EP175: "It's Too Expensive"

[00:00:00] Have you ever heard a patient or an athlete say that physical therapy or your service is expensive and they don't want to come back, but all you want to do is help this person? I'm going to help you solve that in this episode.

[00:00:16] Are you a motivated healthcare or fitness professional? Are you looking to work with more athletes, become a sports specialist, or even get a job in a sports setting so you can finally enjoy the career that you've always dreamed of? If so, you're in the right place.

[00:00:28] My name is Chris Garcia, physical therapist, business owner, entrepreneur, and residency training sports specialist. I've been fortunate to work in professional sports and travel around the world working with elite athletes throughout my career, and I've learned a lot of lessons along the way.

[00:00:41] I created this podcast to share my experiences and give you everything you need to know to help you become a sports expert. Welcome to the Sports BT Academy.

[00:00:53] Hi, everyone. Welcome back to the podcast. Welcome all new listeners and welcome back to those who have heard my

[00:00:58] content in the past. Before I go to the podcast, what is new, what is bigger, what is better in life? My son has allowed me to give him kisses again going to class and going to school. For those of you who were on my last podcast, I described I was heartbroken.

[00:01:15] My eight-year-old son, Zach, told me he no longer wanted to give me a kiss in front of his friends because he thought it was embarrassing. All right, so here's the next one. You know what he's bringing me today?

[00:01:24] He is bringing me that he wants a pair of Nike shoes. Man. All right, just so you know, my wife and I are not name brands. We've actually never bought them any form of name brand shoes before.

[00:01:36] It's probably been like Amazon or Target or some type of thrift store company name brand. And so we get them the bare bones minimum enough to be able to go to school and come back because they outgrow them.

[00:01:47] They treat them like trash. And the other day he says, Hey dad, I want a pair of Nike. And I said, wait a minute, what just happened here? He said, well, they played in Fortnite.

[00:01:58] In Fortnite, they're his favorite video game. The guy on the controller has Nikes and you have Nikes and all my friends have Nikes. So I think it'd be great.

[00:02:08] And so now here we go with like self image and really trying to boost his confidence and you know, explain how this really doesn't impact, you know, who he is and how confident he should be.

[00:02:17] Anyways, so I'm trying to navigate that right now. We're willing and dealing trying to figure out if we're going to buy him a pair and what he needs to deserve that.

[00:02:25] But here's the fun fact. I did tell him he wants a heated blanket. Out of all things, my eight year old wants a heated blanket for Christmas.

[00:02:30] So I said, okay, I'll tell you what, I'll trade you a heated blanket, which can cost me about $50 for your Nikes.

[00:02:37] So I'll get you the blanket, but no Nikes. I said, which one do you want? He's actually, I want the blanket because it'll last me longer.

[00:02:42] I can use it for years and not just a one year. I was like, now we're talking. So I'm willing and dealing there.

[00:02:50] My son Jacob is as spicy as you can be, but he just joined his first soccer league in like a little bit more competitive soccer.

[00:02:56] And he has been resisting it, but he's actually pretty good. So I'm excited to see him.

[00:03:01] And then my daughter is doing fantastic. She is all in with gymnastics. That is like life at the moment.

[00:03:06] She just got upgraded to the next class. So she's like two and a half hours of practice two times a week.

[00:03:11] So I'm just enjoying that process being a dad. My wife is doing amazing. Just behind the scenes.

[00:03:16] She's like loving life. She's for those who don't know, I'm an anti Christmas or holiday thing.

[00:03:21] So I'm Scrooge at the moment. I'm like Baham bug everything, right? Like I don't like the colors. I don't like the lights.

[00:03:26] Presence. I don't, that's just something. It's just how I grew up. Anyways. So on to this podcast,

[00:03:30] what are we talking about? It's expensive. So, um, I'm finishing up my, uh, cash PT clinical

[00:03:35] elevation course. And I've heard this from physical therapists that I'm mentoring. Um, you know,

[00:03:40] what Chris, what do you say to athletes who know that, you know, they, they want to work with you.

