A short conversational excerpt from a YouTube video in which Will Humphreys and a second speaker argue that making money in healthcare—specifically physical therapy—is not the primary purpose but the necessary means ("the score on the board") to sustain and expand services. They advocate for earning as much money as ethically possible, reinvesting profits to grow clinics and shift care from reactive to proactive, and counter the profession's reflexive discomfort with discussing money.
Chapters
We have to remember the distinction. Money isn't why we do what we do, but what we do it for. It's the score on the board.
And I would say, again, where I want to change our industry's mindset is to recognize that PTs should want to make as much money as ethically possible.
Oh, I like that. Ethically possible. I can get behind that. Yeah.
Because look, at the end of the day, like, why are we making money? If it's to go out there and just be super loaded and, like, blow it on gambling and stuff.
No.
Then that. You're wasting the gift. But what if instead of doing physical therapy to make money, what if we make money to do more physical therapy, invested that back into the industry, which is what I'm doing now. Right. Like, anything I've earned, I'm doubling down on this thing that I love because of Connie and Loretta Dillon. Like, these people, the Helene Fearons, they're so dedicated. Like, yeah, I just want to add to what they've been building. And then from there, hope that others will do the same. And down the road, if we all work hard enough. This idealistic vision of us being the first provider of choice to being able to reverse healthcare from being reactive to proactive, it all starts with understanding the fuel of the engine, which is money.
Yeah. Yeah. When you talk about this, and again, even when you say that M word, people are like, oh, you can't do it for money. And I think that's, you know, a little bit of our Achilles heel in terms of profession. We're so altruistic. Right. But when you put it that way, in terms of, listen, if you put your mask on first, that's a great, like, analogy is if you. If. If something's coming in to help support that clinic in that community, which can do so much, it's gotta be profitable. Otherwise that won't. That clinic will not exist in community. That community will be without.
Yes. And ultimately, what's funny is that although we are altruistic in how we approach it, as an owner, it was really easy for my. Some of my employees who weren't seeing this to initially be, well, I'm not in it for the money, but I want to raise.
Right.
Where did that money come from? And ultimately, we have to remember the distinction. Money isn't why we do what we do, but it's what we do it for. It's the score on the board.
Hold on, say that again. Because I like when people do stuff that makes me go, ooh, I like how you are so it's not, it's not why we do it, it's what we do it for.
Right? It's not why we do it. Confusing. That is dangerous and we're worried. And there are people in our industry, without a doubt in any industry, who the what is the why and they make a bad name for everyone else. We neglect that the money is what we do it for. We don't see that storyline end. If we focus purely on just the love of helping people and we don't pay attention to the finance angle of it, we end up finding ourselves in the position we're currently in, which is decreasing reimbursements, which increases the out of pocket cost for our patients, which limits their ability to come in. So for us, we have to be really clear what we do it for versus why we do it and how they work together. Wow. To help us create what's possible.
