Episodes

Physical therapy is at a crossroads. Clinicians are leaving the profession faster than schools can replace them, reimbursement has not kept pace with a seven-year training pathway, and the job title of “doctor” sometimes lands on a workday that looks very different from what students expected. David DeGumbia has spent nearly three decades inside outpatient PT — from athletic training with the Miami Dolphins to leading multi-site operations at HealthSouth and Select Medical, and now as Chief O...

Nick Patel leads APTQI, the alliance of competing community-based rehab practices that used to regroup only when a crisis hit — a Medicare cut, a bad regulation — then quietly fall apart once the fire was out. He helped turn that pattern into something permanent: a standing coalition of 9,000 practice locations that pools research, clinical expertise, and lobbying power year-round. His path into advocacy started with a torn ACL and an offhand comment from his own physical therapist that changed...

An experienced biller stuck on hold with an insurance company all afternoon is a cost many clinics quietly learn to accept. Nick Hedges, CEO of Raintree, calls revenue cycle management the most expensive, most human-hours-lost problem in the entire industry, and his clients spend 7% or more of everything they collect just to get paid. That number is why Raintree acquired Spike Technologies, the agentic AI company Povilas Gudzius co-founded after earning his PhD in machine learning. Hear why th...

Forty-one years in, the chairman of one of America’s largest publicly traded rehab operators still runs his playbook on a single principle: people. Chris Reading leads U.S. Physical Therapy from Houston, oversees more than 800 clinics across 40-plus states, and started his clinical life treating ACLs and complicated shoulders in Virginia. What separates USPH from the rest of the consolidation conversation is structure. Where private equity buys with the intent to sell in three to five years, Re...

Al Moreau grew up in the world of physical therapy. His father founded Moreau Physical Therapy in 1977, and today Al leads that same network across more than 26 locations in Louisiana and Texas. Building on a family legacy isn't just about honoring the past. For Al, it means pushing the practice forward while staying rooted in the values that made it matter in the first place. Al's approach to scaling starts long before a new clinic opens. Rather than hiring for headcount, he identifies clinic...

Dan Rootenberg’s career changed course not because of a big win—but because a dream fell apart. On track for a professional baseball career, the 1994 MLB strike ended his dreams in an instant and forced him to rethink his future. When another student no-showed on the first day of PT school, a last-minute acceptance led Dan to find his footing in physical therapy. With just $6000, he co-founded Spear Physical Therapy in 1999 in a rented room inside a gym with the belief that clinical excellence...

An injury in high school introduced Tony Mikla to physical therapy—but it was the frustration of that experience that sparked his lifelong mission to help athletes recover faster and perform at their best. Today, as a leading voice in sports orthopedics with clinics across Sacramento, Reno, and Las Vegas, Tony has built a model of care that redefines what a thriving workplace looks like in healthcare. Tony’s path from injured athlete to clinic founder wasn’t just about mastering rehabilitation...

Dr. Anthony Buccafurni never planned on becoming a CEO. He started as a sports-focused physical therapist, raised by a pediatric nurse mom and a hospital administrator dad—giving him an early, front-row seat to both sides of the American healthcare system. When he began working with older adults on the brink of losing their independence, his path shifted to FOX Rehabilitation and a mission-driven career to help people stay safely in their homes as long as possible. Along the way, he realized le...

Simon Hargus turned a small family clinic into a 50-location practice serving rural Ohio and West Virginia without losing the heart of hands-on, patient-first care. He leads with intention, focusing on culture over scale. By creating individualized career paths and flexible opportunities, Simon helps therapists build meaningful, lasting careers instead of following a one-size-fits-all model. He opens up about the journey behind First Settlement Physical Therapy—how he built a place people want...

Aaron Kraai’s fascination with movement as a teen grew into a lifelong mission. Mentored by clinic owners, he learned both the science of physical therapy and the business behind it—folding towels, scouting locations, and negotiating leases before he even had a title. Years later, he enlisted his family to launch Doctors of Physical Therapy, painting walls and assembling equipment by hand. Today, DPT has grown to over 160 clinics nationwide. Central to its success is a culture of “brutal hones...

Musculoskeletal conditions account for an astonishing one-third of all healthcare costs. Brady Hill, CEO of Cypress Health Partners, believes physical therapy should play a central role in solving that problem—and he’s proving that it can. With a career path that’s anything but traditional, Brady has built a thriving enterprise by combining analytical precision with emotional intelligence. He draws on both sides of the brain to strike balance: using the “left brain” to drive systems, analytics,...