Feb. 22, 2026
Never Assume. Always Ask. The Advocacy Wake-Up Call for PTs

Physical therapy reimbursement has declined for years — while tuition, expectations, and scope continue to expand.
Steve Smith joins PT Pintcast live from CSM to discuss:
- Why he became a private practice owner after a VC acquisition
- Lessons learned about leadership during COVID
- Medicare payment cuts and recent advocacy wins
- Why every PT must understand advocacy
- How state-level scope of practice changes create national ripple effects
- The importance of simple, clear messaging in professional advocacy
- His big goal: getting one-third of PTs in Massachusetts actively signing advocacy letters
The message is simple:
If you don’t engage before decisions are made, you’ll be reacting after something is lost.
His parting advice:
Never assume. Always ask.
Topics Covered
- Medicare reimbursement trends
- Scope of practice reform
- Prescriptive authority & imaging access
- Association engagement
- Leadership in PT
- How to take your “soft first step” into advocacy
Transcript
WEBVTT
00:00:00.089 --> 00:00:00.909
Here we go.
00:00:01.008 --> 00:00:02.289
I'll give a quick intro.
00:00:02.309 --> 00:00:13.412
All right,
00:00:13.451 --> 00:00:17.393
live streaming from CSM in Anaheim.
00:00:17.413 --> 00:00:19.193
I do want to thank Sarah Health,
00:00:20.053 --> 00:00:22.993
the platform helping you take RTM from a
00:00:23.134 --> 00:00:23.893
thought, a theory,
00:00:23.914 --> 00:00:25.713
a thing you saw in a webinar into
00:00:25.734 --> 00:00:27.934
your practice, streamline it,
00:00:28.890 --> 00:00:30.672
and help you help your patients between
00:00:30.711 --> 00:00:32.012
visits and earn revenue.
00:00:32.051 --> 00:00:32.932
Wouldn't it be great if you could do
00:00:32.972 --> 00:00:33.292
both?
00:00:33.552 --> 00:00:34.313
Turns out you can.
00:00:34.692 --> 00:00:35.652
SarahHealth.com.
00:00:35.673 --> 00:00:36.914
It's SarahHealth.com.
00:00:37.073 --> 00:00:37.834
S-A-R-A,
00:00:38.353 --> 00:00:39.914
like the girl in your middle school class.
00:00:40.015 --> 00:00:41.814
It's Sarah without an H. Sarah.
00:00:42.515 --> 00:00:42.896
S-A-R-A.
00:00:43.076 --> 00:00:43.356
Health.
00:00:45.036 --> 00:00:45.975
He's a private practice owner,
00:00:46.356 --> 00:00:47.156
legislative advocate,
00:00:47.237 --> 00:00:49.536
and president of APTA Massachusetts.
00:00:51.198 --> 00:00:52.338
After more than twenty years treating
00:00:52.357 --> 00:00:52.718
patients,
00:00:53.078 --> 00:00:54.357
now he's working to strengthen the future
00:00:54.378 --> 00:00:56.639
of this profession through advocacy,
00:00:56.819 --> 00:00:58.018
leadership, and action.
00:00:59.098 --> 00:01:00.119
Steve Smith, welcome to the show.
00:01:00.399 --> 00:01:00.719
Thank you.
00:01:00.799 --> 00:01:02.000
Great to be here.
00:01:02.020 --> 00:01:03.000
This is a pretty cool party.
00:01:03.020 --> 00:01:03.701
It is.
00:01:03.740 --> 00:01:05.941
How many CSMs deep are you?
00:01:05.980 --> 00:01:06.361
Do you know?
00:01:06.680 --> 00:01:07.781
I think this is eleven.
00:01:07.801 --> 00:01:08.542
Oh, that's good.
00:01:08.621 --> 00:01:08.902
Yeah.
00:01:08.921 --> 00:01:09.981
When did you graduate from PT school?
00:01:10.361 --> 00:01:11.222
Oh, two thousand five.
00:01:11.522 --> 00:01:11.802
OK,
00:01:12.242 --> 00:01:13.603
so when did you catch the bug of
00:01:13.623 --> 00:01:14.463
like, do this thing?
00:01:14.483 --> 00:01:15.385
Because this isn't a normal.
00:01:15.685 --> 00:01:16.424
We had it in Boston.
00:01:17.125 --> 00:01:17.525
Oh, that was.
00:01:17.546 --> 00:01:19.006
So we had in Boston the second year
00:01:19.066 --> 00:01:19.766
out and it was like, oh,
00:01:19.787 --> 00:01:20.626
this is a cool party.
00:01:20.667 --> 00:01:21.647
Thank you for the coffee, by the way.
00:01:21.688 --> 00:01:22.847
We just went and hit the coffee booth.
00:01:22.968 --> 00:01:23.468
My pleasure.
00:01:23.808 --> 00:01:26.689
And yeah, it's when I could afford it.
00:01:26.829 --> 00:01:27.590
That's what I would go.
00:01:28.811 --> 00:01:30.971
Yeah, as early career wise, as you should.
00:01:31.052 --> 00:01:31.293
Right.
00:01:31.433 --> 00:01:32.772
And I think they try to do a
00:01:32.813 --> 00:01:33.153
good job.
00:01:33.194 --> 00:01:33.754
People, you know,
00:01:34.054 --> 00:01:35.334
will will complain about, well,
00:01:35.355 --> 00:01:36.254
why is it in this city,
00:01:36.275 --> 00:01:36.796
in this city?
00:01:36.855 --> 00:01:38.256
And then they just like literally just
00:01:38.275 --> 00:01:41.058
like, where will you put nineteen?
00:01:41.158 --> 00:01:42.778
It needs to have a big enough like.
00:01:43.599 --> 00:01:44.799
Not just a big enough city,
00:01:45.760 --> 00:01:46.980
but a big enough city built around a
00:01:47.040 --> 00:01:47.700
conference.
00:01:47.879 --> 00:01:48.040
Like,
00:01:48.081 --> 00:01:49.861
show me where you'd put all the people
00:01:49.960 --> 00:01:50.981
and where they would sleep.
00:01:51.742 --> 00:01:53.421
And some cities are built for that.
00:01:53.522 --> 00:01:55.162
And you'll see the New Orleans' and the
00:01:55.222 --> 00:01:57.183
San Antonio's and the San Diego's and
00:01:57.224 --> 00:02:00.545
the... Sorry, the Anaheim's of the world.
00:02:00.564 --> 00:02:00.724
Right.
00:02:00.765 --> 00:02:01.965
And the Boston's of the world.
00:02:02.025 --> 00:02:03.066
Yeah.
00:02:03.085 --> 00:02:03.766
So you do both...
00:02:04.621 --> 00:02:06.222
Clinic owner, you've done that.
00:02:06.923 --> 00:02:08.584
And chapter president,
00:02:08.604 --> 00:02:10.485
I mentioned in the intro.
00:02:10.906 --> 00:02:13.567
What made you step into advocacy and
00:02:13.606 --> 00:02:14.627
leadership roles?
00:02:14.647 --> 00:02:17.169
Because both of those are, by default,
00:02:17.308 --> 00:02:18.710
leadership and advocacy roles.
00:02:18.770 --> 00:02:20.191
What was sort of the bug for you?
00:02:21.331 --> 00:02:24.473
I caught the ownership bug when the clinic
00:02:24.514 --> 00:02:26.314
I was working for got bought out by
00:02:26.335 --> 00:02:28.596
a venture capital group and didn't
00:02:28.616 --> 00:02:29.997
necessarily like the direction it was
00:02:30.016 --> 00:02:30.537
going to go.
00:02:30.856 --> 00:02:32.557
So I wanted to continue to treat community
00:02:32.598 --> 00:02:32.799
health
00:02:33.740 --> 00:02:36.907
and found a partner and found a space
00:02:37.207 --> 00:02:39.334
in a community I love and went from
00:02:39.373 --> 00:02:39.633
there.
00:02:39.895 --> 00:02:42.360
And so that organically has been
00:02:43.270 --> 00:02:45.173
great and rewarding, but it's been super,
00:02:45.212 --> 00:02:45.913
super challenging.
00:02:46.554 --> 00:02:48.634
And I also didn't know leadership was also
00:02:48.675 --> 00:02:49.635
a skill you have to learn.
00:02:50.175 --> 00:02:51.116
I just thought, I was like,
00:02:51.356 --> 00:02:52.358
I've managed people.
00:02:52.557 --> 00:02:53.338
I know these things.
00:02:53.359 --> 00:02:54.560
I know how to tell people things and
00:02:54.580 --> 00:02:55.219
how to do them,
00:02:55.281 --> 00:02:56.001
and they'll just do it.
00:02:56.480 --> 00:02:56.762
Right.
00:02:56.921 --> 00:02:58.383
Turns out, it's not the case.
00:02:58.823 --> 00:03:00.724
So then during COVID,
00:03:01.025 --> 00:03:02.366
had to rethink a lot of things.
00:03:02.385 --> 00:03:03.546
Then I started asking questions.
00:03:03.866 --> 00:03:04.548
Questions about like,
00:03:04.867 --> 00:03:06.068
I've always been an APCA member,
00:03:06.109 --> 00:03:06.610
so what...
00:03:07.461 --> 00:03:09.943
are we doing here um we started getting
00:03:09.983 --> 00:03:12.444
some good guidance from our president two
00:03:12.465 --> 00:03:14.948
past presidents ago eric fulmar and he
00:03:15.008 --> 00:03:17.109
really did a great job guiding our ship
00:03:17.229 --> 00:03:20.872
through um a lot of the legalities of
00:03:20.913 --> 00:03:22.973
the shutdown and so really helping us get
00:03:22.993 --> 00:03:26.016
back open helping us do it safely and
00:03:26.737 --> 00:03:28.038
you know not losing the clinic at the
00:03:28.058 --> 00:03:30.420
same time so that was huge terribly
00:03:30.441 --> 00:03:32.301
important yeah so you literally said i
00:03:32.342 --> 00:03:33.524
don't like where this is going
00:03:34.700 --> 00:03:35.622
I'm going to do it myself,
00:03:36.282 --> 00:03:38.485
which is simple to say and not easy
00:03:38.566 --> 00:03:39.127
to do.
00:03:40.770 --> 00:03:42.292
Let's play that whole game of what do
00:03:42.312 --> 00:03:43.693
you wish you knew then that you know
00:03:43.753 --> 00:03:43.973
now?
00:03:44.014 --> 00:03:45.235
What would you have told yourself?
00:03:45.515 --> 00:03:47.218
What landmines did you step on that maybe
00:03:47.239 --> 00:03:48.080
you could have avoided?
