A little more than 3 years ago, just a few months before opening their new practice, Rebecca Meehan, PT, and Susan Clinton, PT, DScPT, sat down to discuss their plans. Atop their agenda was the question of payment.

"We knew that we didn't want to work with insurance at all," Meehan says, "so our business plan centered on being cash-based. For that model to work, though, you need a system in place. You can't just fly by the seat of your pants."

Meehan and Clinton's clinic, Embody Physiotherapy and Wellness in Sewickley, Pennsylvania, would leverage the 2 women's specialist certifications in women's health, orthopedics, and manual therapy, and would focus on prevention as much as rehabilitation. Together, they had 60-plus years of experience in the field. "We weren't fresh out of school, jumping right into private practice," Meehan notes. "We had a very strong sense of what our strengths were as physical therapists, and the various ways in which we could help our patient and client population."