Orthopedic care for Santa Monica. PPO direct access. Sports medicine first.

Santa Monica lives outside. Whether you're logging miles on the beach path, paddling out at Bay Street, riding the Marvin Braude bike trail, hitting beach volleyball at Ocean Park, or stacking yoga and Pilates sessions between meetings, your body asks a lot of you, and orthopedic problems don't usually wait politely.

LAOSS Wilshire is the practical access point for Santa Monica patients who want board-certified sports-medicine specialists without an HMO gatekeeper. We're about 12 miles east on the 10, roughly a 25 to 35 minute drive depending on traffic, with on-site parking when you arrive. UCLA Health and the major academic centers are closer geographically, but our Wilshire team is set up for the kind of patients Santa Monica sends us: working professionals who want a same-week appointment, a clear diagnosis, and a path back to training.

We see the same SoCal injury patterns over and over: IT band and runner's knee from the beach path, rotator cuff and shoulder impingement from surfing, patellofemoral pain and Achilles tendinopathy from cycling and triathlon training, wrist and hand tendinopathy from Pilates and reformer work, and the overuse stuff that piles up when you train year-round in good weather. The job is to figure out exactly what's torn, irritated, or wearing down, and to fix it with the least-invasive option that actually works.

Santa Monica is heavy PPO territory, and that works in your favor here. If you carry Anthem Blue Cross PPO, Aetna PPO, Cigna PPO, United Healthcare PPO, Health Net PPO, or Blue Shield PPO, you can book any LAOSS specialist directly: no PCP referral, no waiting on a medical group to authorize the visit.

HMO patients (Kaiser, Health Net HMO, IPA-routed plans) still need a referral from their primary care physician before being seen. If you're not sure what kind of plan you have, call (323) 271-4173 with your card handy and our front desk will figure it out before you book.

Workers' compensation claims are accepted across all eight LAOSS offices; we coordinate directly with adjusters and case managers. Out-of-network and cash-pay patients are welcome too; our self-pay rates are published, so there are no surprise charges. See /insurance/ for the full carrier directory and /self-pay/ for cash-pay pricing.