Health is lived
in motion.
Precision Musculoskeletal Medicine. Non-surgical orthopedic and sports medicine, with a coordinated team and clear prices.
- Evaluate
30 to 45 minutes for your history, examination and indicated imaging.
- Understand
Your clinician explains the findings and the options.
- Plan
A written, conservative-first plan for what comes next.
- Follow through
Care-navigation follow-up within 48 to 72 hours.
The care athletes have always had. Built for everyone else.
Ask anyone who has been through a college training room what good orthopedic care feels like. Someone puts hands on you the day it happens. The people treating you talk to each other. You leave knowing what is wrong, what the plan is and what comes next. Nothing waits on an approval.
That model was never a secret. It has simply been reserved for people whose livelihood depends on movement, and we think yours does too. Longevity is meaningless without the ability to move, so we treat the patient and the exam rather than the image alone.
DirectOrtho+ is that room, built for everyone else: precision musculoskeletal medicine, sports medicine and non-surgical orthopedic care under one roof. Our clinicians spent nearly three decades in orthopedics, and every member of this team was chosen for their philosophy as much as their credentials. Direct pay is what makes it possible: when the cost is settled up front, the only question left in the room is what your body actually needs.
You should know
who you’ll see.
Kelly Ward, MMSc, PA-C
Twenty-eight years in orthopedic and sports medicine, including twenty-six supporting UGA Athletics. Kelly leads nonoperative care under physician supervision.
Evaluation, imaging, physical therapy and athletic training work from the same plan. The team stays connected as you move through recovery.
The right door.
For the week you’re having.
No membership or referral required. Start with the care you need today.
A clear first answer.
Evaluation, indicated imaging and a written plan.
$249 new patientINJURED TODAYSame-day appointments held for new injuries.
FASTPassOrtho+ covers evaluation and indicated imaging; other treatments are separately quoted.
$329 introductoryONE VISIT, MORE COMPLETECompleteOrtho+
Evaluation with imaging, then same-visit physical therapy or athletic training.
$329 introductory · members $329IT'S MY KID.Youth, student & concussion.
Youth sports injuries and suspected concussions, evaluated by a clinician who spent 26 years making these calls on a Division-I sideline. College students pay the same rate.
From $199Every next step,
in plain sight.
Introductory prices apply through March 31, 2027. Standard prices from April 1, 2027 are shown where they apply, and members keep member rates.
Prices in USD. Care and procedures depend on your clinical assessment.
Concussion care is provided under physician supervision consistent with Georgia's Return to Play Act (O.C.G.A. § 20-2-324.1); we provide evaluation and management, never a guaranteed clearance.
01Office visits
Thirty to forty-five minutes, and the same face every time.
A new patient visit is scheduled for real time: long enough to take a full history, examine the joint properly, put an ultrasound probe or an X-ray on it in the room, and hand you a plan you understood before you stood up. Imaging is performed on site when indicated, read immediately, and it is already inside the price.
You see the same clinician every visit, not whoever is available, not a new face at your recheck. Care here is physician-supervised and team-delivered, with direct access to orthopedic surgeons across Athens when a case calls for it.
What the price covers
- Unhurried evaluation lasting 30 to 45 minutes
- Full history and focused physical exam
- In-room digital X-ray or diagnostic ultrasound
- Findings read and explained on the spot
- Written conservative-first plan before you leave
- Direct access to your care team afterward
Services are generally HSA and FSA eligible; membership dues are not. Itemized superbill provided on request if you wish to submit to your insurer.
New-patient imaging is included when clinically indicated. Member rates: $249 new patient; $129 follow-up with imaging included.
02Same-day & Saturday
Injured today. Seen today.
FASTPassOrtho+ slots are held open and released the morning of. They are not overbooked add-ons wedged onto the end of a full schedule. Turn an ankle Tuesday morning and you are evaluated Tuesday, imaged Tuesday, and leave Tuesday with a diagnosis and a plan. The FASTPassOrtho+ price covers the same-day visit and imaging; a brace, injection or therapy, if you need one, is priced separately and quoted before it is done.
The Saturday Injury Window exists for the weekend version of the same problem: a tournament, a pickup game, a fall in the yard. A defined block of Saturday appointments, one flat price, with X-ray and ultrasound in the building.
