How Much Does Pediatric Physical Therapy Cost?

The cost of pediatric physical therapy varies substantially by region, setting, and provider, and a single national figure would be misleading. What matters more for most families is that several routes cost nothing: early intervention is free for children under three in most US states regardless of income, school-based services are free where a child qualifies, and Medicaid's EPSDT benefit covers medically necessary services for children. Private sessions are typically billed hourly, with an initial evaluation costing more than a treatment session. If you're paying privately, the variables that move the price most are geography, whether the provider is in-network, and session length.

What actually drives the price of private therapy

We don't publish a national price range for physical, because a single figure would be wrong for most of the country. What's stable is what moves the number:

• Geography. The widest single variable — metropolitan rates differ substantially from rural ones.
• Setting. A private clinic, a hospital outpatient department, and in-home visits are priced differently.
• Session length. 30, 45, and 60-minute sessions are billed differently.
• Evaluation versus treatment. An evaluation costs more — see below.
• Provider credential and specialization. Additional certification can affect the rate.
• In-network versus out-of-network. Often the difference between a co-pay and the full billed rate.

Ask any provider for their current self-pay rate directly. It's a normal question and they will have an answer.

Why an evaluation costs more than a session

An initial evaluation is longer than a treatment session, includes standardized assessment, and carries scoring and report writing afterward that happens outside the appointment. That report is also what insurance, a school team, or another provider will rely on later — so it's doing more work than the appointment alone.

Specific to physical therapy

Equipment and orthotics are separate costs with their own funding routes, and they sometimes run through different channels than the therapy itself — a plan's durable medical equipment benefit rather than its therapy benefit. Ask early who submits that paperwork.

What Medicaid pays, in four states

Private clinics do not publish their rates, so no honest national price exists for physical therapy. What is public is what each state Medicaid program pays a provider, and those schedules are published, dated and checkable. Four are set out below.

Across these four states a pediatric physical therapy evaluation is reimbursed at $58.11 to $116.19, and treatment at $17.58 to $33.75 per 15-minute unit — so a 45-minute session billed as three units comes to roughly $52.74 to $101.25.

Read the billing unit before comparing states. A state paying per 15-minute unit and a state paying per session are not quoting the same thing, and that difference explains most of the spread in the table. Texas pays roughly twice what Washington does for the same 15 minutes, and New York lists no separate evaluation code at all — an evaluation there is billed as treatment time.

This is not what you pay. It is what the state pays the provider. If your child is covered by Medicaid and the service is medically necessary, your own cost is usually nothing, or a small copay — under EPSDT, states must cover medically necessary therapy for children who qualify. The figures are useful for a different reason: they are a floor you can hold a private-pay quote against. A clinic setting its own rate is generally charging above what Medicaid pays, and now you know roughly by how much.

• Washington. Clients 20 and younger receive unlimited outpatient rehabilitation. Washington State Health Care Authority, Outpatient Rehabilitation Fee Schedule, 1 July 2026.
• Texas. Clinic setting, ages 0-20, service delivered by a licensed therapist. Texas pays a higher rate in the home (note code P2) and 80% of the therapist rate when an assistant delivers the service (modifier UB). Texas Medicaid & Healthcare Partnership, static fee schedules (occupational therapist, physical therapist, THSteps speech therapist), rates dated 1 September 2017 and 1 September 2019; schedule generated 14 September 2026.
• New York. Private practitioner office setting. New York's schedule lists no separate OT or PT evaluation code, and OT and PT treatment is billed under 97530. eMedNY, New York State Medicaid, Rehabilitation Services Procedure Codes & Fee Schedule, January 2026.
• Florida. Evaluations limited to one per year. Treatment limited to 4 per day and 14 per week. An assistant is paid $16.28 rather than $20.33. Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, 2026 therapy services fee schedules, 2026.

How insurance usually works here

Most US plans cover some pediatric therapy, but visit limits, prior authorization, and what counts as “medically necessary” differ by plan — and therapy framed as developmental or educational rather than medical is a common exclusion. → Does insurance cover pediatric therapy?

Questions worth asking a provider

• What's your self-pay rate, and does it differ by session length?
• What does an evaluation cost?
• Do you take my insurance, and are you in-network?
• Will you help with prior authorization?
• Do you offer a sliding scale or payment plans?
• What happens if we need more sessions than insurance covers?

If private therapy isn't affordable

There are more routes than most families are told about — free programs, reduced-cost clinics, and ways to make private care cost less. → Pediatric therapy without insurance

Frequently Asked Questions

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