HALL OF FAME WITH APPALACHIAN PT STAFF
Today’s world is very challenging for just about any privately owned entity. Yousee thediminishingoccurrenceof grocery stores, pharmacies, physician offices and even privately owned physical therapy offices. Reasons we hear are the bigger stores have the ability to undermine the cost of smaller companies. The cost are spread out over many more stores and the little guys are gradually pushed out. This is certainly true in health care but it does not have to be. It seems physicians for themost part have joined rankswithhospitals as they are tired of dealingwith all the rules and regulations regarding insurance as well as the time it takes to invest in personnel. Health care practitioners are taught to take care of people that walk in their doors, not deal with insurance, employees etc. All of this takes time away from treating patients. Pharmacies have joined ranks with larger corporations like Walgreens, Rite Aid, and the list goes on. It is no different in dealing with physical therapists. The trend for the last few years in physical therapy has seen POPS, physician owned physical therapy services strengthen. This used to be illegal under the Stark law but with wiggling from some very smart attorneys, this lawhasbeenweakenedandwehaveseensomephysician groups investing in their own enterprise to make more money. Our profession generally sees it as a conflict of interest but some of these practices have turned out OK. We now have HOPS, hospital owned physical therapy services and hospitals have always for themost part had their ownPTdepartments. Heck I rememberwhen I graduated from PT school, I talked to a hospital and convinced them they needed to hire me as their first physical therapist. A big change from today. And now we also have COPS, corporate owned physical therapy services. This is one of the fastest growing entities in health care today. Just like physicians, physical therapists are also tired of all the other duties that gowith opening an office and treating patients and have sold their souls like physicians and pharmacists as they are working very hard to do it all. Looking at this from the outside, who could blame them? I guess my question to all of the patients out there are how is it all working out for the public? How is our healthcare going? Is it getting better or worse? Do you feel like you are given the amount of time you need when you see a physician or physical therapist. Are you treated with respect and appreciationor are you treated like amonetary object? I would dare say the latter is more common and that is a shame. Who else is in a better position to run healthcare than the practitioner’s themselves?
We have had ample opportunities to sell our practice over the past 3O+ years for the same reasons as anyone else. We also get tired of dealing with insurance issues but hey, I jumped in this boat and this is something I knewwas going to have to be dealt with. I was not trained in marketing but again, knew if I was going to remain in this business, as any other business, to be successful, you better figure it out. I guess my wife and I are cut from the same cloth that we recognize relationships are worth more than anything money can buy. We value the folks that have gotten us where we are today and can not turn our backs on them when it comes to selling out to corporate companies. You see, they have their own HR people and our office manager, Vicki as well as those that have preceded her would be gone in a flash. Also folks like Robin who have been with us over 20 years would be history as she is the personwhomanages our insurance issues. I could go on and on but I hope you get the picture. Sowe have decided to hang in there for the long run and have physical therapists who share our vision with staying privately owned and also understand it is important to focus on the patients, the reason we are here in the first place. This is the reason you are reading this now as we understand it is vital tomarket our skills and get in front of asmany folks as we can. This is the reason we celebrate our hall of fame and success storieswhich help spread theword that there are still folks out here that believe treating you one on one as it should be. Sohelp us continue tohave something to celebrate. Joinour celebrated hall of fame. Get treated by a private practice entity who still focuses on the patient being treated in today’s healthcare environment. You will be glad you did.
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