PPS 2024: The Race Is On, Are You Still In The Starting Gate?
This week, Paul introduces the most crucial topics that will be discussed at the Private Practice Section conference. Tune in to make sure that you know how to frame your thinking about the emerging competitive landscape in rehab M&A.
Full transcript
Generated from the episode audio and lightly edited for readability.
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Martin Rehab M&A Advisory. I'm Paul Martin, founder and president of Martin Healthcare Advisors, and real exciting to talk to you today about how to maximize your experience at the private practice section conference 2024 in Washington DC. Real exciting coming up here in about two weeks. This is going to be real exciting this year at the conference because there I'm going to guarantee you there's going to be a lot of talk about the rate cuts and what we can all prepare for is an increase in merger and acquis acquisition activity due to these cuts.
Let's dig in a little deeper here. If we look at the cuts and what it should be bringing to all of you out there as single clinic or multic clinic or large company physical therapy businesses is that there should be a sense of urgency because right now the race is on. The rate cuts have set the stage for a very aggressive merger and acquisition activity. But your competitors are already comp preparing. So don't fall behind. We don't want to get this false sense of security that hey the rates have dropped so we can feel safe now that the acquirers are going to have less expensive money.
So they're going to be able to hopefully be able to spend a little more on their acquisitions. They're going to be more aggressive. But don't fall into that false sense of security. It's kind of the story behind the story. So, what's the story behind these rate cuts? Well, these rate cuts are creating opportunities, but you need a strategy. The race that is out there is to be seen by the best acquirers. And what you want to do is start to frame your thinking now on how to prepare your business to at some point in time over the next six 9 12 18 months to prepare your business to make it attractive to acquirers.
This is the moment to ensure that you're at the top and I've I say this often that you're at the top of the acquirers list. Well, how are you going to understand the best way to prepare and get to the top of the list? I'm gonna shout out right now. Come visit us at booth 202. Our team of experts will all be there and can talk to you about positioning your business for growth and for a subsequent or eventual sale or partnership with a larger company.
So, come talk to us. We'd love to see you there. Now going to a different topic now. Another thing that I believe will be talked about a lot at private practice section conference is that we are still having payer and staffing challenges and they're real and they're continuing to grow. Decrease in reimbursement coupled with difficulty hiring staff at reasonable salaries. Those two things collide and they caused diminished and decreased profitability. So these challenges really cause you then and your strategic decisions to be even more critical.
And so going to this conference can be a good time to talk to others. Come talk to us about how you can navigate and position for success with the payer and the staffing challenges that we're seeing. You know, PPS 2024, 23, 22, 21, I really believe that it's a pivotal event in the year of the physical therapy business. You know, your business strategy for 2025, it begins now. So think of the PPS conference like the New Year's Eve of the rehabilitation industry. It really it almost it starts the new year.
So don't wait till after the conference to prepare, but begin preparing now. You know, we will want to learn at the conference how we can get an uptick in our operational efficiencies and how we can continue to develop our leaders. So, attend and take advantage of all the opportunities that the private practice section conference will bring you and that'll give you a head start on your full 2025 plan. You know, I call this next slide and this next section kind of networking with a purpose. You don't want to just go to the conference and decide at the conference who you may want to talk to and just happen stance see this person or talk to that person.
Strategic networking for you is key. Think about what are the biggest challenges that your business, your practice faces right now and who are some of the folks that at this conference will help you solve those problems. So don't just meet with people get drinks with people, have fun with people. Try to connect with a purpose to gain insights and solutions. And you're going to find that there's going to be things that you know that you'll be able to share with others. And then that's the magic of the private practice section conference, the sharing of information and strategies.
And what's make it is what makes our industry absolutely the best industry in all of health care barring none because of those connections that we make. You know, my final thoughts for today is that I'm going to be doing another episode of the Martin Rehab M&A Advisory, and that's going to be just probably about five days before the conference. And what I'm going to be doing in that episode is recommending key sessions that you should not miss based on the things that we're seeing right now, the rate cuts, staffing challenges, payer challenges, etc.
I'm going to give you my top five picks on sessions you should not miss. And also make sure stop by booth 202 to discuss your strategy with us. We look forward to seeing you at the private practice section conference. So thank you for another episode of the Martin Rehab M&A advisory. If you'd like to have a conversation with me, click below and let's talk. Thank you and have a great day.
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