No-cost community clinics in Anchorage and Wasilla aim to provide more access to physical therapy

On a recent Saturday, Alec Kay stretched his knee into the air as he demonstrated how to do a hip-strengthening exercise he hoped would help resolve a patient’s lingering pain.

“Any twinges?” he asked patient Amber Sanchez as she imitated him, moving her knee into a banded “fire hydrant” pose.

She shook her head. “Just fatigue,” she said.

“Fatigue, we can work with,” Kay said.

Kay, who is the president of Alaska Chapter of the American Physical Therapy Association, was doing what he has done professionally in Alaska for the past 30 years — guiding a patient through a series of exercises meant to help improve function and mobility, and reduce pain.

This time, he wasn’t getting paid. Many Saturdays, Kay volunteers at a community physical therapy clinic that he helped launch in December 2022 with the help of a few dozen physical therapists and administrators who agreed to volunteer.

He says the goal of the clinic — which is called the Alaska Physical Therapy Community Clinic, and is now a 503(c) nonprofit with a newly launched branch in Wasilla — is to make it easier and more affordable for Alaskans to access physical therapy.

Every patient who’s seen at the community clinic receives care that’s 100% free, Kay said. They are open every Saturday in Anchorage and Wasilla.

At normal clinics, PT can sometimes cost upwards of $300 a session even with insurance before a deductible is met, Kay said. The cost can act as an obstacle when it comes to a lot of people’s ability and willingness to seek help for chronic and other conditions, he said.

“In Alaska, there’s a clear, financial barrier for a lot of people to accessing care,” Kay said. “And I’d say the health of the community is less than optimal because of that.”

Dr. Leslie Bryant, a family physician at Anchorage Neighborhood Health Center, said that historically, typically a significant percentage of patients he prescribes PT to end up never going, usually because of concerns about cost.

That’s changed since he started referring patients to the free community clinic, he said this week.

“It has just been incredibly good that I can now say, ‘here’s the address, here’s the phone number, if you don’t have insurance, you can still be seen,’” he said.

To access care at the community clinic, Kay said all potential patients have to do is call or email the Anchorage or Mat-Su clinics directly. A doctor’s referral isn’t needed. The reasons for seeking PT could be a nagging pain, recovery from a surgery or an acute injury, Kay said.

No proof of financial need is required, nor is health insurance, he said. The only patients who aren’t eligible to receive care at the clinic are those with Medicare or Medicaid, due to restrictions on the kinds of care that those patients can access.

That’s made a huge difference for Christina Gonzales, who started coming to the community clinic for rehab after a shoulder surgery. She was prescribed biweekly PT sessions, but at a regular provider, her copay would have been $80 a session, which was unaffordable.

Her doctor told her about the free clinic. Without it, “I probably would have gone to the library and looked up exercises,” she said. She is glad she stuck with the PT.

“Right now, I can lift my arm, I can move it around, I am slowly building up my strength,” she said. “It has been amazing.”

Bryant with Anchorage Neighborhood Health says this kind of regularly available, free medical care is unusual, but very needed. “It’s a fantastic thing,” he said. “And I’m just really grateful they exist now.”

For many of the patients Bryant sees, physical therapy is the best option for managing pain. “I say, there’s really not anything I can do — it requires movement to fix this,” he said. “And that’s what (physical therapists) do.”

Since opening in late 2022, the clinic has served more than 200 patients, or about five to seven each Saturday that they’re open. Kay said he hopes to increase the number of patients the clinic sees and eventually open more locations statewide.

“We believe so deeply in what we do, in terms of being a really simple, practical way to help people’s lives improve,” said Kay, who said he got the idea to open the clinic during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We have the tools to help people. And I’d just like to get more people in the door that we can help,”

The Alaska Physical Therapy Community Clinic has appointment openings on Saturdays in Anchorage and Wasilla. The Anchorage location is currently located at United Physical Therapy in Midtown Anchorage, at 206 East Northern Lights Boulevard. For appointments, call (302) 570-2578 or email communityclinic@alaskapt.org. The Mat-Su location is being held at Northern Edge Physical Therapy at 984 North Meridian Place in Wasilla. For appointments, call (302) 648-2578 or email matsucommunityclinic@alaskapt.org.