[00:03:45] Um, but they say it's expensive. How do you do that? Right. Um, and you yourself might say like,

[00:03:50] gosh, if I needed physical therapy, I'm not sure if I would do it. Um, especially at whatever

[00:03:54] you're charging or whatever the rate is in your current clinic, $300 or 350, whatever that number

[00:03:59] is. And so, um, people will say, well, it's expensive. So, you know, let, let's tackle this.

[00:04:04] I genuinely, it's a big concern for a lot of sports PTs, cash PTs, um, and everyone kind of in between.

[00:04:10] The reality is that you want to provide a service to this patient. You're like, I genuinely know I'm

[00:04:15] the best person for you. You're a soccer athlete. I'm a soccer specialist, or you're an overhead

[00:04:20] athlete. I'm the overhead guy or girl. Um, I know I can change your outcomes and I'm the one to do it.

[00:04:25] And, um, you naturally are like, well, like, you know, there's, there's several barriers and things

[00:04:29] you're going to provide, but, um, I'm going to help you find an easy solution on how to help somebody

[00:04:35] without, you know, backfiring and talking about numbers and super bills and all these other things.

[00:04:40] Let me, let me help you figure this out. So, um, it's expensive is the, is the topic. So

[00:04:45] you have an athlete, um, who is coming to see you and they're concerned, they say expensive.

[00:04:49] Now let me ask you this. Um, if you were, if I said, Hey, you know what is a thousand dollars

[00:04:54] expensive? Um, you might be like, well, yeah, I mean thousand dollars, pretty good chunk of money.

[00:04:58] Well, is a thousand dollars expensive to purchase your first home? You'd be like, no, a thousand

[00:05:03] dollars is not bad. Uh, what about a thousand dollars for a brand new BMW? That's a pretty good deal.

[00:05:09] I'll take that. So my point here is that it's not the monetary value that's expensive or a lot of

[00:05:15] money. It's what I'm exchanging it for, right? So if you say a thousand dollars for an iMac or a

[00:05:21] MacBook, it'd be like, that's pretty fair price. A thousand dollars for a home or a car is pretty

[00:05:27] cheap. So it's not a thousand dollars. It's the fact of, well, what am I getting for that thousand

[00:05:32] dollars? And that's what we call value. And so, you know, is a hundred dollars expensive for

[00:05:37] physical therapy or is $400 expensive for physical therapy? What about 250? What about 310? What

[00:05:44] about 137? Right. There's, there's not a numerical value that it becomes more clear. It becomes more

[00:05:51] questionable for some people because they're questioning, well, what am I paying for? Because

[00:05:54] I'm used to paying $20 for my copay. Like why, why is this so much better? And it's the value you're

[00:06:00] going to bring. And so I'm going to help you understand that, um, you know, uh, patients,

[00:06:06] athletes are always looking for a service. It could be an insurance-based athlete who, uh, finished,

[00:06:12] you know, their, their deductible, but they also finished their sessions and now they want to go

[00:06:16] cash pay. And so they're used to paying $40 a session. And now your session rate is 250,

[00:06:21] whatever that math is. So you're stuck with, okay, well, I want to help this person, but now,

[00:06:27] um, now they're out of visits and now they're paying 250. So now here's what you do because

[00:06:31] you perceive it to be expensive. You're like, man, I'm going to maximize this one session,

[00:06:36] $250. I'm going to maximize. I'm going to bring them a home program. I'm going to give them a

[00:06:40] strength and conditioning program. I'm going to do an hour and a half because I'm going to create

[00:06:43] the most value here. And so a lot of times physical therapists will, um, inundate that athlete

[00:06:48] with like overwhelming exercise, overwhelming information, put them through a hard workout,

[00:06:52] make them more sore. And they're like, just during the shock factor, they're just like,

[00:06:55] they have, they're overstimulated. And so you, you get to this point where

[00:07:00] it's only that you as a physical therapist, because you're administering the care,

[00:07:04] you think that it's expensive. You internally have this problem and it's because you provide

[00:07:10] physical therapy and it's so easy for you. You're the clinician. And so because of that,

[00:07:13] you're like, it's not that I don't want to, I don't think they should pay that because

[00:07:17] I can help them quickly and I can do it fast. And my time, I know I can get it cheaper.