Built for
- Acute sprains, strains, suspected fractures
- Weekend and tournament injuries
- Sudden flare of a known problem
- Return-to-play decisions that can’t wait
- Second opinions before a scheduled surgery
- Anything where waiting three weeks makes it worse
Coaches, athletic trainers and parents can call or text directly. No referral, no prior authorization. Saturday availability is a defined block, so call early in the week when you can.
FASTPassOrtho+ covers the same-day visit and imaging. Bracing, casting, injections and therapy are priced separately and quoted first. Member same-day visits are $249.
03VirtualOrtho+
Your injury doesn’t wait for Monday. Neither do we.
Ankles roll on Saturday night. Backs seize on Sunday morning. Shoulders give out the week you’re traveling. Orthopedic problems keep no one’s office hours, and until now, after-hours in Athens meant an urgent care that will X-ray you and send you somewhere else, or an emergency department built for something far more serious than your knee.
VirtualOrtho+ is a scheduled evening and weekend video visit with an orthopedic sports medicine clinician. Not a call center. Not a rotating telehealth physician working from a symptom checklist. Not a nurse line whose safest answer is always the emergency room. Nearly thirty years of orthopedic exams on the other side of the screen, watching how you move, asking the questions that actually narrow it down.
Every consult ends with a decision, not a callback. You will know that night whether this can wait until morning, and if it can’t, where you are going and who is expecting you.
The pay-twice problem, removed
If a virtual visit sends you into the office within 72 hours for the same concern, the whole virtual fee comes off that visit. You pay the balance and nothing more.
How this differs from general telehealth
- An orthopedic sports medicine clinician, not a generalist. You are describing a knee to someone who has examined tens of thousands of them.
- A real exam, adapted to video. We walk you through the same maneuvers we’d perform in the room, and we watch you do them.
- A decision attached. Home management with a written plan, a FASTPassOrtho+ slot held for the morning, an OnSiteOrtho+ house call, or a direct route to the ER when the exam warrants it.
- An appointment, not a waiting list. When the answer is “you need to be seen,” you end the call with a time already on the books.
- Continuity. The clinician on your screen tonight is the clinician in the room tomorrow.
Good for
- “Do we need the ER tonight?”
- College students away from home
- Travel and out-of-town injuries
- Post-op and post-injection questions
- Wound and incision checks
- Rechecks that don’t require a hands-on exam
VirtualOrtho+ does not replace emergency care. If something is truly emergent, we will tell you plainly and quickly.
For patients physically located in Georgia. If the same concern needs an office visit within 72 hours, the full virtual fee is credited toward the professional visit fee; supplies, procedures and outside testing are excluded.
04OnSiteOrtho+
Concierge orthopedic care, wherever you are.
A concierge orthopedic visit at your home or your office, for any age and any orthopedic problem, whether you want the convenience or simply cannot make it to the office. Not a service reserved for the frail: a busy professional, a parent with three children in the car, a household that would rather be seen together. If you would like a home visit, you have access to one.
OnSiteOrtho+ removes the trip entirely. We come to you with portable diagnostic ultrasound, bracing, injection capability and the same unhurried evaluation you would receive in the clinic, and we see you in the room where you actually live. That context is not a courtesy. Watching someone manage their own stairs, their own doorway, their own chair tells us things a clinic hallway never will.
The exam room is not a building. It is wherever the patient is, and everything required to evaluate one fits in the back of our vehicle.
Who this is built for
- Anyone who wants it. This is not a hardship service. If the trip is simply not how you want to spend your afternoon, that is reason enough.
- The people for whom the trip is the hard part. Post-operative patients, aging parents, non-drivers and anyone for whom leaving the house is the entire day’s event.
- Whole households at once. A sibling’s wrist and a parent’s shoulder, same stop, one hundred dollars for the second person.
- One fee, nothing added. Travel, triage, imaging and care planning are inside the $399.
- In-season athletes and teams. Evaluations at the field, the gym or the training room, without pulling anyone out of a competition week.
- Professionals who cannot lose a half-day. The visit comes to the office or the jobsite instead.
What comes through the door
- Portable diagnostic ultrasound
- Injection and aspiration capability
- Casting, splinting and bracing
- Full history and physical exam
- Written plan left with you and your family
- Care navigation follow-up, included
Concierge care at home or work within 20 miles of the Athens office. A brief virtual triage is included.
