Physical therapy has everything it always wanted: strong evidence, growing demand, and every other specialty in the MSK continuum sending patients their way.

So why are most practices still operating like patients are scarce?

Ben Barron's answer: the model hasn't caught up to the market.

Practices are still running the playbooks they built when patients were hard to find.

When the constraint was getting patients in the door, the model made sense: accept every insurance contract, schedule everyone the same way, keep therapists busy with every task. That was rational for a scarcity market.

In an abundance market, it's leaving money and patients on the table.

PT is the only MSK specialty the system is actively pushing patients toward. Meanwhile, PT practices still say yes to contracts that lose money and schedule patients first-come, first-served. All of this while they have month-long waitlists.

The practices reshaping care around patients are building for abundance. The ones still optimizing for billing and protocols are losing ground they didn't even know they had.

A breakdown of what in the name of AI you should actually be paying attention to: AWS introduces Amazon Connect Health with agentic AI.

AI-powered contact centers for healthcare are compelling because front desk operations are one of the biggest bottlenecks in access and revenue. But success depends on whether these systems can handle real-world complexity — scheduling rules, insurance nuances, and compliance — not just basic conversations.

Verdict: ✅ Worth paying attention to

Most independent practices underestimate how much revenue slips through the cracks each week.

Missed calls during peak hours. Patients who hang up after being placed on hold. Referrals that never make it into the schedule.

These small breakdowns add up quickly.

We built a simple tool to help you understand what this might be costing your practice.

The Revenue Leakage Calculator takes your practice size, average patient value, and call volume, then estimates how much revenue may be lost due to front desk inefficiencies.

It takes about two minutes. No email required. Just practical data you can use to decide whether it's worth tightening up your front desk workflows.

Thanks for joining us for another edition of Practice Independence — we’ll see you in 2 weeks!

PS: We bring together independent practice owners for off-the-record conversations about what's actually working. Small rooms. Real talk. Reply to this email if you’re interested in attending or hosting a dinner near you.

If this newsletter helps you think better about your practice, copy and paste this link to share with others: https://newsletter.indie.health/subscribe?ref=PLACEHOLDER

{{rp_personalized_text}}