[00:07:23] And the reality is, is that, um, you're not the customer. You're not the person who needs it. So

[00:07:28] say for instance, you had a toothache and you're like, Oh, I can't even buy. I'm life is miserable.

[00:07:34] And you're like, gosh, let me just find a dentist. And you're like, you've had it for six hours,

[00:07:39] whatever it is. And you're like, I just need to get rid of this pain. Um, what do I need to do?

[00:07:43] So you find the local dentist and maybe they're out of network or, um, you haven't hit your

[00:07:47] deductible and their fee to get this thing done is $800. And you're like, Oh, $800. I just want

[00:07:53] to get rid of it. Fine. I'll hit my deductible. I'll hit my closer. And they do that. Well,

[00:07:57] the dentist can easily say, gosh, $800 a lot. You know, maybe I, maybe I can just do it like

[00:08:02] pro bono or maybe I can do it real fast or after hours, whatever it is. The reality is the person who

[00:08:07] is administering the service doesn't value the service because it's not the thing that they want

[00:08:17] you don't see it. You're not the customer. You don't see the value that you bring. And so the,

[00:08:21] the dentist who's doing this is like, I can do this in my sleep. I mean, just get in my chair

[00:08:26] and I'll just do it real quick. It's because they do it every day. But you as a customer would be

[00:08:29] like, I need this done. I'm willing to pay a thousand dollars or your brakes are going bad.

[00:08:34] Your car is going bad. And that mechanic will be like, listen, I'll give you for cheap.

[00:08:38] But the reality is the customer is willing to pay for the value. Can you fix my brakes?

[00:08:43] Cause I don't feel safe. I have kids in my car and you got to get it done. They're like,

[00:08:46] it's a thousand dollars. And you're like, gosh, that's all I have in savings. That's what I have.

[00:08:51] Like, okay, fine. I'll give you a little bit cheaper. But in reality, you're willing to pay

[00:08:55] for something that gives you a lot of value. And so when you see that the consumer, the patient

[00:08:59] is coming in because they want to change, they want change and they can't do it on their own.

[00:09:04] So now you provide a value. They want something. You don't know how to deliver or you know how to

[00:09:09] deliver it to them. But the problem is they're willing to pay whatever they need to. And you're like,

[00:09:13] well, I'll make it for free. So the problem is not that the patient doesn't see the value. It's a lot

[00:09:17] of times the physical therapist doesn't see the value. Now let's flip this. Let's say the physical

[00:09:21] therapist says, you know what? I'm $300 an hour. And that's what you have to pay the patient now saying,

[00:09:27] wait, what do I get for 300? Because I can go down the road at $40 for my copay. Or there's another

[00:09:32] physical therapist who does what you're doing at 150. So what is that thing you do? Because I mean,

[00:09:37] why can't I just do, you know, these four exercises or whatever it is? I mean, the exercise is an

[00:09:42] exercise. What do I get? So that's the problem, right? Then you go tit for tat. You're like,

[00:09:47] well, I'm McKenzie certified. I'm manual therapy certified. You're saying that certification is

[00:09:52] going to hopefully translate into outcomes. The question is, what outcome are you talking about?

[00:09:56] The patient's like, I'm in pain. Let me fix it. And you're like, okay, let me fix it with these

[00:10:00] exercises. They're like, well, those exercises charged, they only cost me a hundred bucks over here.

[00:10:03] I don't understand. You're approaching this from a wrong direction. You have to figure out,

[00:10:09] you know, the value you help and the value you provide is health. You know, the value you provide

[00:10:15] is not an exercise. It's not a knee taping. It's not manual therapy. It's not a stretching has nothing

[00:10:20] to do with those things. The thing that you provide is you improve somebody's health to be able to get

[00:10:25] back to the health concern that they wanted to in the past. So let's take this person who has back pain

[00:10:31] and they were at the gym and they flared up with a deadlift. Well, the question is,

[00:10:37] how often do they go to the gym? And why did they go to the gym in general? Well, you find out that

[00:10:41] this person was trying to lose weight. They were trying to lose, you know, 15 pounds because they

[00:10:46] went to the doctor at the age of 50 and they found out they have high blood pressure, high cholesterol.

