Practice Growth Podcast

In this episode, Eric and Marla discuss moving from the 0-5 clinic roadmap to the midmarket climb to what it takes to build an enterprise that can scale through acquisition and hold together. Eric DeYoung, CEO of Arete Health, sold his last practice for one of the highest multiples in the industry, then started over from scratch. In this conversation, he shares why he invested in IT infrastructure and revenue cycle before adding a single clinic, what unmanaged systems actually cost a growing practice, and the two metrics he uses to measure whether a practice is healthy. He also walks through what changes and what stays the same when Arete brings a new practice into the fold, and how a recent acquisition went from $74 to almost $90 net rate per visit in two quarters without changing payer mix or renegotiating a single contract.

Getting your 1st clinic running is one challenge. Scaling to a regional organization is another entirely. This is the 2nd episode in our practice growth series, picking up where the 0-to-5 conversation left off to dig into the 5-to-15 climb. Josh Funk, founder and CEO of Rehab to Perform, built his practice to 15 locations without private equity or outside investment. In this conversation with host Marla Ranieri, he shares what actually changed as the business grew, from why the 2nd clinic is always the hardest, to the SOPs and playbooks that make growth repeatable, to the profit-sharing models that keep his best clinicians invested. Along the way, he makes the case that your biggest constraint as an owner is usually yourself.

Marla Ranieri sits down with Dr. Chuck Thigpen, chief clinical and strategy officer at ATI Physical Therapy, to talk about what it takes to build a university partnership that works for everyone involved. Chuck has spent nearly three decades in physical therapy, from clinician to leading ATI's clinical strategy and its research arm, the Institute for Musculoskeletal Advancement. He shares how ATI structures mentorship for new graduates, including a 50-day onboarding program and a one-year musculoskeletal certification cohort, and why understanding what a university actually needs is the real key to a lasting partnership. They also cover the pressures reshaping the profession: rising education costs, workforce shortages, and reimbursement that hasn't kept pace with demand. Chuck offers a framework smaller practices can use to build their own university partnerships, even without a large system's resources.

Sean Lordan went from being a clinician to launching his own practice and scaling quickly to 5 locations. And unlike many practice owners, Sean’s next stage of growth isn’t being limited by hiring. In his world, finding and developing great clinicians is a strength, not a bottleneck. We’re going to dig into how he finds and develops top 1% talent, what makes his clinic a magnet for high-performing therapists, and how his unique coaching model and tech stack give him an edge in the talent war.

Today's guest, Jason Collin, has been a clinician, a clinic owner, and a leadership coach, and he now runs PT Revolution, a PT clinic and performance training facility in the Lake Tahoe area. He also earned a doctorate in organizational leadership, where his research became a framework he calls the High Performance Team Effect: clarity, connection, and communication.