00:03:49.437 --> 00:03:49.717
You know,
00:03:50.336 --> 00:03:51.557
I don't know if there's anything that you
00:03:52.318 --> 00:03:55.099
can do when you're having the issue with
00:03:55.120 --> 00:03:56.199
something like COVID comes up.
00:03:56.800 --> 00:03:57.561
It's unprecedented.
00:03:57.640 --> 00:03:58.942
Once in a generation.
00:03:59.542 --> 00:03:59.961
Hopefully.
00:04:00.983 --> 00:04:02.824
I wish I had asked questions earlier.
00:04:03.403 --> 00:04:04.324
And that's really my big thing.
00:04:05.344 --> 00:04:06.205
I just was a member.
00:04:06.245 --> 00:04:07.725
I didn't ask what, you know,
00:04:07.786 --> 00:04:08.445
could be done.
00:04:08.806 --> 00:04:10.366
What can I do to help?
00:04:10.526 --> 00:04:10.765
Yeah.
00:04:10.926 --> 00:04:11.526
In what ways?
00:04:11.586 --> 00:04:12.447
Like, what are we working on?
00:04:12.887 --> 00:04:13.947
I just kind of went with the flow
00:04:13.967 --> 00:04:15.367
and then you're like, all right,
00:04:15.388 --> 00:04:16.668
so payments not going the right way.
00:04:16.747 --> 00:04:17.927
So we're not getting good news on this.
00:04:17.947 --> 00:04:19.269
We're not getting good news on that.
00:04:19.869 --> 00:04:20.908
So you're just sitting there accepting.
00:04:21.209 --> 00:04:21.369
Right.
00:04:21.509 --> 00:04:23.430
And that's something I just as I got
00:04:23.509 --> 00:04:24.050
older, I'm like,
00:04:24.129 --> 00:04:25.269
I just don't accept this anymore.
00:04:25.470 --> 00:04:25.829
Right.
00:04:25.870 --> 00:04:27.151
So how do we actually try to make
00:04:27.170 --> 00:04:27.831
a change?
00:04:27.891 --> 00:04:28.031
Yeah.
00:04:28.569 --> 00:04:29.610
So that's where I came from.
00:04:29.790 --> 00:04:29.990
Yeah.
00:04:30.610 --> 00:04:31.471
People are the life hack.
00:04:32.312 --> 00:04:33.153
People write things.
00:04:33.934 --> 00:04:35.295
People still write the thing.
00:04:35.894 --> 00:04:36.995
People are on podcasts.
00:04:37.016 --> 00:04:38.437
It's still a people thing.
00:04:39.057 --> 00:04:40.158
And most of the time when people do
00:04:40.177 --> 00:04:40.497
things,
00:04:40.898 --> 00:04:43.139
they like when you ask them questions
00:04:43.160 --> 00:04:44.221
about the thing that they've done.
00:04:44.680 --> 00:04:44.841
Right.
00:04:44.880 --> 00:04:45.620
But they like that.
00:04:45.762 --> 00:04:45.982
Yes.
00:04:46.062 --> 00:04:48.463
Like I told the story a couple weeks
00:04:48.502 --> 00:04:50.225
ago how when I was in PT school,
00:04:50.524 --> 00:04:51.285
second career student.
00:04:51.605 --> 00:04:52.045
So I sort of.
00:04:52.425 --> 00:04:53.726
picked up a few life hacks along the
00:04:53.747 --> 00:04:53.947
way,
00:04:54.047 --> 00:04:55.408
and realized I do this big paper in
00:04:55.447 --> 00:04:57.389
neuro, and I'm not a huge,
00:04:58.408 --> 00:05:00.189
I don't like reading research.
00:05:00.389 --> 00:05:01.411
My brain doesn't brain.
00:05:01.430 --> 00:05:02.670
Some people are good at it, I'm not.
00:05:02.951 --> 00:05:04.711
So I just called a person who had
00:05:04.752 --> 00:05:06.093
written a book on the topic that I
00:05:06.112 --> 00:05:07.194
was researching,
00:05:07.574 --> 00:05:08.853
and she talked to me for an hour,
00:05:09.795 --> 00:05:11.815
and explained everything,
00:05:11.836 --> 00:05:12.516
I understood everything,
00:05:12.536 --> 00:05:13.516
and then she gave me a Google Drive
00:05:13.536 --> 00:05:14.416
full of the stuff I should have been
00:05:14.437 --> 00:05:14.656
reading.
00:05:14.697 --> 00:05:16.437
And I was like, well that was easy.
00:05:17.738 --> 00:05:18.319
You can do that.
00:05:18.480 --> 00:05:19.060
That's your skill.
00:05:19.180 --> 00:05:19.761
That's right.
00:05:19.821 --> 00:05:20.862
But anybody can do that.
00:05:21.021 --> 00:05:22.824
That quite literally costs zero dollars,
00:05:23.264 --> 00:05:24.286
just an hour and a half of my
00:05:24.326 --> 00:05:24.565
time,
00:05:24.605 --> 00:05:26.307
and it gave me everything that I wanted.
00:05:26.447 --> 00:05:27.449
Absolutely.
00:05:27.488 --> 00:05:29.230
You've said that, I love both statements,
00:05:29.310 --> 00:05:32.593
every PT and PTA needs to care about
00:05:32.694 --> 00:05:34.255
advocacy, payment, and access.
00:05:34.815 --> 00:05:36.177
Why is that so critical now?
00:05:36.437 --> 00:05:37.459
Why is that important now?
00:05:39.069 --> 00:05:40.110
It's always been important,
00:05:40.151 --> 00:05:42.192
but I do think now with the...
00:05:43.314 --> 00:05:44.574
Tuition never decreases.
00:05:45.755 --> 00:05:46.677
It's going to go up.
00:05:46.916 --> 00:05:47.137
Right.
00:05:47.276 --> 00:05:48.757
It's going up every year a certain
00:05:48.798 --> 00:05:49.259
percentage.
00:05:49.939 --> 00:05:51.279
Our pay is not going up every year.
00:05:51.841 --> 00:05:52.201
In fact,
00:05:52.261 --> 00:05:55.103
we had six years of Medicare devaluing our
00:05:55.124 --> 00:05:55.543
services.
00:05:55.843 --> 00:05:57.886
So now we did get a recent win
00:05:57.906 --> 00:05:58.505
this last year,
00:05:59.226 --> 00:06:00.507
and we are sitting at the table this
00:06:00.528 --> 00:06:04.031
year for federal payments through
00:06:04.071 --> 00:06:04.571
Medicare.
00:06:04.651 --> 00:06:04.810
But...
00:06:06.869 --> 00:06:08.372
We just can't sit there,
00:06:08.771 --> 00:06:10.514
get more education,
00:06:11.014 --> 00:06:12.177
raise our practice level,
00:06:12.476 --> 00:06:14.940
and then not get reimbursed or paid for
00:06:14.961 --> 00:06:16.223
that.
00:06:17.925 --> 00:06:18.966
Everyone's waiting around.
00:06:19.107 --> 00:06:19.987
I feel like a lot of people wait
00:06:20.028 --> 00:06:21.470
around for somebody else to do something.
00:06:22.235 --> 00:06:23.036
And it's not,
00:06:23.456 --> 00:06:25.237
nobody else is doing anything for us.
00:06:25.559 --> 00:06:27.500
So you can join an association,
00:06:27.740 --> 00:06:28.841
you can remain on your own,
00:06:29.000 --> 00:06:30.201
but at least the point is like,
00:06:30.221 --> 00:06:32.584
know who your legislators are and just at
00:06:32.624 --> 00:06:33.865
least reach out because they're humans
00:06:33.904 --> 00:06:34.084
too.
00:06:34.665 --> 00:06:35.966
And they love a conversation with their
00:06:35.985 --> 00:06:36.607
constituents.
00:06:37.007 --> 00:06:39.928
So just being active and then at the
00:06:40.009 --> 00:06:40.730
very minimum,
00:06:41.670 --> 00:06:43.012
push for something like in Massachusetts,
00:06:43.031 --> 00:06:44.153
we have our scope of practice bill.
00:06:44.612 --> 00:06:45.934
That's going to fundamentally change
00:06:46.033 --> 00:06:48.735
prescriptive authority and our ability to,
00:06:49.516 --> 00:06:49.617
um,
00:06:51.240 --> 00:06:52.100
have diagnostic imaging.
00:06:52.802 --> 00:06:54.523
So with those two new permissions,
00:06:54.543 --> 00:06:56.043
it opens up a whole new can of
00:06:56.062 --> 00:06:56.564
worms for us.
00:06:57.144 --> 00:06:57.603
And it's great.
00:06:57.663 --> 00:07:00.125
And if we really push that as a
00:07:00.725 --> 00:07:03.107
profession, not just an association,
00:07:03.826 --> 00:07:04.947
we have a chance of making something
00:07:05.028 --> 00:07:06.267
really good happen in Massachusetts.
00:07:06.809 --> 00:07:08.129
And when a domino falls,
00:07:08.850 --> 00:07:10.951
it'll help hopefully fall somewhere else.
00:07:11.011 --> 00:07:11.391
Exactly.
00:07:11.411 --> 00:07:11.971
It's the beginning.
00:07:12.190 --> 00:07:12.370
Right.
00:07:12.531 --> 00:07:13.012
Right.
00:07:13.031 --> 00:07:14.312
So it leads to changes in payment.
00:07:14.331 --> 00:07:16.793
It leads to us getting a seat at
00:07:16.812 --> 00:07:17.954
the table with third party payers.
00:07:19.081 --> 00:07:20.543
advice for someone who's hearing this
00:07:20.562 --> 00:07:21.903
going but i don't really understand
00:07:21.983 --> 00:07:24.384
advocacy i understand the process i just
00:07:24.403 --> 00:07:26.105
want to lower anxiety like people can just
00:07:26.125 --> 00:07:29.346
show up and just like help right like
00:07:29.487 --> 00:07:31.307
fold chairs or pay attention or be on
00:07:31.326 --> 00:07:32.507
a call you don't need to run a
00:07:32.687 --> 00:07:34.988
committee on your first day like that's
00:07:35.009 --> 00:07:36.769
not how it starts right right and i
00:07:36.790 --> 00:07:38.069
think what we're learning is that we had
00:07:38.089 --> 00:07:40.130
a huge education gap for that first step
00:07:40.690 --> 00:07:42.572
there's there's education on once you're
00:07:42.672 --> 00:07:44.692
in it how do you advocate better how
00:07:44.713 --> 00:07:45.793
do you do this better but there was
00:07:45.874 --> 00:07:46.033
no
00:07:47.033 --> 00:07:49.016
soft first step off the bus or onto
00:07:49.055 --> 00:07:51.117
the bus to get going with it.
00:07:51.197 --> 00:07:52.237
So, you know,
00:07:52.317 --> 00:07:55.100
trying to put out an educational program
00:07:55.120 --> 00:07:57.221
for our members that would really help
00:07:57.601 --> 00:07:58.622
people to take the first step.