[00:10:50] And that doctor said, listen, if you want to increase your longevity, one of the best things you can

[00:10:54] do is start to exercise. So that you get that person to start exercising and that person decides

[00:11:01] that they want to change your life and they want to be able to go to the gym, live longer for their

[00:11:05] kids or their grandkids and be more fulfilled in life. Well, they start going to the gym and they

[00:11:10] didn't know what they're doing and they were doing a deadlift to start some exercise and they flare up

[00:11:15] their back. Now, you as a superficial insurance-based like old school physical therapist is to say,

[00:11:21] well, you know what? I'll fix your back. I'm McKenzie certified and you have to go forward or

[00:11:26] backward or whatever it is nowadays. The reality is, is that you can fix the back pain, but what's

[00:11:31] the real route? They don't know how to get in the gym and have a normal routine. They probably don't

[00:11:35] even know what a proper diet is. So you're going to fix this superficial problem that fixes their back

[00:11:41] pain, but they still have this problem of, I don't know how to go back to the gym safely. I don't

[00:11:45] know what to do. So therefore I'm going to try it on my own. I'm going to try Google. I'm going to try

[00:11:49] YouTube. I'm going to hire a physical therapist or a personal trainer who doesn't know, uh, you know,

[00:11:54] good mechanics. And this patient doesn't get what they want. They end up having worse cholesterol,

[00:12:00] worse blood pressure, and no one can help to solve their problem. When you as a physical therapist,

[00:12:04] you can help with all of it. Instead of saying superficially, let me get rid of your back pain.

[00:12:09] It's why'd you get into the gym in the first place? You were inactive before. What made you do this

[00:12:13] and get the deadlift in the first place? You're trying to figure out, okay, great. Oh, I see you're

[00:12:17] trying to improve your health. Like, did you know I can help with that? I can work on some basic

[00:12:21] mechanics and I can see your, your progressions and personal training. I can really just solve that

[00:12:26] for you. I can kind of take a look at it. Um, we would have to do some monthly check-ins or twice a

[00:12:31] week or once a week, whatever it is, and we can get you onto that. But you have to understand that's

[00:12:36] the value you bring to somebody. The value you bring is helping them gain their health back. Now,

[00:12:41] this is one example. It could be a wedding. It could be something that they're preparing for. It can be

[00:12:45] the race. It could be the bucket list item they've always wanted to do. They wanted to do Mount

[00:12:48] Kilimanjaro and they wanted to hike that thing and they're having knee pain. Well, the superficial

[00:12:53] old school insurance-based way of you doing this is let me just fix your knee pain. But the problem

[00:12:57] is you're so happy getting, you know, somebody out to discharge. The reality is you just got them

[00:13:01] back to baseline. They still can't hike. They still can't enjoy that wedding. They still can't go to the

[00:13:06] gym and improve their health. And so you're just doing a partial job. You're doing only a band-aid job.

[00:13:12] And so the reality is you have to understand what the value you produce is. What's the value you bring

[00:13:17] to somebody is you can prove their health beyond just the superficial insurance-based style. So now

[00:13:22] you're realizing, okay, great. Well, the value I bring is I can get them to their health. What are

[00:13:26] people willing to pay for the health? What would you pay to lower your cholesterol without meds?

[00:13:33] Well, the problem is you can't think that way because you're very active. You're very

[00:13:37] knowledgeable in health and you would say, well, I'll just figure it out. That's you.

[00:13:42] What about a consumer who's an attorney who has no idea and no time to look at their health and

[00:13:47] they're willing to pay people to do it. But no, you're like, oh, no, I can facilitate independence

[00:13:52] because you can figure this out. Even though that you as a physical therapist went to school for 10

[00:13:56] years, you're going to assume that somebody just because they're educated means they have the time,

[00:14:00] the motivation, and to desire to learn about fitness. And now they're like, forget that.

