Want to stay ahead of the curve in physical therapy? Future Proof PT brings you straight-talking, no-nonsense conversations about what really matters in healthcare today. From dissecting policy risks and opportunities to exploring innovative practice and payment models to practical ways to accelerate your career growth, we're your go-to source for understanding the forces reshaping our profession and the healthcare industry at large.
Through candid dialogue and real-world perspectives, we're building a community of forward-thinking professionals working both in and out of direct patient care. They aren't just adapting to change – they're shaping it.
Whether you're looking to understand market dynamics or seeking professional growth, each episode delivers actionable insights that will transform how you view the future of healthcare. Come join the conversation!
Want to stay ahead of the curve in physical therapy? Future Proof PT brings you straight-talking, no-nonsense conversations about what really matters in healthcare today. From dissecting policy risks and opportunities to exploring innovative practice and payment models to practical ways to accelerate your career growth, we're your go-to source for understanding the forces reshaping our profession and the healthcare industry at large.
Through candid dialogue and real-world perspectives, we're building a community of forward-thinking professionals working both in and out of direct patient care. They aren't just adapting to change – they're shaping it.
Whether you're looking to understand market dynamics or seeking professional growth, each episode delivers actionable insights that will transform how you view the future of healthcare. Come join the conversation!
Alex and Dana met on LinkedIn, started a podcast, and only met in person in October of 2025. They use their milestone 20th episode to issue an urgent call: 270,000 physical therapists must each become agents of change, starting today. They cover these topics and more:
-The economic reality is unsustainable. Therapists graduate with up to $200K debt (three-quarters of medical school) to earn a $120K salary ceiling. Compare that to nurse practitioners makin $150K with two years of training.
-The fee-for-service model traps therapy professionals. Many now leave between years 3-5, before their investment even pays off. But everything needed to transform exists right now.
-Physical therapists aren't physician extenders—they're doctoring professionals with their own licensed and supportive extenders (PTAs, health coaches, PT aides, etc.). The solution mirrors how surgeons often collaborate with physician associates: PTs should evaluate, plan care, and intervene when expertise is required, while delegating execution to skilled and/or trained team members.
-Time directly providing one-on-one patient care doesn't equal quality.
-High-quality clinicians redirect inappropriate referrals instead of accepting them like "manna from heaven."
-Setting realistic patient expectations based on prognosis and comorbidities IS the professional expertise that defines doctoring professionals. Yet the profession never fully claimed the direct access promise.
-Alex's recent experience with his father's hospitalization exposed for him healthcare's fractured reality: disciplines that don't communicate, 10+ daily errors, and systems where only patients with physician quarterbacks receive optimal care. Despite seamless technology enabling collaboration, hospitals remain unsafe places.
-Fee-for-service creates no incentive for safety or communication—but value-based models like TEAM (hitting 25% of hospitals in January) are shifting the landscape by making hospitals accountable for 30-day spending and outcomes. Therapists--this creates massive opportunity. For example, therapists can help ensure anyone who may be able to return directly home actually CAN go home, and can advocate for that on behalf of patients in collaborating with the multidisciplinary team.
-Complaints aren't actionable—they're just "the what." Action emerges when individuals realize they can move the needle in their own clinical settings, with their own patients, and with their own teams.
-Value-based care is the path to sustainable, higher PT and OT incomes in clinical roles.
-What Alex is excited about for the APTA PPS event this week!
And more!
Join them for Episode 20. Like it? Please give them a thumbs up and subscribe!
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