00:07:58.682 --> 00:07:59.362
Why should you care?
00:07:59.403 --> 00:08:00.223
What are we caring about?
00:08:00.244 --> 00:08:02.185
And what do we do?
00:08:02.225 --> 00:08:03.906
So yeah,
00:08:03.925 --> 00:08:07.588
somebody else coined this sort of this
00:08:07.668 --> 00:08:07.908
idea.
00:08:07.928 --> 00:08:09.250
It's called the grunt test.
00:08:10.091 --> 00:08:11.391
So if I look at a brochure,
00:08:12.762 --> 00:08:15.944
Or a booth at CSM or anywhere or
00:08:15.963 --> 00:08:18.185
a website at APTA Massachusetts.
00:08:18.665 --> 00:08:20.545
I should be able to answer three questions
00:08:20.685 --> 00:08:21.625
without thinking.
00:08:21.925 --> 00:08:22.187
Right.
00:08:22.226 --> 00:08:23.266
And they call it the grunt test.
00:08:23.466 --> 00:08:24.168
What do you do?
00:08:24.987 --> 00:08:26.749
How does that make my life better or
00:08:26.788 --> 00:08:27.028
not?
00:08:27.588 --> 00:08:28.730
And then if I like the answer to
00:08:28.750 --> 00:08:29.689
number one and number two,
00:08:30.110 --> 00:08:30.670
what do I have to do?
00:08:30.690 --> 00:08:31.250
Right.
00:08:31.331 --> 00:08:32.652
Right, book now, join here,
00:08:32.711 --> 00:08:33.172
da da da da.
00:08:33.471 --> 00:08:34.432
And it needs to be,
00:08:34.613 --> 00:08:36.333
a lot of times, in healthcare,
00:08:36.693 --> 00:08:38.794
I'll just take shots at ourselves, PT,
00:08:39.316 --> 00:08:42.236
we over-explain and we over-complicate
00:08:42.256 --> 00:08:44.538
things because, I don't know,
00:08:44.578 --> 00:08:45.658
maybe we feel like we have to.
00:08:46.019 --> 00:08:47.179
And I'm just here to tell you that
00:08:47.200 --> 00:08:48.341
the New York Times is written at an
00:08:48.400 --> 00:08:50.042
eighth grade level, on purpose.
00:08:50.261 --> 00:08:51.743
Not because they think ninth graders don't
00:08:51.783 --> 00:08:52.062
read,
00:08:52.523 --> 00:08:53.644
or adults don't read at a higher grade
00:08:53.683 --> 00:08:53.903
level,
00:08:54.163 --> 00:08:55.544
they understand that you can't be an
00:08:55.605 --> 00:08:57.285
expert at all of these different things.
00:08:57.566 --> 00:08:58.807
So keep it simple.
00:08:59.496 --> 00:09:00.937
We know healthcare literature is even at a
00:09:01.018 --> 00:09:01.697
lower level than that.
00:09:01.717 --> 00:09:05.259
So to keep engaging and working in such
00:09:05.340 --> 00:09:07.020
a diverse population,
00:09:07.381 --> 00:09:09.163
it's got to be really simplistic,
00:09:09.383 --> 00:09:10.243
really to the point,
00:09:10.663 --> 00:09:11.563
but make a good point.
00:09:11.644 --> 00:09:12.664
But there's a couple of times that I
00:09:12.684 --> 00:09:13.184
wanted to,
00:09:13.245 --> 00:09:15.426
my dad has a PT and OT and
00:09:15.505 --> 00:09:17.586
an SLP and they'll call me for updates
00:09:17.626 --> 00:09:20.469
and they change every once in a while.
00:09:20.489 --> 00:09:21.470
So a lot of them don't know that
00:09:21.549 --> 00:09:23.071
I'm also a physical therapist, right?
00:09:23.191 --> 00:09:24.672
On top of being the son.
00:09:24.871 --> 00:09:25.091
Right.
00:09:25.432 --> 00:09:26.972
And I want to very...
00:09:28.918 --> 00:09:30.260
I don't know how it would be absorbed,
00:09:30.301 --> 00:09:30.640
but I'm like,
00:09:31.020 --> 00:09:32.783
that is over the average person.
00:09:33.783 --> 00:09:35.225
Some of the things you're saying do not
00:09:35.265 --> 00:09:35.807
need to be there.
00:09:37.028 --> 00:09:38.470
Talk to me like a normal person.
00:09:38.789 --> 00:09:39.671
I know you're a normal person.
00:09:39.750 --> 00:09:40.392
I've met PTs.
00:09:40.471 --> 00:09:41.033
We're normal people.
00:09:41.373 --> 00:09:42.794
On the phone, stop being that.
00:09:42.815 --> 00:09:43.615
I don't know what that was.
00:09:43.796 --> 00:09:44.475
Don't do that again.
00:09:47.566 --> 00:09:48.907
For clinicians who feel busy or
00:09:48.947 --> 00:09:50.269
disconnected from advocacy,
00:09:50.568 --> 00:09:53.230
where is that soft first step?
00:09:53.410 --> 00:09:54.732
Where should they go?
00:09:54.753 --> 00:09:55.312
They're like, okay,
00:09:55.332 --> 00:09:56.214
I don't need to do something.
00:09:56.573 --> 00:09:57.875
Fine, I'll do it.
00:09:58.655 --> 00:09:59.636
How do I sign up?
00:10:00.418 --> 00:10:01.418
I'm not in this club yet.
00:10:01.578 --> 00:10:02.440
Where do I go?
00:10:02.620 --> 00:10:02.860
Right.
00:10:03.380 --> 00:10:04.922
And the first thing we've had people do
00:10:04.981 --> 00:10:07.344
is actually email our association,
00:10:07.544 --> 00:10:09.086
go to our page, email us.
00:10:09.586 --> 00:10:09.846
But...
00:10:11.006 --> 00:10:12.386
We would like this to be more forward
00:10:12.427 --> 00:10:15.227
facing and put out something that people
00:10:15.248 --> 00:10:15.748
can go to.
00:10:16.148 --> 00:10:17.768
Be able to highlight that on social media
00:10:18.307 --> 00:10:19.628
and be able to have an easy landing
00:10:19.668 --> 00:10:22.349
page on our website that may or may
00:10:22.408 --> 00:10:23.448
not be member protected.
00:10:24.688 --> 00:10:25.609
If it's not member protected,
00:10:25.649 --> 00:10:27.110
at least we're getting the advocacy word
00:10:27.149 --> 00:10:28.450
out there for what we want.
00:10:28.610 --> 00:10:29.929
And the more voices we have,
00:10:30.110 --> 00:10:32.071
the more we'll achieve.
00:10:32.211 --> 00:10:32.390
I mean,
00:10:32.431 --> 00:10:34.811
we see what the nursing association does
00:10:34.850 --> 00:10:35.471
in Massachusetts,
00:10:35.551 --> 00:10:36.451
and they are a powerhouse.
00:10:36.510 --> 00:10:37.711
They have so many voices.
00:10:38.192 --> 00:10:39.131
When they're asked to show up for
00:10:39.172 --> 00:10:40.211
something, they show.
00:10:40.572 --> 00:10:42.514
So what can we take away from our
00:10:42.714 --> 00:10:43.894
sort of cousin, you know,
00:10:44.014 --> 00:10:45.296
nurse nursing profession?
00:10:45.336 --> 00:10:45.956
What would they do?
00:10:46.135 --> 00:10:46.917
Would they do well?
00:10:47.518 --> 00:10:48.697
Or what should we look at from five,
00:10:48.759 --> 00:10:49.899
ten, fifteen years ago?
00:10:49.918 --> 00:10:50.820
What can we borrow?
00:10:51.019 --> 00:10:52.961
Their messaging is really, really good.
00:10:53.221 --> 00:10:54.982
So they're not just their membership,
00:10:55.003 --> 00:10:56.485
but also, you know, it starts in school.
00:10:57.125 --> 00:10:58.485
that's what we're getting into now is
00:10:58.525 --> 00:11:00.167
we're starting to get that word in
00:11:00.206 --> 00:11:00.587
schools,
00:11:01.528 --> 00:11:03.409
being asked to guest lecture about
00:11:03.529 --> 00:11:04.110
advocacy.
00:11:04.211 --> 00:11:06.712
We're making it a focus for our annual
00:11:06.753 --> 00:11:07.533
conferences now.
00:11:07.852 --> 00:11:09.575
So we just had a great hour long
00:11:09.634 --> 00:11:11.316
opener about advocacy at our annual
00:11:11.355 --> 00:11:12.677
conference last November.
00:11:12.777 --> 00:11:15.298
So we are we're taking steps to get
00:11:15.339 --> 00:11:15.538
there.
00:11:16.500 --> 00:11:18.581
And it's something that's just been we've
00:11:18.642 --> 00:11:19.361
kind of missed, I think.
00:11:19.582 --> 00:11:19.763
Yeah.
00:11:21.024 --> 00:11:22.764
What's your big, big, hairy,
00:11:22.825 --> 00:11:24.485
audacious goal as
00:11:25.366 --> 00:11:26.788
president of Massachusetts.
00:11:27.187 --> 00:11:28.509
What's something that when you're sort of
00:11:28.528 --> 00:11:30.971
done and you pass off the office to
00:11:30.990 --> 00:11:32.371
the next person that you're like, hey,
00:11:32.412 --> 00:11:33.373
if we achieve this,
00:11:33.432 --> 00:11:34.854
this is what I'm aiming for.
00:11:34.974 --> 00:11:35.214
Yeah,
00:11:35.313 --> 00:11:38.176
if we can get a third of our
00:11:39.037 --> 00:11:42.158
registered PTs in the state to sign an
00:11:42.198 --> 00:11:42.859
advocacy letter.
00:11:42.980 --> 00:11:43.480
Ooh, okay.
00:11:43.740 --> 00:11:43.980
You know,
00:11:44.039 --> 00:11:46.361
for each thing that we're putting out
00:11:46.381 --> 00:11:47.761
there and like this is important because
00:11:47.782 --> 00:11:48.123
of this.
00:11:48.663 --> 00:11:51.264
And if we get those voices consistently,
00:11:51.784 --> 00:11:53.346
that is a huge, huge win.
00:11:53.365 --> 00:11:53.466
Yeah.
00:11:53.985 --> 00:11:55.267
And that's that's engagement.
00:11:55.386 --> 00:11:56.206
That's people caring.
00:11:56.226 --> 00:11:57.408
That's people taking ownership of their
00:11:57.427 --> 00:11:57.868
profession.
00:11:58.307 --> 00:11:59.389
And that's really what we're looking for.