05Injections & orthobiologics
Biologics where the evidence supports them, and honesty where it doesn’t.
When an injection is the right call, it happens that day, in that room, performed by the clinician who just examined you. Ultrasound guidance is used wherever it improves accuracy, and it is included in the price rather than billed as a separate procedure by a separate entity.
Your own blood carries the growth factors, platelets and protective proteins that tendons and joints use to heal. Orthobiologics concentrate them and place them precisely where the injury is. In appropriately selected patients (the right preparation, ultrasound guidance and rehab afterward), they may improve pain and function in certain tendon and joint conditions. Done carelessly, they are an expensive injection.
PRP has its best evidence in tendinopathy (elbow, patellar, gluteal) and in mild to moderate knee osteoarthritis. A2M / platelet concentrate is considered in selected osteoarthritis cases. We will tell you plainly when we think a biologic is a reasonable option for your problem, and just as plainly when we don’t think it is worth your money.
Commonly treated
- Knee and hip osteoarthritis
- Rotator cuff and shoulder bursitis
- Tennis and golfer’s elbow
- Plantar fasciitis
- Trigger finger and de Quervain’s
- Joint aspiration for effusion
How it is done here
- Evaluation first. An exam and imaging decide whether a biologic is a reasonable option for your problem, never the other way around.
- Closed, sterile, single-use preparation. Prepared in the room from your own blood, used the same day and placed under ultrasound guidance.
- Rehab is part of the procedure. A biologic without a loading program is half a treatment. Physical therapy is down the hall and planned before you are injected.
- Outcomes tracked. Pain and function measured before and after, so the decision about a second injection is made on your numbers rather than a hunch.
A biologic is a decision that follows an exam, never one that precedes it.
What we will not do
- Sell a series up front. One injection, then a reassessment.
- Offer products the evidence does not support, or describe anything here as a “stem cell” treatment.
- Promise a result. Response varies by person and by condition, and we will go through what the evidence does and does not show before you decide.
Corticosteroid injection at $125 remains available when it is the right tool.
Evaluation comes first. Ultrasound guidance is included where used. Treatment response varies. A series is considered only after reassessment. Member prices are shown for each injection.
06Rehab & Recovery Zone
Rehab follows a diagnosis and ends at an outcome.
Therapy here always follows a diagnosis, but it does not always require an office visit first. Our physical therapists practice at the full scope of their license and can see patients directly for a defined number of visits, with orthopedic evaluation available the same day if the course calls for it. Orthopedic medicine, physical therapy, athletic training and recovery share one space. When your exam says it’s time, we walk down the hall and start: no referral to fax, no prior authorization, no second practice to call, no visit cap set by someone who has never seen your knee.
And you don’t have to buy visit by visit. Rehab bundles are priced for the whole course: Return (6 sessions), Rebuild (10 sessions) or Recover (20 sessions), with physical therapy and athletic training working from the same plan.
Three ways in, and you can move between them
- Per-session PT, no contract or obligation
- Rehab bundles priced for the whole course
- The integrated PT + ATC + Recovery model
- One patient at a time, start to finish
- Home programming you will actually do
- Direct access to a therapist, no visit required
You do not have to be a DirectOrtho+ patient to use physical therapy, athletic training or the Recovery Zone. Start directly with a therapist, or bring us a plan from elsewhere and we will execute it. Members take 10% off PT and athletic training, and additional Recovery Zone sessions beyond those included in membership are $25.
07Youth & Concussion
A hard hit on Friday shouldn't mean an emergency room on Friday night.
A young athlete gets hurt, and the family has two bad options: an emergency department built for trauma, which will rule out the catastrophic and send you home without a return-to-play plan, or a two-week wait for an orthopedic appointment while the season goes on without them. Neither answers the question a parent is actually asking, which is what is wrong, when can they play, and what do I tell the coach on Monday.
The youth pathway is that answer, delivered by a clinician who spent 26 years on the sidelines of Division-I athletics. Injury evaluations with imaging in the room. Suspected concussions assessed properly: full neurological and vestibular-ocular testing, written restrictions, and a plan sent to you, the school, and the team.
You are paying for expert evaluation and honest management. You are never paying for a guaranteed clearance, and we will not sell one.
