Staff creates the referral
Enter patient and provider details, select up to three PT options, and trigger an automatic SMS to the patient.
The post-referral MSK care platform
Know your patients are getting better. Not just referred.
Tether Health connects surgeons, PT clinics, and patients in one platform replacing fax and phone tag with SMS-driven referrals, and giving you the outcome data to prove your patients actually recover.
- No patient login required
- SMS intake in minutes
- Full referral audit trail
“Every completed referral becomes proof: of recovery, of quality, of value delivered.”
- 5M+
- Orthopedic procedures needing PT annually
- ~50%
- Of patients drop out of PT before completing care
- 3
- PT options delivered to every patient, automatically
For Referring Physicians
See your patients' recovery — without lifting a phone. Automated outcome tracking at 6 and 12 weeks.
For PT Clinics
Get connected to a steady stream of surgeon referrals. No cold outreach, no fax machine.
For Health Systems
Reduce out-of-network leakage and get the standardized outcome data your value-based contracts require.
Patient-Reported Outcomes
The data that proves your patients actually recovered.
Standardized outcome surveys at baseline, 6 weeks, and 12 weeks — PROMIS-10, KOOS, DASH, and more, matched automatically to each patient's diagnosis. This is the outcome data that demonstrates quality to payers, justifies every dollar of MSK spend, and gives physicians and PT clinics the proof points they need for value-based contracts.
KOOS score trajectory
On trackBaseline
6 weeks
12 weeks
5+
Referral stages tracked
Draft through confirmed
4
Stakeholder portals
Staff, physician, clinic, patient
Zero
Patient friction
Token-based SMS access
AES-256
Encryption standard
At rest and in transit
How it works
One referral lifecycle, fully visible
From the first staff entry to confirmed provider assignment—automated coordination so nothing falls through the cracks.
Patient completes intake
Secure token link—no login. Patients share details, symptoms, preferences, and consent in a guided flow.
Provider selection
Review three provider cards and confirm via web or SMS reply (1, 2, or 3)—whichever is easiest.
Everyone stays in sync
Clinic dashboards update live, physicians get notified, and every action is logged for compliance.
Built for every stakeholder
Four roles, one connected workflow
Role-based access ensures each user sees exactly what they need operations, visibility, intake, and compliance without overlap.
Staff / Admin
Manage referrals end to end—creating cases, monitoring intake, editing SMS templates, and overseeing the pipeline.
Full system access
Referring Physician
See exactly how your patients are recovering—attendance, adherence, and outcome scores—without a single phone call to the PT clinic.
Outcome visibility, zero extra work
- Core portal
PT Clinic/Provider
Dedicated dashboard for assigned referrals with live status as patients complete intake and select a provider.
Assigned referrals only
Patient
SMS links with secure, time-limited tokens—no account or password, minimal friction with PHI protection.
Token-based limited access
Platform capabilities
Everything you need to modernize referrals
Purpose-built for Protected Health Information—with tools to operate today and architecture to scale tomorrow.
SMS-driven workflow
Twilio-powered messages guide patients from notification through intake and provider selection.
Editable SMS templates
Customize content with variables for consistent, on-brand communications.
Real-time dashboards
Track draft, intake pending, intake complete, provider selected, and confirmed.
Token-based patient sessions
Scoped links with expiration windows and limited actions—secure by design.
Automated notifications
Patients, clinics, and physicians get updates at every milestone automatically.
Structured referral lifecycle
Standardized intake across clinics with end-to-end visibility and auditability.
Security & compliance
Designed for HIPAA from the ground up
Technical safeguards—encryption, access controls, and audit trails—are core to the platform, not bolted on after the fact.
HIPAA technical safeguards
US-region deployment
PHI access auditing
- AES-256 encryption at rest
- TLS 1.2+ encryption in transit
- Role-based access control (RBAC)
- JWT sessions with expiration policies
- Full audit logging for PHI access events
- AWS HIPAA-eligible infrastructure (US regions)
- BAA-eligible service architecture
- Unique user identification across portals
About Tether Health
Modern referral management for orthopedic care networks
We connect referring physician offices, patients, and receiving PT clinics in one HIPAA-compliant platform—from referral creation to confirmed provider.
Tether Health is physician-founded and physician-led — created by practicing clinicians who watched the broken referral process fail patients again and again: no visibility into whether they showed up, no outcome data, no accountability. Tether Health was built to close that loop, from the inside out.
Our mission
Know your patients are getting better by reducing administrative overhead while improving speed, accuracy, and visibility across every referral.
What we deliver
- Reduce referral processing time between physician, patient, and clinic
- Remove dependency on fax and phone-based coordination
- Provide real-time referral visibility for all stakeholders
- Enable SMS-driven patient engagement with minimal friction
- Standardize referral intake across multi-clinic expansion
- Automated Patient Reported Outcomes Tracking
- Outcome Measurement for Value-Based Care
- Physician & PT Performance Insights
FAQ
Common questions
Quick answers about how Tether Health works for your team, physicians, clinics, and patients.
No. Patients access intake through a secure SMS link with a time-limited token—no username or password required, reducing friction while protecting PHI.
Physicians receive notifications as referrals progress through intake and provider selection, with read-only visibility into their referred cases.
The platform is designed around HIPAA technical safeguards including encryption at rest and in transit, RBAC, audit logging, and deployment on AWS HIPAA-eligible infrastructure in US regions.
Staff can present up to three physical therapy provider options per referral. Patients confirm via the web portal or a simple SMS reply (1, 2, or 3).
Yes. Staff can edit SMS templates with variables so communications stay consistent, professional, and aligned with your clinic's voice.
Schedule a walkthrough
Ready to close the loop in your referral workflow?
Join clinics modernizing physician-to-PT referrals with secure SMS intake, real-time dashboards, and HIPAA-aligned infrastructure.
Contact us
Start your onboarding conversation
Whether you're a referring practice, receiving clinic, or health system—we'll walk you through the platform and implementation.
Phone
Available during onboarding
Deployment
US-region, HIPAA-eligible cloud
Response time
Within one business day