VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 14, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE via COMTEX) —
Each year, three to five per cent of Americans receive outpatient physiotherapy for a wide variety of sprains, strains and other injuries; the numbers are greater than 10 percent among Americans over the age of 65. Demand for rehabilitation services, including occupational and speech therapy both for treatment and prevention, is expected to grow sharply as the population ages.
Americans, or more accurately their insurers, currently spend as much as $27 billion annually on rehabilitation services and therapies. Such services are generally provided through freestanding outpatient clinics, hospitals or through workplace programs. This sector of the health services industry is, however, highly fragmented. Currently, there are more than 30,000 outpatient clinics in the U.S. and the top 50 providers account for less than one quarter of the market.