00:11:59.548 --> 00:12:00.190
Where are you now?
00:12:00.269 --> 00:12:00.649
Ballpark.
00:12:02.884 --> 00:12:04.485
I would have to go through because we're
00:12:04.645 --> 00:12:05.745
on a different app now.
00:12:06.206 --> 00:12:09.067
And so now that we've just kind of
00:12:09.106 --> 00:12:10.527
signed on to a new application,
00:12:10.886 --> 00:12:11.847
we're going to be able to track that
00:12:11.868 --> 00:12:12.548
much easier.
00:12:12.587 --> 00:12:14.248
So I would love to tell you the
00:12:14.268 --> 00:12:14.989
number, but I don't have it.
00:12:15.009 --> 00:12:16.668
What gets measured gets improved.
00:12:16.889 --> 00:12:17.609
You can't measure it.
00:12:17.649 --> 00:12:19.669
You can't possibly improve it or know it's
00:12:19.710 --> 00:12:20.330
being improved.
00:12:20.470 --> 00:12:20.789
Absolutely.
00:12:21.029 --> 00:12:21.789
What gives you hope?
00:12:21.809 --> 00:12:23.030
Let's go bigger.
00:12:23.051 --> 00:12:24.471
We'll go bigger than just Massachusetts.
00:12:24.530 --> 00:12:26.192
What gives you hope about where the
00:12:26.211 --> 00:12:27.432
profession's headed in general?
00:12:28.688 --> 00:12:30.629
I think when we get together as leaders
00:12:31.250 --> 00:12:32.591
that we're all on the same page.
00:12:32.692 --> 00:12:36.474
I think the leadership of APTA itself has
00:12:36.494 --> 00:12:37.894
kind of changed their mentality too.
00:12:38.495 --> 00:12:40.636
New strategic framework really shows that
00:12:40.697 --> 00:12:42.817
payment by fourteenfold is the most
00:12:42.878 --> 00:12:43.479
important topic.
00:12:43.519 --> 00:12:44.359
It was not small.
00:12:44.599 --> 00:12:44.879
Right.
00:12:44.979 --> 00:12:47.201
It's payment and then fourteen miles of
00:12:47.260 --> 00:12:48.402
nothing then number two.
00:12:48.501 --> 00:12:48.682
Right.
00:12:49.062 --> 00:12:51.563
And so I think that that focus,
00:12:51.624 --> 00:12:53.645
especially even just in the last really
00:12:53.725 --> 00:12:54.265
nine months,
00:12:54.285 --> 00:12:56.388
that that focus has changed and how
00:12:56.408 --> 00:12:57.688
they've changed their education,
00:12:57.708 --> 00:12:59.450
their programming and where we're at in
00:12:59.509 --> 00:13:01.951
terms of leaders being able to talk about
00:13:02.011 --> 00:13:02.331
things.
00:13:02.631 --> 00:13:03.653
That's really important.
00:13:03.753 --> 00:13:04.153
Yeah.
00:13:04.273 --> 00:13:05.073
And, you know,
00:13:05.094 --> 00:13:06.995
getting on the same boat really makes us
00:13:07.054 --> 00:13:08.517
want to, you know,
00:13:08.557 --> 00:13:09.817
we're all rowing in the same direction,
00:13:09.878 --> 00:13:10.798
even if we have to do it different
00:13:10.817 --> 00:13:11.097
ways.
00:13:11.339 --> 00:13:11.678
Correct.
00:13:11.839 --> 00:13:12.158
Yes.
00:13:12.178 --> 00:13:14.640
I never knew the differences from state to
00:13:14.681 --> 00:13:14.880
state.
00:13:14.961 --> 00:13:15.601
I just assumed...
00:13:17.298 --> 00:13:17.898
population.
00:13:18.038 --> 00:13:18.437
I don't know.
00:13:18.538 --> 00:13:20.599
And then I looked into how different state
00:13:20.658 --> 00:13:21.919
practice acts are.
00:13:21.940 --> 00:13:23.860
And we are fifty different little
00:13:24.061 --> 00:13:25.620
countries that are tied together.
00:13:25.821 --> 00:13:26.041
Yes.
00:13:26.620 --> 00:13:28.461
And every state legislature works
00:13:28.522 --> 00:13:28.981
differently.
00:13:29.743 --> 00:13:31.243
You know, we see how a win gets,
00:13:31.442 --> 00:13:31.663
you know,
00:13:32.082 --> 00:13:34.203
how does a win go in Utah be
00:13:34.244 --> 00:13:35.784
different than how it's done in Montana,
00:13:35.804 --> 00:13:37.105
than Colorado, than Massachusetts.
00:13:37.645 --> 00:13:39.426
And so knowing how the legislature works
00:13:39.485 --> 00:13:40.005
is really,
00:13:40.046 --> 00:13:40.986
really important to
00:13:41.687 --> 00:13:43.408
to get wins with our mechanisms.
00:13:43.508 --> 00:13:44.227
And if you don't,
00:13:44.268 --> 00:13:46.188
you will get steamrolled or you will get
00:13:46.229 --> 00:13:46.808
something just,
00:13:46.849 --> 00:13:47.990
you'll get completely rubbed,
00:13:48.169 --> 00:13:49.429
something completely taken away from you.
00:13:49.710 --> 00:13:51.331
Colorado had a thing up in, uh,
00:13:51.571 --> 00:13:53.072
in their state legislator about losing
00:13:53.451 --> 00:13:54.591
term title protection.
00:13:55.072 --> 00:13:55.993
Like they were going to lose this.
00:13:56.013 --> 00:13:56.153
Right.
00:13:56.173 --> 00:13:57.092
And they were like, we have,
00:13:57.173 --> 00:13:57.653
once we get our,
00:13:57.854 --> 00:13:59.573
our members to rally and say,
00:13:59.634 --> 00:14:00.514
we might lose this.
00:14:00.654 --> 00:14:00.875
Right.
00:14:01.294 --> 00:14:02.716
Everybody will pay attention the day after
00:14:02.755 --> 00:14:03.216
you lose it.
00:14:03.515 --> 00:14:03.676
Right.
00:14:03.735 --> 00:14:04.856
Where are you paying attention?
00:14:05.017 --> 00:14:06.397
What are you doing six months before we
00:14:06.437 --> 00:14:07.298
lost it, bro?
00:14:07.337 --> 00:14:09.238
Like you're a day late, a dollar short.
00:14:09.498 --> 00:14:09.739
Yeah.
00:14:09.798 --> 00:14:09.958
Right.
00:14:09.999 --> 00:14:10.658
You don't want that.
00:14:10.839 --> 00:14:10.999
No,
00:14:11.158 --> 00:14:13.279
we want to have those voices be ready
00:14:13.320 --> 00:14:14.301
and willing to do things.
00:14:14.461 --> 00:14:16.802
And then also, if you get ownership,
00:14:16.822 --> 00:14:17.783
you get hospitals,
00:14:17.822 --> 00:14:20.524
you get rehab directors bought into what
00:14:20.563 --> 00:14:21.364
we're trying to do,
00:14:21.845 --> 00:14:22.924
they're going to ask their staff to do
00:14:22.965 --> 00:14:23.024
it.
00:14:23.205 --> 00:14:23.424
Yeah.
00:14:23.465 --> 00:14:24.586
So you're just going to kind of work
00:14:24.605 --> 00:14:27.246
through a network of amplifiers that if
00:14:27.287 --> 00:14:29.307
the messaging is good and it's something
00:14:29.347 --> 00:14:31.109
that is worthy for the profession,
00:14:31.470 --> 00:14:32.070
people will do it.
00:14:32.309 --> 00:14:33.210
Love it.
00:14:33.230 --> 00:14:34.230
We have a tradition on the show.
00:14:34.650 --> 00:14:35.130
Every episode,
00:14:35.150 --> 00:14:37.793
we do something called the parting shot.
00:14:38.613 --> 00:14:40.615
This is the Parting Shot.
00:14:41.195 --> 00:14:42.596
One last mic drop moment.
00:14:43.277 --> 00:14:44.057
No pressure.
00:14:44.518 --> 00:14:46.698
Just your legacy on the line.
00:14:48.561 --> 00:14:48.760
All right.
00:14:48.780 --> 00:14:50.201
Parting Shot is brought to you by Sarah
00:14:50.241 --> 00:14:50.481
Health.
00:14:50.501 --> 00:14:52.504
Find them online at SarahHealth.com.
00:14:52.543 --> 00:14:54.125
Bringing RTM to your clinic.
00:14:54.205 --> 00:14:56.427
Can you get paid for interacting with your
00:14:56.447 --> 00:14:57.567
patients between visits?
00:14:57.827 --> 00:14:58.327
Spoiler alert.
00:14:58.687 --> 00:14:59.568
Yes, you can.
00:15:00.269 --> 00:15:01.951
And also, I want to point this out.
00:15:02.331 --> 00:15:04.452
A lot of RTM is app-based.
00:15:04.932 --> 00:15:06.894
Sarah Health is text-based.
00:15:07.798 --> 00:15:09.299
Everybody already has that app on their
00:15:09.320 --> 00:15:09.500
phone.
00:15:09.519 --> 00:15:10.301
It's text message.
00:15:10.561 --> 00:15:12.501
So that means no apps and no logins
00:15:12.542 --> 00:15:13.582
because, gosh,
00:15:13.623 --> 00:15:14.923
if I have to remember one more password,
00:15:15.024 --> 00:15:15.504
I'm going to lose it.
00:15:15.984 --> 00:15:16.625
So find them online.
00:15:16.664 --> 00:15:17.365
SarahHealth.com.
00:15:17.404 --> 00:15:19.265
It's S-A-R-A-Health.com.
00:15:19.726 --> 00:15:20.547
SarahHealth.com.
00:15:20.606 --> 00:15:20.807
All right.
00:15:21.206 --> 00:15:21.707
Parting shot.
00:15:21.727 --> 00:15:22.447
What do you want to leave with the
00:15:22.467 --> 00:15:23.408
audience today as we wrap up?
00:15:23.990 --> 00:15:25.150
It's something I have written at the
00:15:25.171 --> 00:15:26.932
bottom of my notes for every board of
00:15:26.951 --> 00:15:28.292
director meeting that I run now.
00:15:28.611 --> 00:15:30.511
It's never assume and always ask.
00:15:30.772 --> 00:15:31.873
Ooh, never assume.
00:15:32.052 --> 00:15:32.293
Yes.
00:15:32.552 --> 00:15:33.753
Always ask.
00:15:34.212 --> 00:15:35.953
Appreciate your time today.
00:15:36.014 --> 00:15:37.173
Thanks for doing the service.
