By Erick Severo
18 Aug, 2026
Clinic Announcements
exercise, insurance, MDT, Motor Vehicle Accident, MVA, Nick Rinard, Nick Rinard physical therapy, pain, pain-free, Physical Therapy, Portland Oregon, results, treatment
A car accident can happen in seconds, but the soreness, stiffness, headaches, and difficulty moving that follow can linger much longer.
One of the tricky things about motor vehicle accidents is that pain doesn’t always show up immediately. Adrenaline and stress can mask symptoms initially, and it’s common to notice increased neck pain, back pain, headaches, stiffness, or difficulty with everyday activities in the hours or days following an accident.
At Nick Rinard Physical Therapy, we help patients recover after motor vehicle accidents and get back to moving, working, exercising, and living with confidence.
Common Problems After a Car Accident
Even relatively low-speed accidents can place significant stress on the body. Some of the most common symptoms we see include:
- Neck pain and stiffness
- Whiplash-related symptoms
- Low or mid-back pain
- Headaches
- Shoulder pain
- Difficulty turning your head while driving
- Pain with sitting or sleeping
- Muscle tightness and soreness
- Reduced mobility
- Difficulty returning to work, exercise, or normal activities
These symptoms can look different for every person, which is why your treatment shouldn’t be one-size-fits-all.
How Physical Therapy Can Help
Your first visit starts with a thorough evaluation to understand how your symptoms respond to movement, what may be contributing to your pain, and which movements help you feel and move better.
From there, we develop an individualized treatment plan that may include hands-on treatment, specific exercises, mobility work, strengthening, and education to help you manage your symptoms between visits.
Our goal isn’t simply to make you feel better temporarily. We want to help you regain your normal movement and function while giving you the tools to continue progressing on your own.
Don’t Wait for Pain to Become Your “New Normal”
After an accident, it can be tempting to assume the soreness will eventually disappear on its own. Sometimes it does but if pain, stiffness, headaches, or difficulty with normal activities are sticking around, having the problem evaluated can help you understand what’s happening and what you can do about it.
Whether your accident happened recently or you’ve been dealing with symptoms for a while, we’re happy to help determine the next step.
Injured in a Motor Vehicle Accident?
Nick Rinard Physical Therapy is accepting patients following motor vehicle accidents.
If you have questions about starting physical therapy, scheduling an evaluation, or using your auto insurance benefits for treatment, give our office a call. Our team can help you navigate the process and determine your next steps.
Call Nick Rinard Physical Therapy at (503) 244-6232 or email at help@rinardpt.com to schedule an evaluation.
Already know someone who was recently in an accident? Feel free to forward this message to them – we’d be happy to help.
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Do you have the feeling or expect that Physical Therapy should be covered by your insurance?
Physical therapy providers are starting to identify some very good reasons why involving your insurance may NOT be in your best interest!
Just like filing an auto insurance claim for damage that doesn’t meet your deductible – it is often best to forego involving your insurance and just pay out of pocket. There is no need to inform your car insurance that there was any damage and risk them increasing your premiums the next time your policy renews. It is the same with filing a health insurance claim. Filing a small claim for physical therapy can have negative complications and unintended consequences. Especially when you can get diagnosed in 2-4 visit at Nick Rinard Physical Therapy, and get good results soon after that, it is better to not have your insurance medaling in your physical therapy affairs by questioning whether you “deserve” physical therapy or not.
Health insurance companies are demanding more and more that patients meet certain criteria, through one-size-fits-none measurements to either deny you care, or begrudgingly agree to authorize just a limited number of visits. This is insulting to your legitimate pain, and disrespectful of your medical providers who should be the only ones deciding if you need care or not. Also, your insurance reserves the right to determine – even after the fact – that your care is/was not “medically necessary” and deny your claims leaving you with an unforeseeable bill. This really is unethical and undermines your relationship with your provider. Also, insurance companies are increasing your cost of care to save themselves money with patient portions closer and closer to the total bill. You, the patient, are better off just paying at time of service at our clinic and not bothering with the extra headache, expense, and disrespectful treatment associated with filing insurance claims – even though you are totally legitimate!
Nick Rinard Physical Therapy’ wants to save you money. Our pay at time of service rate eliminates billing uncertainties from insurance companies. We are making visits more affordable and getting better health outcomes for patients. Advantages to paying at time of service include that patients get uninterrupted service, higher quality care they can trust, hassle-free billing, and no surprise bills at the end. It really is a win – win for both providers and patients for those with high deductibles, who want care out-of-network, who are self-employed, self-insured, expired PIPs and for people who have health savings accounts.
Now is the time to stop insurance companies from unethically pretending to be medical providers and payment specialists that do not have the patients’ best interest at heart. We are your providers working for you! It is our oath to get you results, free of pain and back to living life… We know health insurance companies cannot promise the same.
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Challenges of our unstable economy is that our community must face unpredictable health care coverage and bizarre terms insurance companies use to deny patient visits.
Patients discover, often way too late, that their insurance does not cover them when they need it most.
Health insurance plans are misleading patients with vague terms such as “medical necessity” and “prior-authorization”.
With these terms patients can suddenly find themselves with unexpected health care costs, after having the impression they were covered.
It is up to patients to get wise to their health insurance loop holes.
Our patients have found, regardless of all costs, that the quality of care Nick Rinard Physical Therapy gives exceeds all else.
We strive to simplify patients’ decisions by providing fast, efficient care that guarantees results.
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