Methodology
How we build this site, what we verify, and what we do not.
Summary
We aggregate the public NPPES (National Plan and Provider Enumeration System) registry published by CMS and organize it by city, state, and specialty taxonomy. We do not verify licenses or complaints ourselves — for that, we link directly to each state physical therapy board.
Data Pipeline
- Ingest. We download the NPPES bulk file from CMS (updated monthly) and filter to individual providers (Entity Type 1) whose primary healthcare taxonomy starts with 2251 (Physical Therapist) or 2252 (Physical Therapist Assistant).
- Normalize. We standardize address fields, format phone numbers, and compute years since NPI enrollment (from the NPPES enumeration date).
- Attach specialty when applicable. Some NPPES taxonomy codes indicate a specialty (e.g., 2251P0200X = Pediatric). We label those. Providers with the generic physical-therapist taxonomy (225100000X) are NOT labeled with a specialty.
- Group by city and state. We organize records by practice-location city and state, and publish per-city directory pages.
- Link to state boards. For every state, we maintain a link to the state physical therapy board's official license lookup. Every profile links there.
What We Publish
Only fields that appear in the NPPES public bulk file:
- Provider first and last name
- Credential (PT or PTA — see caveat below)
- NPI number
- NPPES taxonomy code
- NPPES-declared specialty when a specialty-specific taxonomy code applies
- Practice-location address, ZIP code, and phone number
- NPI enumeration date and derived "years since NPI enrollment"
- Gender code when NPPES publishes it
What We Deliberately Do NOT Publish or Claim
License status.
NPPES does not publish license status. We do not claim it. Use the state board link on every profile to verify current status.
Disciplinary or complaint history.
NPPES does not publish complaints. State boards do. We link there rather than republish.
Clinical years of experience.
We publish "years since NPI enrollment" only, which is a specific NPPES-derived number, not a claim about clinical practice years.
Practice name for individual NPIs.
NPPES does not publish practice names for individual (Entity Type 1) providers. We do not fabricate one.
Degree level (DPT / MPT / etc.).
NPPES does not distinguish PT degree levels. We use the licensure-neutral abbreviation PT (or PTA for assistants).
Trust scores, rankings, endorsements.
We do not score, rank, or endorse individual PTs. No free public data supports doing so honestly.
Data Freshness & Corrections
NPPES itself updates monthly. We refresh from the NPPES bulk file periodically. If your NPPES record has been updated but our site still shows old information, the fix flows through on our next refresh.
Providers may request correction or removal via our contact page. We honor takedown requests within 1 week.
This Site Is Not Medical Advice
This directory is a starting point for finding a physical therapist. It is not medical advice. Do not delay professional evaluation based on information on this site.