What a concussion evaluation includes
- Full neurological examination
- Vestibular and ocular-motor screening
- Symptom inventory and cognitive screen
- Written activity and academic restrictions
- Return-to-learn and return-to-sport progression
- Communication sent to school, coach and athletic trainer
Georgia's Return to Play Act (O.C.G.A. § 20-2-324.1) recognizes a physician assistant practicing under physician supervision, with documented concussion training, as a qualifying health care provider. Any red flag (worsening headache, repeated vomiting, seizure, focal deficit, escalating confusion) goes to an emergency department, immediately, and we will say so without hesitating.
Youth and student pricing applies to patients 18 and under, or any currently enrolled college or graduate student with a valid student ID, from any school. It covers visits; injections, therapy, bracing and memberships are at the published prices.
08Physicals & readiness
The physical is free. Always.
The GHSA preparticipation form is a piece of paper a family needs once a year, and roughly six hundred Athens athletes a year got it at no cost through the free community physicals our clinician has organized for 25 years. We are not going to start charging for it now. Free Physical Day is a community program, held on a Saturday outside clinic hours, and the price is zero.
What a mass physical event cannot do is tell you why this athlete keeps straining the same hamstring, which side is doing more work than it should, or where they are most likely to get hurt this season. That is the Athlete Baseline & Readiness assessment: a movement screen with selected testing, a written report, and two or three prevention priorities you can actually act on. It is optional, it is separate, and it is the only part we charge for.
What the readiness report tells you
- Side-to-side strength and mobility asymmetry
- Movement-quality findings tied to injury risk
- Prior-injury patterns worth watching this season
- Two or three prevention priorities, ranked
- A number to retest against later
GHSA physicals cluster in April and May, and Free Physical Day is scheduled around that calendar. Members receive an annual Movement & Readiness Screen.
Free Physical Day is a community event. Readiness testing is optional and separate.
09Surgical navigation
We don’t own an operating room. That is not a small detail.
Conservative-first does not mean surgery-never. It means surgery is reserved rather than rushed, and when your imaging and exam genuinely call for it, the question becomes which surgeon, for this specific problem, for you. Over nearly three decades in Athens our clinicians have worked alongside almost every orthopedic surgeon in this city. We hand you two or three names matched to your diagnosis, and we tell you why each one is on that short list.
Our recommendation is based on whether surgery is right for you, not on whether you choose it. It is worth understanding the incentive structure behind any surgical advice you receive, including ours, and this is ours: we do not perform surgery, and nothing in this practice earns more when you have one.
How the handoff works
- Matched to the diagnosis, not the directory
- Surgeons we know personally from decades here
- A direct clinician-to-surgeon conversation
- You carry no paper and repeat no history
- Insurance activates where it belongs: for surgery
- This stays your orthopedic home, before and after
Bring your MRI disc, your surgeon’s note and your questions. We will go through all of it together.
The practice does not perform surgery. When needed, the team coordinates a provider-to-provider handoff to an independent surgeon.
Your athlete got hurt Friday night. You should have answers by Monday.
Ask a parent in this town what happens after a hard hit and you will hear the same two answers. Sit in an emergency department for five hours so someone can confirm nothing is broken, and leave with no plan. Or call an orthopedic office Monday morning and take the first appointment they have, which is in two and a half weeks, while the season keeps moving.
Neither one answers what a parent is actually asking: what is wrong, when can they play, and what do I tell the school and the coach. Our clinician spent 26 years on the sidelines of Division-I athletics making exactly these calls under exactly this pressure.
Seen this week, not in three.
Sprains, strains, growth-plate concerns, suspected fractures, overuse injuries and the "it still hurts three weeks later" problems that never got a real diagnosis. X-ray and diagnostic ultrasound are in the building and included when indicated, so you leave with an answer rather than an order form. Physical therapy is down the hall and can begin the same hour.
- Youth & Student Injury Evaluation · weekday $199
- Same-Day Injury Visit $249
- Saturday Injury Window $299
- Youth & Student Follow-Up · $99 ($149 with imaging)
College students pay the youth rate. Bring a current student ID from any school.
Who in Athens can actually manage a concussion?
