The original concept was good, but it has been overwhelmed by the insurance reimbursement realities and the student loan crisis. The MBAs hired to fix this have zero compassion for the “artist-like” physical therapist who practices with care due to passion, not profit.

At the beginning, the franchise was founded and lead by experienced clinician-owners who were successful and empathized and understood the physical therapy landscape. The emphasis on balance/vestibular was unique. They started the groundwork by joining existing individual clinician-owned, solo practices and we banded together to move forward. Those relationships have been golden. Unfortunately, there is a mass exodus of those practices (most with 10-40 yrs of experience in running a physical therapy clinic or clinics) happening at this very moment. What will be left is probably not going to survive, because the entire founding org chart has also departed (over 5 key players in the past year)

Now it’s controlled by private equity whose current struggles are masked by deceptive marketing to potential non-clinician buyers who are lured by the idea of owning a PT practice without realizing that the shortage of PTs for hire, the extremely high expense of paying them, and the difficulty in securing a regular clientele to keep the clinic busy is a persistent and decades long issue due to declining and fixed reimbursements from third party payors, the increasing student-debt rate and the need for work-life balance of the millennial and Gen-Z therapists they need to hire. Corporate is bent on securing their royalties off the gross revenue; without empathy for the high expenses that result in net loss.

The corporate office has completely been revamped starting last May, so they were hired to beat a dead horse. I have heard new franchisees tell me that they are bleeding cash to the tune of 7 figures, because they can’t step in and treat patients. Many hit their opening day without a PT hired. If it were a clinician owner, they could work forever and not hire. Not this post-tech world owner who used stock proceeds. It will all evaporate.