What is the average cost per patient encounter?

The cleanest published figure comes from U.S. Physical Therapy's FY2025 10-K, because a listed operator reports it to the SEC: $86.15 of adjusted clinic operating cost per visit across 6.15 million visits, of which $61.93 (72%) is salaries and related costs. The adjustment strips out acquisition incentive costs and clinic closure losses; before it, the figures are $86.30 and $62.04, the same 72%. That single ratio is the most useful thing on this page. It means the cost of a visit is a staffing decision far more than a supplies or facilities decision, and that the lever on cost per encounter is schedule density, not vendor negotiation. On the revenue side, Concentra reports $147.42 per visit at its occupational health centers in 2025: $210.15 for a workers' compensation visit against $92.84 for employer services such as physicals and drug screens. That is a 2.3x gap inside the same centers, set by what the visit is and who pays for it. Cost per encounter and revenue per encounter move for different reasons, so a practice that only watches cost can cut supplies when the real problem is payer mix. For overhead as a share of revenue, two published anchors: ZenOne uses total overhead of about 60–65% of collections, before owner-dentist pay, as the starting comparison for dental practices, and FTI Consulting estimates dermatology operating expenses at 72.9% of net revenue for medical and 75.1% for cosmetic practices, from 2019 benchmarking data. To calculate your own, sum total operating expense excluding owner compensation for the trailing twelve months and divide by total billable encounters. Track it monthly, because the trend tells you more than any single month.