Software for cash-based and out-of-network physical therapists

A cash-based PT practice rarely loses patients at the evaluation. It loses them between visit 3 and visit 5, when the knee feels better and the $140 visit starts to look optional, or when an out-of-network patient realizes the superbill won't come back as a check for six weeks. Most of the admin is about that gap: quoting the whole plan of care up front, getting the financial policy signed, and keeping the next visit on the calendar.

From the first call to a paid plan of care

1. Patients find you through Google, a running club or a surgeon who likes your ACL rehab. Your Link in Bio page lists a free 15-minute phone consult, the evaluation and your cash rates, so price questions are answered before anyone calls.
2. The evaluation is a 60-minute meeting type on your booking page, charged by card through your own Stripe account when the patient books (for example $175). Set a 24-hour refund window: cancel earlier and the refund goes back on its own, cancel the same morning and you keep it.
3. The booking form asks only administrative questions: the body area in general terms ("low back", "right knee after surgery"), how they heard about you and whether they want a superbill. Health history goes in your EMR intake, not here.
4. Self-pay patients are entitled to a Good Faith Estimate. Write it in your EMR or as a PDF and share it with Document Tracking, so you can see that the patient opened it before visit 2.
5. After the evaluation, send a proposal for the plan of care: "8 visits over 6 weeks at $140" as one line, an optional line for dry needling, and a 25% deposit. The patient accepts on a phone by typing their name.
6. Your financial policy, cancellation fee and consent go out for e-signature on acceptance. If your state requires a signed direct-access notice (California does), add it to the same packet and confirm with your board that an electronic signature satisfies it.
7. Each follow-up is booked as its own visit, on a paid "Follow-up visit" meeting type or from a single-use link you text after the session. Create the deposit invoice from the accepted proposal, then the balance; patients pay by card or with the Zelle or ACH details you print on the invoice.

A typical week

• Monday: two evaluations booked and paid over the weekend from your Google Business Profile link. One booking answer says "needs superbill", so you flag it for your EMR.
• Tuesday: a post-op knee patient accepts the 8-visit plan of care and signs the financial policy that night. The deposit invoice goes out from the proposal.
• Wednesday: you run a 45-minute injury screen at a CrossFit gym, sold to the owner with a proposal and invoiced as a flat fee. The QR code on your handout is a short link, so you can count the scans.
• Thursday: a patient misses visit 4. You mark the booking as a no-show and an automation emails the link to book again.
• Friday: you log the clinic rent, a new set of resistance bands and the gas for two home visits in Expenses, with the receipts.

All 13 tools, one by one

Scheduling, Proposals, E-Signatures and Invoicing do most of the work in a cash PT practice. The rest help in specific cases.

• Link in Bio: one page for your Instagram and Google profile with the consult, the evaluation, your cash rates and the area you cover for home visits.
• Short Links: a QR code on the handout you leave at gyms and running stores; the click count shows which partner actually sends patients.
• Forms: rarely needed for patients, since booking questions cover intake. Useful when a gym or an employer asks for an injury screen day and you need headcount, dates and space.
• Scheduling: consult, evaluation, clinic follow-up and home visit as separate meeting types, with buffers of up to 240 minutes for driving, card payment at booking and a reminder the day before.
• Proposals: the plan of care after the evaluation, priced per visit with a deposit, plus proposals to gyms and employers for screens and workshops.
• E-Signatures: financial policy, cancellation fee, consent and any direct-access notice your state requires, signed on the patient's phone before visit 2.
• Document Tracking: your Good Faith Estimate and the home exercise program as PDFs with a passcode if you want one; you see whether the patient opened them and which pages they read.
• Screen Recording: a 3-minute video recorded at your computer that walks through the home program PDF on screen; the patient can comment at the second they get lost.
• Notes & Boards: a board of active plans of care showing only the name and "visit 5 of 8", plus the clinic to-dos. Keep clinical detail out of it.
• Time Tracking: barely used when you charge per visit. It matters when a high school or club pays you by the hour for game-day coverage.
• Invoicing: deposit and balance invoices created from the accepted plan of care, and monthly invoices to gyms or schools, with card payment and reminders.
• Expenses: clinic rent, CEU courses, dry needling supplies and equipment with receipts, so your accountant has the year's costs in one export.
• Automations: a no-show email with the booking link, and a check-in 6 weeks after the last plan of care is paid to offer a tune-up visit.