00:15:37.494 --> 00:15:38.634
I don't live in Massachusetts,
00:15:38.913 --> 00:15:40.494
but if we get wins in Massachusetts,
00:15:40.955 --> 00:15:42.174
it might be easier to get wins in
00:15:42.215 --> 00:15:43.715
my state of New York and your state
00:15:43.735 --> 00:15:44.134
of whatever.
00:15:44.254 --> 00:15:45.615
So thanks for doing what you do as
00:15:45.635 --> 00:15:46.556
well as the rest of your board.
00:15:46.735 --> 00:15:47.076
Of course.
00:15:47.196 --> 00:15:47.696
Thank you so much.
00:00:00.089 --> 00:00:00.909
Here we go.
00:00:01.008 --> 00:00:02.289
I'll give a quick intro.
00:00:02.309 --> 00:00:13.412
All right,
00:00:13.451 --> 00:00:17.393
live streaming from CSM in Anaheim.
00:00:17.413 --> 00:00:19.193
I do want to thank Sarah Health,
00:00:20.053 --> 00:00:22.993
the platform helping you take RTM from a
00:00:23.134 --> 00:00:23.893
thought, a theory,
00:00:23.914 --> 00:00:25.713
a thing you saw in a webinar into
00:00:25.734 --> 00:00:27.934
your practice, streamline it,
00:00:28.890 --> 00:00:30.672
and help you help your patients between
00:00:30.711 --> 00:00:32.012
visits and earn revenue.
00:00:32.051 --> 00:00:32.932
Wouldn't it be great if you could do
00:00:32.972 --> 00:00:33.292
both?
00:00:33.552 --> 00:00:34.313
Turns out you can.
00:00:34.692 --> 00:00:35.652
SarahHealth.com.
00:00:35.673 --> 00:00:36.914
It's SarahHealth.com.
00:00:37.073 --> 00:00:37.834
S-A-R-A,
00:00:38.353 --> 00:00:39.914
like the girl in your middle school class.
00:00:40.015 --> 00:00:41.814
It's Sarah without an H. Sarah.
00:00:42.515 --> 00:00:42.896
S-A-R-A.
00:00:43.076 --> 00:00:43.356
Health.
00:00:45.036 --> 00:00:45.975
He's a private practice owner,
00:00:46.356 --> 00:00:47.156
legislative advocate,
00:00:47.237 --> 00:00:49.536
and president of APTA Massachusetts.
00:00:51.198 --> 00:00:52.338
After more than twenty years treating
00:00:52.357 --> 00:00:52.718
patients,
00:00:53.078 --> 00:00:54.357
now he's working to strengthen the future
00:00:54.378 --> 00:00:56.639
of this profession through advocacy,
00:00:56.819 --> 00:00:58.018
leadership, and action.
00:00:59.098 --> 00:01:00.119
Steve Smith, welcome to the show.
00:01:00.399 --> 00:01:00.719
Thank you.
00:01:00.799 --> 00:01:02.000
Great to be here.
00:01:02.020 --> 00:01:03.000
This is a pretty cool party.
00:01:03.020 --> 00:01:03.701
It is.
00:01:03.740 --> 00:01:05.941
How many CSMs deep are you?
00:01:05.980 --> 00:01:06.361
Do you know?
00:01:06.680 --> 00:01:07.781
I think this is eleven.
00:01:07.801 --> 00:01:08.542
Oh, that's good.
00:01:08.621 --> 00:01:08.902
Yeah.
00:01:08.921 --> 00:01:09.981
When did you graduate from PT school?
00:01:10.361 --> 00:01:11.222
Oh, two thousand five.
00:01:11.522 --> 00:01:11.802
OK,
00:01:12.242 --> 00:01:13.603
so when did you catch the bug of
00:01:13.623 --> 00:01:14.463
like, do this thing?
00:01:14.483 --> 00:01:15.385
Because this isn't a normal.
00:01:15.685 --> 00:01:16.424
We had it in Boston.
00:01:17.125 --> 00:01:17.525
Oh, that was.
00:01:17.546 --> 00:01:19.006
So we had in Boston the second year
00:01:19.066 --> 00:01:19.766
out and it was like, oh,
00:01:19.787 --> 00:01:20.626
this is a cool party.
00:01:20.667 --> 00:01:21.647
Thank you for the coffee, by the way.
00:01:21.688 --> 00:01:22.847
We just went and hit the coffee booth.
00:01:22.968 --> 00:01:23.468
My pleasure.
00:01:23.808 --> 00:01:26.689
And yeah, it's when I could afford it.
00:01:26.829 --> 00:01:27.590
That's what I would go.
00:01:28.811 --> 00:01:30.971
Yeah, as early career wise, as you should.
00:01:31.052 --> 00:01:31.293
Right.
00:01:31.433 --> 00:01:32.772
And I think they try to do a
00:01:32.813 --> 00:01:33.153
good job.
00:01:33.194 --> 00:01:33.754
People, you know,
00:01:34.054 --> 00:01:35.334
will will complain about, well,
00:01:35.355 --> 00:01:36.254
why is it in this city,
00:01:36.275 --> 00:01:36.796
in this city?
00:01:36.855 --> 00:01:38.256
And then they just like literally just
00:01:38.275 --> 00:01:41.058
like, where will you put nineteen?
00:01:41.158 --> 00:01:42.778
It needs to have a big enough like.
00:01:43.599 --> 00:01:44.799
Not just a big enough city,
00:01:45.760 --> 00:01:46.980
but a big enough city built around a
00:01:47.040 --> 00:01:47.700
conference.
00:01:47.879 --> 00:01:48.040
Like,
00:01:48.081 --> 00:01:49.861
show me where you'd put all the people
00:01:49.960 --> 00:01:50.981
and where they would sleep.
00:01:51.742 --> 00:01:53.421
And some cities are built for that.
00:01:53.522 --> 00:01:55.162
And you'll see the New Orleans' and the
00:01:55.222 --> 00:01:57.183
San Antonio's and the San Diego's and
00:01:57.224 --> 00:02:00.545
the... Sorry, the Anaheim's of the world.
00:02:00.564 --> 00:02:00.724
Right.
00:02:00.765 --> 00:02:01.965
And the Boston's of the world.
00:02:02.025 --> 00:02:03.066
Yeah.
00:02:03.085 --> 00:02:03.766
So you do both...
00:02:04.621 --> 00:02:06.222
Clinic owner, you've done that.
00:02:06.923 --> 00:02:08.584
And chapter president,
00:02:08.604 --> 00:02:10.485
I mentioned in the intro.
00:02:10.906 --> 00:02:13.567
What made you step into advocacy and
00:02:13.606 --> 00:02:14.627
leadership roles?
00:02:14.647 --> 00:02:17.169
Because both of those are, by default,
00:02:17.308 --> 00:02:18.710
leadership and advocacy roles.
00:02:18.770 --> 00:02:20.191
What was sort of the bug for you?
00:02:21.331 --> 00:02:24.473
I caught the ownership bug when the clinic
00:02:24.514 --> 00:02:26.314
I was working for got bought out by
00:02:26.335 --> 00:02:28.596
a venture capital group and didn't
00:02:28.616 --> 00:02:29.997
necessarily like the direction it was
00:02:30.016 --> 00:02:30.537
going to go.
00:02:30.856 --> 00:02:32.557
So I wanted to continue to treat community
00:02:32.598 --> 00:02:32.799
health
00:02:33.740 --> 00:02:36.907
and found a partner and found a space
00:02:37.207 --> 00:02:39.334
in a community I love and went from
00:02:39.373 --> 00:02:39.633
there.
00:02:39.895 --> 00:02:42.360
And so that organically has been
00:02:43.270 --> 00:02:45.173
great and rewarding, but it's been super,
00:02:45.212 --> 00:02:45.913
super challenging.
00:02:46.554 --> 00:02:48.634
And I also didn't know leadership was also
00:02:48.675 --> 00:02:49.635
a skill you have to learn.
00:02:50.175 --> 00:02:51.116
I just thought, I was like,
00:02:51.356 --> 00:02:52.358
I've managed people.
00:02:52.557 --> 00:02:53.338
I know these things.
00:02:53.359 --> 00:02:54.560
I know how to tell people things and
00:02:54.580 --> 00:02:55.219
how to do them,
00:02:55.281 --> 00:02:56.001
and they'll just do it.
00:02:56.480 --> 00:02:56.762
Right.
00:02:56.921 --> 00:02:58.383
Turns out, it's not the case.
00:02:58.823 --> 00:03:00.724
So then during COVID,
00:03:01.025 --> 00:03:02.366
had to rethink a lot of things.
00:03:02.385 --> 00:03:03.546
Then I started asking questions.
00:03:03.866 --> 00:03:04.548
Questions about like,
00:03:04.867 --> 00:03:06.068
I've always been an APCA member,
00:03:06.109 --> 00:03:06.610
so what...
00:03:07.461 --> 00:03:09.943
are we doing here um we started getting
00:03:09.983 --> 00:03:12.444
some good guidance from our president two
00:03:12.465 --> 00:03:14.948
past presidents ago eric fulmar and he
00:03:15.008 --> 00:03:17.109
really did a great job guiding our ship
00:03:17.229 --> 00:03:20.872
through um a lot of the legalities of
00:03:20.913 --> 00:03:22.973
the shutdown and so really helping us get
00:03:22.993 --> 00:03:26.016
back open helping us do it safely and
00:03:26.737 --> 00:03:28.038
you know not losing the clinic at the
00:03:28.058 --> 00:03:30.420
same time so that was huge terribly
00:03:30.441 --> 00:03:32.301
important yeah so you literally said i
00:03:32.342 --> 00:03:33.524
don't like where this is going
00:03:34.700 --> 00:03:35.622
I'm going to do it myself,
00:03:36.282 --> 00:03:38.485
which is simple to say and not easy
00:03:38.566 --> 00:03:39.127
to do.
00:03:40.770 --> 00:03:42.292
Let's play that whole game of what do
00:03:42.312 --> 00:03:43.693
you wish you knew then that you know
00:03:43.753 --> 00:03:43.973
now?
00:03:44.014 --> 00:03:45.235
What would you have told yourself?
00:03:45.515 --> 00:03:47.218
What landmines did you step on that maybe
00:03:47.239 --> 00:03:48.080
you could have avoided?
00:03:49.437 --> 00:03:49.717
You know,
00:03:50.336 --> 00:03:51.557
I don't know if there's anything that you
00:03:52.318 --> 00:03:55.099
can do when you're having the issue with
00:03:55.120 --> 00:03:56.199
something like COVID comes up.
00:03:56.800 --> 00:03:57.561
It's unprecedented.
00:03:57.640 --> 00:03:58.942
Once in a generation.
00:03:59.542 --> 00:03:59.961
Hopefully.
00:04:00.983 --> 00:04:02.824
I wish I had asked questions earlier.
00:04:03.403 --> 00:04:04.324
And that's really my big thing.
