The Primary Care PT Podcast

Season 5 continues with Dr. Morgan Denny, PT, DPT, of the Institute of Clinical Excellence. Dr. Katie O'Bright sits down with Morgan to trace a path that runs from physical therapy work in Haiti to primary care PT back home. We get into what a primary care approach looks like in practice: medically screening patients, monitoring vital signs, and doing a thorough head to toe assessment as a physical therapist. Morgan shares how that experience shaped the way she sees patients and practices today. It is a conversation about treating the whole person, knowing when to refer, and bringing a broader lens to primary care PT close to home.

Season 5 continues with a look at where physical therapy fits into value based care. Dr. Katie O'Bright sits down with Dr. Jonathan Smith, DPT, whose team at Southeast Health in Alabama built a working relationship with the health system's accountable care organization, or ACO. More than half of all Medicare beneficiaries are assigned to an ACO for their primary care, often without knowing it. We get into what that actually means, how value based care shifts the incentives away from more imaging and more referrals and toward accountability for the care being delivered, and where PTs can step in. Jonathan also shares how he built trust with primary care physicians by leading with curiosity and conversation, and why understanding the pressures they face is the first step to a real partnership. He and Katie get into the importance of provider communication and closing the loop, so referring physicians stay informed and confident in the care their patients are getting. Referenced in this episode: Bodenheimer and colleagues, Integrating Physical Therapists Into Primary Care Within a Large Health Care System (2021): https://www.jabfm.org/content/integrating-physical-therapists-primary-care Dr. Smith was also a speaker in our PCPT Business Leader Start-Up workshop, available online now: https://learn.redefinehealthed.com/courses/PCPTstartup

Season 5 kicks off with a special cross post episode from the AAOMPT Podcast. Dr. Katie O'Bright sits down with Dr. Antigone Vesci, PT, DPT, SCS, FAAOMPT, founder of Elavate PT and a leader on the AAOMPT research committee, to talk about the expanding role of physical therapists in primary care. Katie and Antigone dig into what primary care PT actually means, including the newly published primary care PT consensus definition that Katie served as lead author on. They get into how PTs act as primary care providers in their own right, why first contact doesn't mean replacing the physician, and how warm handoffs and being part of the initial visit dramatically raise patient engagement. They also make the case for building risk reduction into the PT evaluation. In this episode: what primary care PT means and the new consensus definition, PTs as primary care providers, improving access through warm handoffs and first contact, building risk reduction into the eval, and the latest AAOMPT primary care research. Connect with Dr. Antigone Vesci and ElaVate PT: https://www.elavatept.com/our-team. Listen now (link in bio). Connect with Dr. Katie O'Bright: @katieobright on LinkedIn @redefinehealthed on Instagram Consensus Definition Citation: Katie O’Bright, Alyson M Cavanaugh, Ashley Cassel, Jennifer C Turner, David Macchia, Evan E Kelley, Layne Compton, Riley J Luetkenhaus, Steven Wentz, Micah A K M Wong, Primary care physical therapy: 2025 consensus definition, Physical Therapy, Volume 106, Issue 6, June 2026, pzag035, https://doi.org/10.1093/ptj/pzag035

In the Season 4 finale, Dr. Katie O'Bright sits down with orthopedic surgeon Dr. Christian Pean, better known as "The Techy Surgeon," for a wide ranging conversation about where technology, Medicare policy, and musculoskeletal care are all heading. Katie and Christian dig into CMS's newly released ACCESS program, why the fee for service model in physical therapy is no longer sustainable, and how 2026 is shaping up to be a pivotal moment for value based MSK care. They also get into the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSP), the awareness gap among frontline clinicians, and what a collaborative, team based model could mean for PTs who have never fit the traditional business model, including Katie's own move to cash based care. In this episode: what CMS's ACCESS program is and why it matters, why fee for service is no longer sustainable for PT, value based payments and the 2026 inflection point, the Medicare Shared Savings Program and clinician awareness gaps, collaborative and team based longitudinal care, and finding opportunity in a changing model. Connect with Dr. Christian Pean, The Techy Surgeon, on LinkedIn and Substack. Stay awesome, and go check out the ACCESS program.

In this episode, I got to chat with Missy Criss and Mike Puthoff, 2 PT researchers leading the charge in the recognition of functional decline in older adults, an incredibly costly (and deadly) theme in our aging population. Missy and Mike, along with their colleagues, led the Annual Mobility Assessment Task Force under APTA Geriatrics. This assessment, meant to be performed in 20-30 mins, attempts to detect early changes in mobility that could then lead to interventions to prevent further decline. For anyone interested in the concept of a PT annual visit, this is a MUST LISTEN. Link to the mobility assessment and repository: https://aptageriatrics.org/annual-mobility-assessment Descriptive Study of the AMA https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2950307826000172 PTJ Perspective Paper on the AMA: https://academic.oup.com/ptj/article-abstract/106/2/pzag002/8417198?redirectedFrom=fulltext