Direct access, Medicare and estimates

• Direct access varies by state. In California, Business and Professions Code section 2620.1 lets a patient start PT without a diagnosis, but caps it at 45 calendar days or 12 visits, whichever comes first, unless a physician or podiatrist approves your plan of care, and requires a written notice the patient signs before treatment. Other states set different limits or none, so check your state's practice act. SoloWOS doesn't count visits toward that limit for you.
• Physical therapists aren't on the CMS list of practitioners who can opt out of Medicare. Taking cash from a Medicare patient for a covered service has its own rules, so read the CMS guidance before you treat Medicare patients as self-pay.
• When a self-pay patient schedules care at least 3 business days ahead, the No Surprises Act requires a Good Faith Estimate within 1 business day of scheduling (within 3 business days when the visit is 10 or more business days out), and CMS expects you to tell self-pay patients about that right on your website, in the office and when they book.
• One Good Faith Estimate can cover recurring care such as a course of PT, as long as it states the expected number and frequency of visits and covers no more than 12 months.

HIPAA: who can use SoloWOS and for what

HIPAA applies to health care providers who send health information electronically in standard transactions, such as billing insurance. A cloud service that stores protected health information for a covered provider is a business associate and needs a Business Associate Agreement (BAA). SoloWOS doesn't sign BAAs and isn't HIPAA compliant.

• If you bill insurance electronically, you're a covered entity: don't put your patients' health information in SoloWOS. Keep using your EHR or practice-management system for anything clinical.
• If your practice is cash-pay only and never bills insurance electronically, HIPAA may not cover you, but state health-privacy laws can still apply. Ask your lawyer before you rely on that.
• Either way, keep intake forms and booking questions administrative (name, email, preferred time, reason for the visit in general terms) and leave clinical questions for the visit and your records system.

This is general information, not legal advice. Rules vary by state; check yours with a lawyer or your licensing board.

SoloWOS or Jane: which fits

Choose Jane if:

• You need charting, scheduling and a signed BAA in one HIPAA-covered system.
• You bill some insurance, or send out-of-network patients superbills with codes.
• You sell visit packages that count down on their own.
• You offer telehealth visits, which Jane includes in its plans.

Choose SoloWOS if:

• You're cash-only and your charts already live in a separate system.
• Part of your income comes from businesses (gyms, schools, employers) that need a proposal, a contract and an invoice.
• You want proposals, document tracking, a link page and invoicing at one price instead of adding tools around your EMR.

Prices and features checked between October 17 and 23, 2026 on each company's site.

Start with these three

Scheduling with a paid evaluation and a follow-up visit, Proposals with your standard 8-visit plan of care saved as a template, and E-Signatures for the financial policy. Invoicing comes with the first accepted plan, and Automations can wait for your first no-show.

Free tools that help

• Freelance rate calculator to work out what a cash visit has to cost to cover your income goal.
• Break-even calculator for how many visits a week cover the clinic rent and your equipment.
• Payment fee calculator to see what card processing takes from a $140 visit.
• Mileage deduction calculator for home visits and gym screens.
• Self-employment tax calculator if you run the practice as a sole proprietor.

What SoloWOS won't do for a physical therapist

• No evaluations, flowsheets, progress notes or plan-of-care documents. It isn't an EMR and makes no HIPAA claim.
• No superbills or insurance claims. A superbill carries diagnosis and procedure codes, so make it in your EMR.
• No packages that count down and no recurring bookings: each visit is booked on its own.
• One weekly schedule per person for every meeting type, so you can't open home visits only on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Buffers are fixed per meeting type; there's no route planning.
• Reminders by email only, not SMS.
• SoloWOS doesn't file taxes, issue 1099s or collect sales tax for you. Invoicing sends the invoice with a pay link (card through your Stripe account) and your other payment details; your accountant or tax software handles the rest.