00:04:05.344 --> 00:04:06.205
I just was a member.
00:04:06.245 --> 00:04:07.725
I didn't ask what, you know,
00:04:07.786 --> 00:04:08.445
could be done.
00:04:08.806 --> 00:04:10.366
What can I do to help?
00:04:10.526 --> 00:04:10.765
Yeah.
00:04:10.926 --> 00:04:11.526
In what ways?
00:04:11.586 --> 00:04:12.447
Like, what are we working on?
00:04:12.887 --> 00:04:13.947
I just kind of went with the flow
00:04:13.967 --> 00:04:15.367
and then you're like, all right,
00:04:15.388 --> 00:04:16.668
so payments not going the right way.
00:04:16.747 --> 00:04:17.927
So we're not getting good news on this.
00:04:17.947 --> 00:04:19.269
We're not getting good news on that.
00:04:19.869 --> 00:04:20.908
So you're just sitting there accepting.
00:04:21.209 --> 00:04:21.369
Right.
00:04:21.509 --> 00:04:23.430
And that's something I just as I got
00:04:23.509 --> 00:04:24.050
older, I'm like,
00:04:24.129 --> 00:04:25.269
I just don't accept this anymore.
00:04:25.470 --> 00:04:25.829
Right.
00:04:25.870 --> 00:04:27.151
So how do we actually try to make
00:04:27.170 --> 00:04:27.831
a change?
00:04:27.891 --> 00:04:28.031
Yeah.
00:04:28.569 --> 00:04:29.610
So that's where I came from.
00:04:29.790 --> 00:04:29.990
Yeah.
00:04:30.610 --> 00:04:31.471
People are the life hack.
00:04:32.312 --> 00:04:33.153
People write things.
00:04:33.934 --> 00:04:35.295
People still write the thing.
00:04:35.894 --> 00:04:36.995
People are on podcasts.
00:04:37.016 --> 00:04:38.437
It's still a people thing.
00:04:39.057 --> 00:04:40.158
And most of the time when people do
00:04:40.177 --> 00:04:40.497
things,
00:04:40.898 --> 00:04:43.139
they like when you ask them questions
00:04:43.160 --> 00:04:44.221
about the thing that they've done.
00:04:44.680 --> 00:04:44.841
Right.
00:04:44.880 --> 00:04:45.620
But they like that.
00:04:45.762 --> 00:04:45.982
Yes.
00:04:46.062 --> 00:04:48.463
Like I told the story a couple weeks
00:04:48.502 --> 00:04:50.225
ago how when I was in PT school,
00:04:50.524 --> 00:04:51.285
second career student.
00:04:51.605 --> 00:04:52.045
So I sort of.
00:04:52.425 --> 00:04:53.726
picked up a few life hacks along the
00:04:53.747 --> 00:04:53.947
way,
00:04:54.047 --> 00:04:55.408
and realized I do this big paper in
00:04:55.447 --> 00:04:57.389
neuro, and I'm not a huge,
00:04:58.408 --> 00:05:00.189
I don't like reading research.
00:05:00.389 --> 00:05:01.411
My brain doesn't brain.
00:05:01.430 --> 00:05:02.670
Some people are good at it, I'm not.
00:05:02.951 --> 00:05:04.711
So I just called a person who had
00:05:04.752 --> 00:05:06.093
written a book on the topic that I
00:05:06.112 --> 00:05:07.194
was researching,
00:05:07.574 --> 00:05:08.853
and she talked to me for an hour,
00:05:09.795 --> 00:05:11.815
and explained everything,
00:05:11.836 --> 00:05:12.516
I understood everything,
00:05:12.536 --> 00:05:13.516
and then she gave me a Google Drive
00:05:13.536 --> 00:05:14.416
full of the stuff I should have been
00:05:14.437 --> 00:05:14.656
reading.
00:05:14.697 --> 00:05:16.437
And I was like, well that was easy.
00:05:17.738 --> 00:05:18.319
You can do that.
00:05:18.480 --> 00:05:19.060
That's your skill.
00:05:19.180 --> 00:05:19.761
That's right.
00:05:19.821 --> 00:05:20.862
But anybody can do that.
00:05:21.021 --> 00:05:22.824
That quite literally costs zero dollars,
00:05:23.264 --> 00:05:24.286
just an hour and a half of my
00:05:24.326 --> 00:05:24.565
time,
00:05:24.605 --> 00:05:26.307
and it gave me everything that I wanted.
00:05:26.447 --> 00:05:27.449
Absolutely.
00:05:27.488 --> 00:05:29.230
You've said that, I love both statements,
00:05:29.310 --> 00:05:32.593
every PT and PTA needs to care about
00:05:32.694 --> 00:05:34.255
advocacy, payment, and access.
00:05:34.815 --> 00:05:36.177
Why is that so critical now?
00:05:36.437 --> 00:05:37.459
Why is that important now?
00:05:39.069 --> 00:05:40.110
It's always been important,
00:05:40.151 --> 00:05:42.192
but I do think now with the...
00:05:43.314 --> 00:05:44.574
Tuition never decreases.
00:05:45.755 --> 00:05:46.677
It's going to go up.
00:05:46.916 --> 00:05:47.137
Right.
00:05:47.276 --> 00:05:48.757
It's going up every year a certain
00:05:48.798 --> 00:05:49.259
percentage.
00:05:49.939 --> 00:05:51.279
Our pay is not going up every year.
00:05:51.841 --> 00:05:52.201
In fact,
00:05:52.261 --> 00:05:55.103
we had six years of Medicare devaluing our
00:05:55.124 --> 00:05:55.543
services.
00:05:55.843 --> 00:05:57.886
So now we did get a recent win
00:05:57.906 --> 00:05:58.505
this last year,
00:05:59.226 --> 00:06:00.507
and we are sitting at the table this
00:06:00.528 --> 00:06:04.031
year for federal payments through
00:06:04.071 --> 00:06:04.571
Medicare.
00:06:04.651 --> 00:06:04.810
But...
00:06:06.869 --> 00:06:08.372
We just can't sit there,
00:06:08.771 --> 00:06:10.514
get more education,
00:06:11.014 --> 00:06:12.177
raise our practice level,
00:06:12.476 --> 00:06:14.940
and then not get reimbursed or paid for
00:06:14.961 --> 00:06:16.223
that.
00:06:17.925 --> 00:06:18.966
Everyone's waiting around.
00:06:19.107 --> 00:06:19.987
I feel like a lot of people wait
00:06:20.028 --> 00:06:21.470
around for somebody else to do something.
00:06:22.235 --> 00:06:23.036
And it's not,
00:06:23.456 --> 00:06:25.237
nobody else is doing anything for us.
00:06:25.559 --> 00:06:27.500
So you can join an association,
00:06:27.740 --> 00:06:28.841
you can remain on your own,
00:06:29.000 --> 00:06:30.201
but at least the point is like,
00:06:30.221 --> 00:06:32.584
know who your legislators are and just at
00:06:32.624 --> 00:06:33.865
least reach out because they're humans
00:06:33.904 --> 00:06:34.084
too.
00:06:34.665 --> 00:06:35.966
And they love a conversation with their
00:06:35.985 --> 00:06:36.607
constituents.
00:06:37.007 --> 00:06:39.928
So just being active and then at the
00:06:40.009 --> 00:06:40.730
very minimum,
00:06:41.670 --> 00:06:43.012
push for something like in Massachusetts,
00:06:43.031 --> 00:06:44.153
we have our scope of practice bill.
00:06:44.612 --> 00:06:45.934
That's going to fundamentally change
00:06:46.033 --> 00:06:48.735
prescriptive authority and our ability to,
00:06:49.516 --> 00:06:49.617
um,
00:06:51.240 --> 00:06:52.100
have diagnostic imaging.
00:06:52.802 --> 00:06:54.523
So with those two new permissions,
00:06:54.543 --> 00:06:56.043
it opens up a whole new can of
00:06:56.062 --> 00:06:56.564
worms for us.
00:06:57.144 --> 00:06:57.603
And it's great.
00:06:57.663 --> 00:07:00.125
And if we really push that as a
00:07:00.725 --> 00:07:03.107
profession, not just an association,
00:07:03.826 --> 00:07:04.947
we have a chance of making something
00:07:05.028 --> 00:07:06.267
really good happen in Massachusetts.
00:07:06.809 --> 00:07:08.129
And when a domino falls,
00:07:08.850 --> 00:07:10.951
it'll help hopefully fall somewhere else.
00:07:11.011 --> 00:07:11.391
Exactly.
00:07:11.411 --> 00:07:11.971
It's the beginning.
00:07:12.190 --> 00:07:12.370
Right.
00:07:12.531 --> 00:07:13.012
Right.
00:07:13.031 --> 00:07:14.312
So it leads to changes in payment.
00:07:14.331 --> 00:07:16.793
It leads to us getting a seat at
00:07:16.812 --> 00:07:17.954
the table with third party payers.
00:07:19.081 --> 00:07:20.543
advice for someone who's hearing this
00:07:20.562 --> 00:07:21.903
going but i don't really understand
00:07:21.983 --> 00:07:24.384
advocacy i understand the process i just
00:07:24.403 --> 00:07:26.105
want to lower anxiety like people can just
00:07:26.125 --> 00:07:29.346
show up and just like help right like
00:07:29.487 --> 00:07:31.307
fold chairs or pay attention or be on
00:07:31.326 --> 00:07:32.507
a call you don't need to run a
00:07:32.687 --> 00:07:34.988
committee on your first day like that's
00:07:35.009 --> 00:07:36.769
not how it starts right right and i
00:07:36.790 --> 00:07:38.069
think what we're learning is that we had
00:07:38.089 --> 00:07:40.130
a huge education gap for that first step
00:07:40.690 --> 00:07:42.572
there's there's education on once you're
00:07:42.672 --> 00:07:44.692
in it how do you advocate better how
00:07:44.713 --> 00:07:45.793
do you do this better but there was
00:07:45.874 --> 00:07:46.033
no
00:07:47.033 --> 00:07:49.016
soft first step off the bus or onto
00:07:49.055 --> 00:07:51.117
the bus to get going with it.
00:07:51.197 --> 00:07:52.237
So, you know,
00:07:52.317 --> 00:07:55.100
trying to put out an educational program
00:07:55.120 --> 00:07:57.221
for our members that would really help
00:07:57.601 --> 00:07:58.622
people to take the first step.
00:07:58.682 --> 00:07:59.362
Why should you care?
00:07:59.403 --> 00:08:00.223
What are we caring about?
00:08:00.244 --> 00:08:02.185
And what do we do?
00:08:02.225 --> 00:08:03.906
So yeah,
00:08:03.925 --> 00:08:07.588
somebody else coined this sort of this
00:08:07.668 --> 00:08:07.908
idea.
