FAQs

To schedule, you can follow the link below. You can also fill out the form on the contact page and a member of our team will get back to you as soon as possible!
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Phone: 910-216-0726

Alpha Osteopractic is located at 14669-B US 17 N Hampstead, NC 28443. Located next to Taste Of Sunrise Coffee. Please feel free to use the ramp going up to Taste of Sunrise’s door to access our front door.

Your first visit will include a thorough full body evaluation, movement assessment, hands on treatment and education for you to gain a better understanding of your body and how you move. During this time, your Doctor of Physical Therapy will get a better understanding of you as a person and your personal goals.

It is important that you wear loose, comfortable, nonrestrictive clothing. Your clothes should also allow the ability to evaluate and treat your area of injury, so please dress accordingly.

Note: You may change in the treatment room or the restroom if you need to bring clothes with you for your session or for changing after your session.

Each treatment is scheduled for 60 minutes. The initial evaluation may take a little longer based on the injury/pathology but each subsequent treatment will be up to 60 min.

There is no way to know how much treatment any one patient will need until an individual evaluation is conducted. Each patient and injury is different and is treated as such. Research shows that cash-based PTs typically achieve results in significantly fewer visits – saving you time and money. At Alpha Osteopractic, you will be treated with the utmost respect for your time, money and goals. Know that you will receive treatment designed to achieve your goals in the fewest treatments possible.

This can depend on many variables and your specific expectations will be explained after your initial evaluation. Level of improvement will vary across patients. Alpha Osteopractic utilizes advanced techniques that are evidence-based and effective. The goal is to make a difference within each session and start improving as quickly as possible. Know with complete confidence, that if you are not improving quickly, we will reassess and refer you to a specialist if needed.

Yes! and you will not be passed to an assistant or aide at any point.

At Alpha Osteopractic, we are not affiliated with any insurance carries and do not directly bill any insurances. This allows us to treat the human in front of us and not the diagnostic code. Unfortunately, the current in-network model of physical therapy does not allow for the individual attention and detailed treatment that is provided by Alpha Osteopractic. Here you will receive the high end, one-on-one services that you deserve. We do accept FSA/HSA.

No. North Carolina is a Direct Access state. You do not need to jump through hoop and wait weeks to be seen by a physician to get a referral. You can simply schedule your first session. We can treat all neuromusculoskeletal disorders and can take a significant burden off physicians. During your comprehensive evaluation, if we determine that you would be best served by a specialist, physician or require additional testing, we will refer you to the best practitioner for your condition.

I could write a whole website about this topic, but the short answer is that it allows for better patient care. The full answer would go on “for days”. Alpha Osteopractic has made the decision to focus on the most important thing – the patient. Here are some of the main reasons that Alpha Osteopractic is a 100% private-pay practice:

Currently, insurance and Medicare reimbursement is very poor and the future looks worse. This goes for most all areas of health care. Insurance requirements with time factors (each billing code has to have a specific time), difficult claims processes, challenging denials, significant documentation demands, and vast variety of “coverage” and pans has caused most medical providers to be over-worked and this has taken time away from the patient. Have you felt the disappointment of seeing a provider and feeling that they rushed in, rushed out, didn’t even touch you and barely looked at you? The quality of care has been drastically reduced due to the severe demands placed on providers by insurance companies.

Reimbursement concerns shouldn’t dictate treatment. Many insurance companies will only reimburse the practice a flat rate no matter what services are provided. This results in two choices for the clinician: provide the appropriate care and not get paid for most of the time you spent or cut the treatments short and compromise the well-being of the patient. Neither is a good option. In addition, knowing that the insurance companies are doing whatever they can to deny claims, practices need to employ staff with the sole purpose of handling the insurance hassle. Even the best and most seasoned staff still has claims returned unpaid. This means that the practice losses money both upfront having to employ additional staff but also on the backend with not getting reimbursed for services already provided.

By connecting directly with each patient, Alpha Osteopractic is able to give all of that time and energy to the patient. Without having to jump through the hoops of the insurance and Medicare systems, and without having to meet exorbitant overhead or constantly being worried about chasing reimbursements and paying excess staff, Dr. Forbes provide every patient with her undivided attention and can give all of her energy and focus to providing the best care. This higher level of focus, energy, and attentions allows you to get results quicker and more efficiently.

You can check your out of network benefits using this benefits checker. You can also check out this document The PT Patient’s Guide to Understanding Insurance to learn more about insurance and coverages.

The short answer to this question is, No. As with most things associated with Medicare, the answer is complicated. Currently, if a Physical Therapist provides services to a Medicare beneficiary that would normally be covered by Medicare, the practice is required to bill Medicare directly and is not allowed to accept private self-payment for the services. The Social Security Act has a mandatory claims submission requirement, so a Physical Therapist cannot choose to not enroll in the Medicare program AND collect cash from a Medicare beneficiary. Alpha Osteopractic has NO relationship with Medicare and cannot accept out-of-pocket payments for services that would normally be covered by Medicare.

As with all complicated programs, there are exceptions. If the service is “non-covered” (e.g.. maintenance therapy, prevention, wellness/fitness, dry needling), then the Physical Therapist could collect out of pocket payment from the beneficiary; but only in those circumstances. If you are interested in Alpha Osteopractic’s services and are a Medicare beneficiary, please call to discuss your specific situation. Every effort will be made to provide care to you within the guidelines of all state, federal and professional laws.

Additionally, if the Medicare beneficiary clearly states of their own free will that they refuse to have their services billed to Medicare they have the right to be seen by Alpha Osteopractic. Alpha Osteopractic is not a Medicare provider and neither the patient nor Alpha Osteopractic is allowed to bill Medicare or any secondary insurance provider for services rendered NEITHER A BILL FOR PAYMENT NOR RECEIPT FOR REIMBURSEMENT MAY BE SUBMITTED TO MEDICARE OR SECONDARY INSURANCE.

Appointments are reserved especially for you. We respectfully ask you to request an appointment change at least 1 week before the beginning of your appointment. In the event that you do need to cancel or change a scheduled appointment, you must do so at least 3 business days prior to your appointment time to avoid being charged the full cost of the treatment session. No-show appointments will be charged the full price of the service.