Most families don't know, so they default to an emergency department, which will rule out a bleed and then tell you to follow up with someone else. Under Georgia's Return to Play Act, a physician assistant practicing under physician supervision with documented concussion training is a qualifying provider. We manage the whole arc rather than a single visit: full neurological exam, vestibular and ocular-motor screening, written restrictions, and a plan we send to you, the school and the team.
- Suspected Concussion Evaluation $249
- Urgent or Weekend Evaluation $299
- Concussion Follow-Up $99
A family pays us for expert evaluation and honest management. A family never pays us for a clearance decision, and no amount of money will move a return-to-play date that an athlete's recovery has not earned.
Built for the whole team.
Free community physicals
Ask about Free Physical Day, the community GHSA sports-physical event. Readiness testing is optional and separate.
On-site preseason physicals at a school or club are a separate service: $40 per athlete. Confirm event eligibility and arrangements with the team.
A relationship
between injuries.
Recovery, readiness and a care team that answers a text. Individual visits remain available.
Founding cohort: 100 accounts, 60 households and 40 individuals.
Care between injuries.
$799 / year household · up to five people under one roof, plus $100 for each additional person.
Founding rates: $399 / year or $35 / month individual; $799 / year or $70 / month household. Standard rates: $699 / $1,399 a year, or $60 / $120 a month. Founder renewal ceilings: $599 / $1,199 with continuous enrollment.
What is included
- Recovery Zone: four sessions monthly for individuals, eight shared for a household.
- Annual Movement & Readiness Screen for each enrolled member.
- Care-team text line and priority scheduling.
- Annual FINISH Care Credit for eligible services: $150 individual, $300 shared for a household.
- $249 new patient, $129 follow-up with imaging, $79 virtual.
- 10% off PT and athletic training; $100 off PRP.
Additional Recovery Zone sessions $25, scheduled up to three weekly. Join within seven days of a visit, and up to $150 of that visit’s fee is credited toward your first year.
Questions worth asking.
Do I need a referral or membership?
No. You can request an individual visit directly. Membership is optional.
Do you bill insurance?
FINISH is direct pay and does not bill insurance. Visits are prepaid at booking; for a missed appointment or a cancellation within 24 hours, $50 is kept from the prepaid fee and the rest is refunded. You have the right to receive a Good Faith Estimate of expected charges. Medicare patients should ask about the private-pay agreement before booking. Services are generally HSA and FSA eligible; membership dues are not. An itemized superbill is available on request; reimbursement depends on your plan.
What is included in imaging?
On-site X-ray and diagnostic ultrasound are included in new-patient and FASTPassOrtho+ visits when clinically indicated. Follow-up is $129, or $179 with repeat imaging. Bracing, injections and therapy are separately quoted.
What happens after a virtual visit?
If the same concern requires an in-office visit within 72 hours, the full virtual fee is credited toward the professional visit fee. Procedures, equipment, outside testing and supplies are separate.
What if I need surgery?
The team coordinates records, imaging and a handoff to an appropriate independent surgical practice. DirectOrtho+ does not perform surgery.
Can my child be seen for a sports injury or a possible concussion?
Yes. A youth sports injury evaluation is $199 on a weekday, $249 same-day, and $299 in the Saturday injury window. A suspected concussion evaluation is $249, or $299 urgent or weekend. Under Georgia's Return to Play Act, a physician assistant practicing under physician supervision with documented concussion training is a qualifying health care provider. Any red flag (worsening headache, repeated vomiting, seizure, a focal neurological deficit, escalating confusion) belongs in an emergency department immediately, and we will tell you that without hesitating.
Is there a student rate?
Yes. Any currently enrolled college or graduate student with a valid student ID, from any school, pays the youth rate: $199 for a weekday injury evaluation, $249 same-day, $299 in the Saturday injury window, and $99 for a follow-up ($149 with imaging). The student rate covers visits; injections, therapy, bracing and memberships are at the published prices.
Will you clear my athlete to play?
Only when they've earned it. You are paying for expert evaluation and honest management, never for a clearance decision made in advance. We follow a graduated return-to-learn and return-to-sport progression, and the timeline is set by how your athlete actually recovers, not by the schedule, the playoffs, or what anyone would prefer to hear.
What if I’m not sure where to begin?
Call or text (706) 224-9951 with a brief description of the problem. The team will help route you to the appropriate visit. In an emergency, call 911.
Start with what hurts.
One team, a clear next step and a price you know before the visit.