00:08:07.928 --> 00:08:09.250
It's called the grunt test.
00:08:10.091 --> 00:08:11.391
So if I look at a brochure,
00:08:12.762 --> 00:08:15.944
Or a booth at CSM or anywhere or
00:08:15.963 --> 00:08:18.185
a website at APTA Massachusetts.
00:08:18.665 --> 00:08:20.545
I should be able to answer three questions
00:08:20.685 --> 00:08:21.625
without thinking.
00:08:21.925 --> 00:08:22.187
Right.
00:08:22.226 --> 00:08:23.266
And they call it the grunt test.
00:08:23.466 --> 00:08:24.168
What do you do?
00:08:24.987 --> 00:08:26.749
How does that make my life better or
00:08:26.788 --> 00:08:27.028
not?
00:08:27.588 --> 00:08:28.730
And then if I like the answer to
00:08:28.750 --> 00:08:29.689
number one and number two,
00:08:30.110 --> 00:08:30.670
what do I have to do?
00:08:30.690 --> 00:08:31.250
Right.
00:08:31.331 --> 00:08:32.652
Right, book now, join here,
00:08:32.711 --> 00:08:33.172
da da da da.
00:08:33.471 --> 00:08:34.432
And it needs to be,
00:08:34.613 --> 00:08:36.333
a lot of times, in healthcare,
00:08:36.693 --> 00:08:38.794
I'll just take shots at ourselves, PT,
00:08:39.316 --> 00:08:42.236
we over-explain and we over-complicate
00:08:42.256 --> 00:08:44.538
things because, I don't know,
00:08:44.578 --> 00:08:45.658
maybe we feel like we have to.
00:08:46.019 --> 00:08:47.179
And I'm just here to tell you that
00:08:47.200 --> 00:08:48.341
the New York Times is written at an
00:08:48.400 --> 00:08:50.042
eighth grade level, on purpose.
00:08:50.261 --> 00:08:51.743
Not because they think ninth graders don't
00:08:51.783 --> 00:08:52.062
read,
00:08:52.523 --> 00:08:53.644
or adults don't read at a higher grade
00:08:53.683 --> 00:08:53.903
level,
00:08:54.163 --> 00:08:55.544
they understand that you can't be an
00:08:55.605 --> 00:08:57.285
expert at all of these different things.
00:08:57.566 --> 00:08:58.807
So keep it simple.
00:08:59.496 --> 00:09:00.937
We know healthcare literature is even at a
00:09:01.018 --> 00:09:01.697
lower level than that.
00:09:01.717 --> 00:09:05.259
So to keep engaging and working in such
00:09:05.340 --> 00:09:07.020
a diverse population,
00:09:07.381 --> 00:09:09.163
it's got to be really simplistic,
00:09:09.383 --> 00:09:10.243
really to the point,
00:09:10.663 --> 00:09:11.563
but make a good point.
00:09:11.644 --> 00:09:12.664
But there's a couple of times that I
00:09:12.684 --> 00:09:13.184
wanted to,
00:09:13.245 --> 00:09:15.426
my dad has a PT and OT and
00:09:15.505 --> 00:09:17.586
an SLP and they'll call me for updates
00:09:17.626 --> 00:09:20.469
and they change every once in a while.
00:09:20.489 --> 00:09:21.470
So a lot of them don't know that
00:09:21.549 --> 00:09:23.071
I'm also a physical therapist, right?
00:09:23.191 --> 00:09:24.672
On top of being the son.
00:09:24.871 --> 00:09:25.091
Right.
00:09:25.432 --> 00:09:26.972
And I want to very...
00:09:28.918 --> 00:09:30.260
I don't know how it would be absorbed,
00:09:30.301 --> 00:09:30.640
but I'm like,
00:09:31.020 --> 00:09:32.783
that is over the average person.
00:09:33.783 --> 00:09:35.225
Some of the things you're saying do not
00:09:35.265 --> 00:09:35.807
need to be there.
00:09:37.028 --> 00:09:38.470
Talk to me like a normal person.
00:09:38.789 --> 00:09:39.671
I know you're a normal person.
00:09:39.750 --> 00:09:40.392
I've met PTs.
00:09:40.471 --> 00:09:41.033
We're normal people.
00:09:41.373 --> 00:09:42.794
On the phone, stop being that.
00:09:42.815 --> 00:09:43.615
I don't know what that was.
00:09:43.796 --> 00:09:44.475
Don't do that again.
00:09:47.566 --> 00:09:48.907
For clinicians who feel busy or
00:09:48.947 --> 00:09:50.269
disconnected from advocacy,
00:09:50.568 --> 00:09:53.230
where is that soft first step?
00:09:53.410 --> 00:09:54.732
Where should they go?
00:09:54.753 --> 00:09:55.312
They're like, okay,
00:09:55.332 --> 00:09:56.214
I don't need to do something.
00:09:56.573 --> 00:09:57.875
Fine, I'll do it.
00:09:58.655 --> 00:09:59.636
How do I sign up?
00:10:00.418 --> 00:10:01.418
I'm not in this club yet.
00:10:01.578 --> 00:10:02.440
Where do I go?
00:10:02.620 --> 00:10:02.860
Right.
00:10:03.380 --> 00:10:04.922
And the first thing we've had people do
00:10:04.981 --> 00:10:07.344
is actually email our association,
00:10:07.544 --> 00:10:09.086
go to our page, email us.
00:10:09.586 --> 00:10:09.846
But...
00:10:11.006 --> 00:10:12.386
We would like this to be more forward
00:10:12.427 --> 00:10:15.227
facing and put out something that people
00:10:15.248 --> 00:10:15.748
can go to.
00:10:16.148 --> 00:10:17.768
Be able to highlight that on social media
00:10:18.307 --> 00:10:19.628
and be able to have an easy landing
00:10:19.668 --> 00:10:22.349
page on our website that may or may
00:10:22.408 --> 00:10:23.448
not be member protected.
00:10:24.688 --> 00:10:25.609
If it's not member protected,
00:10:25.649 --> 00:10:27.110
at least we're getting the advocacy word
00:10:27.149 --> 00:10:28.450
out there for what we want.
00:10:28.610 --> 00:10:29.929
And the more voices we have,
00:10:30.110 --> 00:10:32.071
the more we'll achieve.
00:10:32.211 --> 00:10:32.390
I mean,
00:10:32.431 --> 00:10:34.811
we see what the nursing association does
00:10:34.850 --> 00:10:35.471
in Massachusetts,
00:10:35.551 --> 00:10:36.451
and they are a powerhouse.
00:10:36.510 --> 00:10:37.711
They have so many voices.
00:10:38.192 --> 00:10:39.131
When they're asked to show up for
00:10:39.172 --> 00:10:40.211
something, they show.
00:10:40.572 --> 00:10:42.514
So what can we take away from our
00:10:42.714 --> 00:10:43.894
sort of cousin, you know,
00:10:44.014 --> 00:10:45.296
nurse nursing profession?
00:10:45.336 --> 00:10:45.956
What would they do?
00:10:46.135 --> 00:10:46.917
Would they do well?
00:10:47.518 --> 00:10:48.697
Or what should we look at from five,
00:10:48.759 --> 00:10:49.899
ten, fifteen years ago?
00:10:49.918 --> 00:10:50.820
What can we borrow?
00:10:51.019 --> 00:10:52.961
Their messaging is really, really good.
00:10:53.221 --> 00:10:54.982
So they're not just their membership,
00:10:55.003 --> 00:10:56.485
but also, you know, it starts in school.
00:10:57.125 --> 00:10:58.485
that's what we're getting into now is
00:10:58.525 --> 00:11:00.167
we're starting to get that word in
00:11:00.206 --> 00:11:00.587
schools,
00:11:01.528 --> 00:11:03.409
being asked to guest lecture about
00:11:03.529 --> 00:11:04.110
advocacy.
00:11:04.211 --> 00:11:06.712
We're making it a focus for our annual
00:11:06.753 --> 00:11:07.533
conferences now.
00:11:07.852 --> 00:11:09.575
So we just had a great hour long
00:11:09.634 --> 00:11:11.316
opener about advocacy at our annual
00:11:11.355 --> 00:11:12.677
conference last November.
00:11:12.777 --> 00:11:15.298
So we are we're taking steps to get
00:11:15.339 --> 00:11:15.538
there.
00:11:16.500 --> 00:11:18.581
And it's something that's just been we've
00:11:18.642 --> 00:11:19.361
kind of missed, I think.
00:11:19.582 --> 00:11:19.763
Yeah.
00:11:21.024 --> 00:11:22.764
What's your big, big, hairy,
00:11:22.825 --> 00:11:24.485
audacious goal as
00:11:25.366 --> 00:11:26.788
president of Massachusetts.
00:11:27.187 --> 00:11:28.509
What's something that when you're sort of
00:11:28.528 --> 00:11:30.971
done and you pass off the office to
00:11:30.990 --> 00:11:32.371
the next person that you're like, hey,
00:11:32.412 --> 00:11:33.373
if we achieve this,
00:11:33.432 --> 00:11:34.854
this is what I'm aiming for.
00:11:34.974 --> 00:11:35.214
Yeah,
00:11:35.313 --> 00:11:38.176
if we can get a third of our
00:11:39.037 --> 00:11:42.158
registered PTs in the state to sign an
00:11:42.198 --> 00:11:42.859
advocacy letter.
00:11:42.980 --> 00:11:43.480
Ooh, okay.
00:11:43.740 --> 00:11:43.980
You know,
00:11:44.039 --> 00:11:46.361
for each thing that we're putting out
00:11:46.381 --> 00:11:47.761
there and like this is important because
00:11:47.782 --> 00:11:48.123
of this.
00:11:48.663 --> 00:11:51.264
And if we get those voices consistently,
00:11:51.784 --> 00:11:53.346
that is a huge, huge win.
00:11:53.365 --> 00:11:53.466
Yeah.
00:11:53.985 --> 00:11:55.267
And that's that's engagement.
00:11:55.386 --> 00:11:56.206
That's people caring.
00:11:56.226 --> 00:11:57.408
That's people taking ownership of their
00:11:57.427 --> 00:11:57.868
profession.
00:11:58.307 --> 00:11:59.389
And that's really what we're looking for.
00:11:59.548 --> 00:12:00.190
Where are you now?
00:12:00.269 --> 00:12:00.649
Ballpark.
00:12:02.884 --> 00:12:04.485
I would have to go through because we're
00:12:04.645 --> 00:12:05.745
on a different app now.
00:12:06.206 --> 00:12:09.067
And so now that we've just kind of
00:12:09.106 --> 00:12:10.527
signed on to a new application,
00:12:10.886 --> 00:12:11.847
we're going to be able to track that
00:12:11.868 --> 00:12:12.548
much easier.
