patient safety during therapeutic exercise and modality interventions. 
Gained proficiency in manual therapy skills including joint and soft-tissue mobilization, thrust manipulation, stretching, and isolated muscle strengthening. 
Observed total hip arthoplasty and medial knee compartment MAKOplasty surgical procedures.

Most of your workday will be checking in patients, taking co-pays, and fielding phone calls. The job itself is fairly easy, though the program used has some glitches. The real problem comes from leadership.  They say they have clear expectations but they do not. They will have a talk with you for a behavior, tell you you're improving for months, then give another talking to for seemingly the same behavior.  We are told daily we need to get more referrals coming in, then when we get referrals the therapists get upset that their schedule is busy. It's an extremely cliquey environment. That all being said, talking to people 1 on 1 and speaking with the patients when they are out, they're doing amazing work. It's a joy to see how much people improve when they come in. The technicians who work with the therapist's also occasionally help answer phones when it is busy. All the issues are behind the scenes 

Have been with the company multiple years and they continue to be at the forefront of the profession. The company is truly focused on the growth of all it's employees and has implemented new training strategies of all departments to assist with this. The focus on all employee's success as well as the benefits it offers to all employees is tough to beat in this sector. The pay is the best a company can offer of this size with the declining reimbursement rates and rising inflation as well as operating costs. Overall, they have done a great job at managing this. They do a great job at listening to their employees and making changes based on feedback.  There is opportunity for growth on all levels. The work is challenging, but anything worth your time and effort should be.

I enjoyed my time working here and learned a lot from all of the people at the Ahwatukee location. The only negative I have for Spooner is that the owner only appears to care about paying therapists, and doesn't seem to appreciate the hard work that all of the other employees provide to run his clinics. All of the therapy techs and front office employees are paid the least amount I have seen in any medical office, and it is very difficult to get a raise even when working extremely hard. If you are fresh out of school and looking for somewhere where you can learn a lot from therapists before going back to school, this is the place for you. If you are looking for a long term job where you will be reimbursed for your hard work, this is not the job.

I started in one of the clinics where it really was a great place to work with great coworkers and probably the best clinic director I had ever met. Then I went to the corporate office to join the CCS team and everything changed. My direct supervisor was awesome and my coworkers were fun, the same could not be said for the CCS director or the rest of the office. Culture there felt like constantly walking on egg shells because CCS was looked down upon so poorly, most of which encouraged by the director. Most of the good employees have been driven off at this point, with many complaints filed but none actually taken seriously. Overall a toxic environment that should be avoided like the plague.

I was actually a physical therapy student here during my last clinical rotation (didn't actually work for salary/benefits). I can't say much about the pay, but the work culture here is awesome. There are lots of staff relationship-building events and publicity events to take part in. Everyone is so friendly. The CEO even came to greet me personally on my last day on the rotation! I would definitely work here again if I was planning on staying in Arizona or if the company decides to expand its clinics to other states.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Physical therapy aide 109 salaries reported	$15.33 per hour
Front office specialist 29 salaries reported	$17.24 per hour
Physical therapist 43 salaries reported	$87,372 per year
Account specialist 4 salaries reported	$20.75 per hour
Therapist 8 salaries reported	$88,000 per year

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