“Why do I have to pay out of pocket for preventive, proactive care?”
or
“Why aren’t your rates like standard physical therapy?”

It’s a fair question.
And it deserves an honest answer.

The system you’re in was never designed to keep you well

What we commonly call “healthcare” is a system that intervenes after something has already gone wrong.

Pain.
Loss of function.
A diagnosis.

That’s when reimbursement begins.

What it does not reliably support are the things that keep you out of that system in the first place:

• building strength before joints degenerate

• improving movement before pain becomes chronic

• stabilizing metabolism before insulin resistance

• regulating stress before it turns into disease

This isn’t because prevention doesn’t work.
It’s because prevention doesn’t fit a system built around diagnosis codes, short time slots, and volume.

What you’re actually investing in at HI PERFORMANCE CENTER

At HI PERFORMANCE, the goal has never been to treat you once you’re broken.

The goal has always been to keep you out of the healthcare system for as long as possible — healthy, strong and independent.

That focus shaped my entire professional path.

Yes, I am a physical therapist.
But not in the narrow, insurance-driven sense most people associate with physical therapy.

From the beginning of my career, I specialized in sports physical therapy and performance and ran my own private practice early on because it allowed me to work preventively, not reactively.

Very quickly, it became clear:
You cannot build long-term health outcomes or a sustainable profession — inside short, volume-based therapy models.

So I expanded my scope deliberately.

I trained as a Master Personal Trainer, and Professional Strength & Conditioning Coach, including certification through the Poliquin Strength Institute (Level 1 & 2), and continued my movement education as a movement specialist under Ido Portal.
To address chronic pain and tissue overload more precisely, I am Fully Body Certified in Active Release Techniques®️ under Dr. Mike Leahy.

As my work deepened, it became obvious that movement alone isn’t enough.

So I studied the principles of Functional Medicine, including training under Dr. Mark Hyman, with a focus on micronutrients, nutrition, lifestyle medicine, and systemic regulation. I also studied naturopathy, to better understand how the body adapts and compensates — long before disease appears.

Alongside this, I work as a life and business mentor, supporting people who operate at a high level professionally and personally. This matters, because high performance doesn’t only stress the body — it shapes behavior, recovery, decision-making, and long-term health. Understanding how people live, lead, and work is inseparable from helping them stay well.

Not to collect titles.
But because real prevention lives at the intersection of movement, metabolism, nervous system regulation, lifestyle, and responsibility.

What you’re getting at HI PERFORMANCE is not “just physical therapy”.

You’re getting integrated, preventive healthspan coaching, designed to:

• reduce future healthcare dependency

• preserve function and independence

• and prolong healthspan — not just manage symptoms

Why this work is out of pocket

Insurance-based physical therapy pays for reactive treatment.

It does not pay for:

• early risk identification

• movement analysis before pain

• strength training as medicine

• long-term maintenance

• behavior change

• integration across systems

Everything we do is grounded in "Advancing Longevity through 5P Medicine":
predictive, preventive, personalized, participatory, and prolonged. Read the previous blog here.

Here’s the part most people are never told clearly:

5P Medicine happens before disease — and that is exactly why it is rarely reimbursed. 

Insurance pays when something is wrong.
This work exists so it doesn’t get there.

If you want to go deeper into the participatory side of this model — what it actually asks of you as a patient or client — I’ve written about this in more detail in the blog “The Future of Medicine is Personalized: What 5P Medicine Asks from You.” It expands on why prevention only works when responsibility is shared.

We talk about longevity — but not everyone is actually on board

Longevity is everywhere right now.

Longevity Escape Velocity (LEV).
Exponential medicine.
High-tech solutions.

But understanding longevity intellectually is not the same as living in a way that actually produces it.

The future of healthcare is proactive and preventive — that part is no longer controversial. 

What’s harder to accept is what this implies:

Many of the people still working at the highest level of healthcare — the ones who think long-term, who prevent instead of patch, who treat systems rather than isolated symptoms — do not operate within classic insurance constraints.

Not because they want to exclude people.
But because prevention doesn’t fit reimbursement logic.

That means patients and clients must shift their mindset:

• out of reactive medicine

• out of waiting until the body forces a decision

• out of asking “Will this be covered?” before asking “What does this prevent?”

I know both sides of the system

I’ve worked within public healthcare.
I understand its strengths and its limits.

I’m also privately insured.

And still, it would never cross my mind to ask for reimbursement for things I could have prevented myself in the first place.

Sleep.
Exercise. 
Metabolic health.
Early diagnostics.
Stress regulation.

These are not insurance failures.
They are ownership questions.

People often ask why I personally invest so much out of pocket — in training, diagnostics, recovery tools, subscriptions, wearables.

Some see wearables as too much control.
As obsession.

I see them as instrumentation.

A wearable doesn’t control you.
It gives feedback.

Just like a mirror doesn’t judge your posture — it shows it.
Feedback is not pathology.
It’s information.

And information, used consciously, creates freedom.

Words don’t protect you. Actions do.

Many people say:
“I don’t want pills.”
“I don’t want surgery.”

And I believe them.

But if actions don’t align with values, those outcomes are not avoided — they’re postponed.

You can outsource expertise — and you should.
But without ownership, nothing integrates.

Without discomfort, nothing transforms.

When you look at the cumulative cost of not investing —
years of appointments, chronic pain, lost clarity, declining capacity —

and place it next to the cost of early, preventive guidance,

the math becomes very simple.

Final Thought

Preventive care is not elitist.
It is intentional.

Healthspan is not something you outsource.
It is something you participate in — early, consistently, and consciously.

At HI PERFORMANCE, the work is designed to help you stay strong, capable, and independent for as long as possible — in life, work, and leadership.

You don’t get the health you talk about.
You get the health you finally commit to.

#To💯Healthy — Design Your Healthspan With Intention

Longevity isn’t something to manage later.
It’s something you build early.

If nothing had to break first:
What would you choose to strengthen, protect, or prevent — starting now?

What Our Clients Say

If you want to understand what working with HI PERFORMANCE feels like,

take a look at our five-⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Google reviews here — real people, real outcomes.

Your Next Step

HI PERFORMANCE CENTER
To book your Preventive assessments, integrated physical therapy, strength & healthspan care book here: https://hiperformance-center.com .

Personal Longevity & 1-on-1 Mentorship with Hien
To win in body, business, being and your relationships checkout: https://thihiennguyen.com.

Hi Performance Body Transformation Coaching Online
To get healthy, lean and strong apply here: https://hiperformancebodytransformation.com 

Here’s to choosing early.

Here’s to #To💯Healthy.

Thi Hien Nguyen