00:12:12.587 --> 00:12:14.248
So I would love to tell you the
00:12:14.268 --> 00:12:14.989
number, but I don't have it.
00:12:15.009 --> 00:12:16.668
What gets measured gets improved.
00:12:16.889 --> 00:12:17.609
You can't measure it.
00:12:17.649 --> 00:12:19.669
You can't possibly improve it or know it's
00:12:19.710 --> 00:12:20.330
being improved.
00:12:20.470 --> 00:12:20.789
Absolutely.
00:12:21.029 --> 00:12:21.789
What gives you hope?
00:12:21.809 --> 00:12:23.030
Let's go bigger.
00:12:23.051 --> 00:12:24.471
We'll go bigger than just Massachusetts.
00:12:24.530 --> 00:12:26.192
What gives you hope about where the
00:12:26.211 --> 00:12:27.432
profession's headed in general?
00:12:28.688 --> 00:12:30.629
I think when we get together as leaders
00:12:31.250 --> 00:12:32.591
that we're all on the same page.
00:12:32.692 --> 00:12:36.474
I think the leadership of APTA itself has
00:12:36.494 --> 00:12:37.894
kind of changed their mentality too.
00:12:38.495 --> 00:12:40.636
New strategic framework really shows that
00:12:40.697 --> 00:12:42.817
payment by fourteenfold is the most
00:12:42.878 --> 00:12:43.479
important topic.
00:12:43.519 --> 00:12:44.359
It was not small.
00:12:44.599 --> 00:12:44.879
Right.
00:12:44.979 --> 00:12:47.201
It's payment and then fourteen miles of
00:12:47.260 --> 00:12:48.402
nothing then number two.
00:12:48.501 --> 00:12:48.682
Right.
00:12:49.062 --> 00:12:51.563
And so I think that that focus,
00:12:51.624 --> 00:12:53.645
especially even just in the last really
00:12:53.725 --> 00:12:54.265
nine months,
00:12:54.285 --> 00:12:56.388
that that focus has changed and how
00:12:56.408 --> 00:12:57.688
they've changed their education,
00:12:57.708 --> 00:12:59.450
their programming and where we're at in
00:12:59.509 --> 00:13:01.951
terms of leaders being able to talk about
00:13:02.011 --> 00:13:02.331
things.
00:13:02.631 --> 00:13:03.653
That's really important.
00:13:03.753 --> 00:13:04.153
Yeah.
00:13:04.273 --> 00:13:05.073
And, you know,
00:13:05.094 --> 00:13:06.995
getting on the same boat really makes us
00:13:07.054 --> 00:13:08.517
want to, you know,
00:13:08.557 --> 00:13:09.817
we're all rowing in the same direction,
00:13:09.878 --> 00:13:10.798
even if we have to do it different
00:13:10.817 --> 00:13:11.097
ways.
00:13:11.339 --> 00:13:11.678
Correct.
00:13:11.839 --> 00:13:12.158
Yes.
00:13:12.178 --> 00:13:14.640
I never knew the differences from state to
00:13:14.681 --> 00:13:14.880
state.
00:13:14.961 --> 00:13:15.601
I just assumed...
00:13:17.298 --> 00:13:17.898
population.
00:13:18.038 --> 00:13:18.437
I don't know.
00:13:18.538 --> 00:13:20.599
And then I looked into how different state
00:13:20.658 --> 00:13:21.919
practice acts are.
00:13:21.940 --> 00:13:23.860
And we are fifty different little
00:13:24.061 --> 00:13:25.620
countries that are tied together.
00:13:25.821 --> 00:13:26.041
Yes.
00:13:26.620 --> 00:13:28.461
And every state legislature works
00:13:28.522 --> 00:13:28.981
differently.
00:13:29.743 --> 00:13:31.243
You know, we see how a win gets,
00:13:31.442 --> 00:13:31.663
you know,
00:13:32.082 --> 00:13:34.203
how does a win go in Utah be
00:13:34.244 --> 00:13:35.784
different than how it's done in Montana,
00:13:35.804 --> 00:13:37.105
than Colorado, than Massachusetts.
00:13:37.645 --> 00:13:39.426
And so knowing how the legislature works
00:13:39.485 --> 00:13:40.005
is really,
00:13:40.046 --> 00:13:40.986
really important to
00:13:41.687 --> 00:13:43.408
to get wins with our mechanisms.
00:13:43.508 --> 00:13:44.227
And if you don't,
00:13:44.268 --> 00:13:46.188
you will get steamrolled or you will get
00:13:46.229 --> 00:13:46.808
something just,
00:13:46.849 --> 00:13:47.990
you'll get completely rubbed,
00:13:48.169 --> 00:13:49.429
something completely taken away from you.
00:13:49.710 --> 00:13:51.331
Colorado had a thing up in, uh,
00:13:51.571 --> 00:13:53.072
in their state legislator about losing
00:13:53.451 --> 00:13:54.591
term title protection.
00:13:55.072 --> 00:13:55.993
Like they were going to lose this.
00:13:56.013 --> 00:13:56.153
Right.
00:13:56.173 --> 00:13:57.092
And they were like, we have,
00:13:57.173 --> 00:13:57.653
once we get our,
00:13:57.854 --> 00:13:59.573
our members to rally and say,
00:13:59.634 --> 00:14:00.514
we might lose this.
00:14:00.654 --> 00:14:00.875
Right.
00:14:01.294 --> 00:14:02.716
Everybody will pay attention the day after
00:14:02.755 --> 00:14:03.216
you lose it.
00:14:03.515 --> 00:14:03.676
Right.
00:14:03.735 --> 00:14:04.856
Where are you paying attention?
00:14:05.017 --> 00:14:06.397
What are you doing six months before we
00:14:06.437 --> 00:14:07.298
lost it, bro?
00:14:07.337 --> 00:14:09.238
Like you're a day late, a dollar short.
00:14:09.498 --> 00:14:09.739
Yeah.
00:14:09.798 --> 00:14:09.958
Right.
00:14:09.999 --> 00:14:10.658
You don't want that.
00:14:10.839 --> 00:14:10.999
No,
00:14:11.158 --> 00:14:13.279
we want to have those voices be ready
00:14:13.320 --> 00:14:14.301
and willing to do things.
00:14:14.461 --> 00:14:16.802
And then also, if you get ownership,
00:14:16.822 --> 00:14:17.783
you get hospitals,
00:14:17.822 --> 00:14:20.524
you get rehab directors bought into what
00:14:20.563 --> 00:14:21.364
we're trying to do,
00:14:21.845 --> 00:14:22.924
they're going to ask their staff to do
00:14:22.965 --> 00:14:23.024
it.
00:14:23.205 --> 00:14:23.424
Yeah.
00:14:23.465 --> 00:14:24.586
So you're just going to kind of work
00:14:24.605 --> 00:14:27.246
through a network of amplifiers that if
00:14:27.287 --> 00:14:29.307
the messaging is good and it's something
00:14:29.347 --> 00:14:31.109
that is worthy for the profession,
00:14:31.470 --> 00:14:32.070
people will do it.
00:14:32.309 --> 00:14:33.210
Love it.
00:14:33.230 --> 00:14:34.230
We have a tradition on the show.
00:14:34.650 --> 00:14:35.130
Every episode,
00:14:35.150 --> 00:14:37.793
we do something called the parting shot.
00:14:38.613 --> 00:14:40.615
This is the Parting Shot.
00:14:41.195 --> 00:14:42.596
One last mic drop moment.
00:14:43.277 --> 00:14:44.057
No pressure.
00:14:44.518 --> 00:14:46.698
Just your legacy on the line.
00:14:48.561 --> 00:14:48.760
All right.
00:14:48.780 --> 00:14:50.201
Parting Shot is brought to you by Sarah
00:14:50.241 --> 00:14:50.481
Health.
00:14:50.501 --> 00:14:52.504
Find them online at SarahHealth.com.
00:14:52.543 --> 00:14:54.125
Bringing RTM to your clinic.
00:14:54.205 --> 00:14:56.427
Can you get paid for interacting with your
00:14:56.447 --> 00:14:57.567
patients between visits?
00:14:57.827 --> 00:14:58.327
Spoiler alert.
00:14:58.687 --> 00:14:59.568
Yes, you can.
00:15:00.269 --> 00:15:01.951
And also, I want to point this out.
00:15:02.331 --> 00:15:04.452
A lot of RTM is app-based.
00:15:04.932 --> 00:15:06.894
Sarah Health is text-based.
00:15:07.798 --> 00:15:09.299
Everybody already has that app on their
00:15:09.320 --> 00:15:09.500
phone.
00:15:09.519 --> 00:15:10.301
It's text message.
00:15:10.561 --> 00:15:12.501
So that means no apps and no logins
00:15:12.542 --> 00:15:13.582
because, gosh,
00:15:13.623 --> 00:15:14.923
if I have to remember one more password,
00:15:15.024 --> 00:15:15.504
I'm going to lose it.
00:15:15.984 --> 00:15:16.625
So find them online.
00:15:16.664 --> 00:15:17.365
SarahHealth.com.
00:15:17.404 --> 00:15:19.265
It's S-A-R-A-Health.com.
00:15:19.726 --> 00:15:20.547
SarahHealth.com.
00:15:20.606 --> 00:15:20.807
All right.
00:15:21.206 --> 00:15:21.707
Parting shot.
00:15:21.727 --> 00:15:22.447
What do you want to leave with the
00:15:22.467 --> 00:15:23.408
audience today as we wrap up?
00:15:23.990 --> 00:15:25.150
It's something I have written at the
00:15:25.171 --> 00:15:26.932
bottom of my notes for every board of
00:15:26.951 --> 00:15:28.292
director meeting that I run now.
00:15:28.611 --> 00:15:30.511
It's never assume and always ask.
00:15:30.772 --> 00:15:31.873
Ooh, never assume.
00:15:32.052 --> 00:15:32.293
Yes.
00:15:32.552 --> 00:15:33.753
Always ask.
00:15:34.212 --> 00:15:35.953
Appreciate your time today.
00:15:36.014 --> 00:15:37.173
Thanks for doing the service.
00:15:37.494 --> 00:15:38.634
I don't live in Massachusetts,
00:15:38.913 --> 00:15:40.494
but if we get wins in Massachusetts,
00:15:40.955 --> 00:15:42.174
it might be easier to get wins in
00:15:42.215 --> 00:15:43.715
my state of New York and your state
00:15:43.735 --> 00:15:44.134
of whatever.
00:15:44.254 --> 00:15:45.615
So thanks for doing what you do as
00:15:45.635 --> 00:15:46.556
well as the rest of your board.
00:15:46.735 --> 00:15:47.076
Of course.
00:15:47.196 --> 00:15:47.696
Thank you so much.