[00:14:04] Can someone just do this for me? Why don't you learn how to change your own tires? Why don't

[00:14:08] you learn to change your own brakes in your car? Why? You can do that. It would take hours and maybe

[00:14:13] years of your life to try and figure out and do it safely and not ruin your own car. That's what

[00:14:18] people perceive. You might say, well, why can't you just stretch and do all these things? I'm too busy

[00:14:22] and I don't give a crap about it. Someone just stretch me. Someone just tell me what to do.

[00:14:27] There's people in this world, just because you are motivated, you're probably in your 25 to 45 year old age

[00:14:34] range and you're super motivated. Why? Because you're not, you don't have that much stress in

[00:14:38] your life. You probably don't have kids. You don't have grandkids. You don't have five different jobs.

[00:14:41] You don't have two different mortgage. You don't have a dog. You don't have all these things

[00:14:45] compounding that's so busy in their life that they just need a simple answer. And that's what most people

[00:14:50] are struggling with. They have a hard life. They have a lot of things. They're probably 40 or 50 years

[00:14:56] old, 60 years old, still having a lot of responsibilities. They just need somebody to just dissect

[00:15:00] all the chaos and tell me what to do, please. That's all they're looking for. But you think

[00:15:05] you're trying to, you're doing the insurance based model of, well, I just have to facilitate

[00:15:09] all independence for you. So I'm going to give you the 27 exercises. I'm going to give you everything

[00:15:14] possible so you don't have to pay as much. What about the person who's willing to and wants to?

[00:15:20] That person is not about expensive. It's about what are you going to do for me? That starts with you

[00:15:25] understanding what you do for people. Then it comes down to, you have to know what your worth is.

[00:15:30] The irony of this is whether you're employed or not, you might think I'm employed. Well, I'm worth

[00:15:37] 125,000 a year. That's what I'm worth. The reality is you won't want to deliver on a patient who has

[00:15:44] to charge 300, but you do want to take 125,000. You'll willing to take the money, but you won't

[00:15:51] deliver on that. And the reality is that you have to understand what people pay for is you,

[00:15:57] your energy and what you do for people. So if you don't understand that, that patient definitely

[00:16:03] doesn't understand that. So the problem why people think it's expensive is because you can't educate

[00:16:08] them on what you're going to do for people. That's your fault. The consumer doesn't know.

[00:16:13] Think about this. You have a thousand dollar iPhone in your hand. You would never think that

[00:16:17] you'd pay a thousand dollars, but why did you pay for it? Well, because of the value it brings and how

[00:16:21] were you educated on that through numerous commercials, through numerous educational things

[00:16:26] on YouTube, friends, family, you were just inundated and you're like, fine, I'll do it.

[00:16:30] The problem is when you deliver a service, that person hasn't had all that information. They weren't

[00:16:35] bombarded with Instagram and YouTube and everything else. So now you're proving that the best way to do

[00:16:40] that is understand the consumer and what is their problem and how you can help them maximize their

[00:16:46] health. Now you're going to have a lot of people who, a lot of athletes who say, you know what,

[00:16:50] um, you know, I can't do that right now. And I will tell you, there's a lot of people who,

[00:16:54] um, the best candidate who is going to think it's expensive, um, who is going to have an easier time

[00:17:00] digesting all this as three criteria. Number one. Uh, so the person who says it's expensive can,

[00:17:07] but can understand that this can provide them value. It has these three criteria. Number one,

[00:17:13] the amount of time that they've had this pain. So if they've only had an ankle sprain on Sunday and

[00:17:18] it's now Monday and they've never been hurt before, this person is probably not going to

[00:17:22] evaluate as much because the chronicity of a, of a problem determines whether they're going to see

[00:17:28] value in something. So the bigger the problem, the bigger the solution. For example, if they have a

[00:17:35] sciatic symptom that is not getting better and they want to get better and it's been six years,

[00:17:41] no one's been able to find it. They're more likely to invest in you because if you can prove

[00:17:46] to them how you can help them, they have a big problem, you have a big solution. Now,

[00:17:51] if it's a small problem, small ankle sprain doesn't really impact their life. They can walk

[00:17:55] and do those things. That person's probably going to think it's expensive because there's not a

[00:17:58] problem big enough. Somebody who's looking for a home and they have a thousand dollars,

[00:18:05] that's their life savings. They're willing to do it if they were looking for a home. Somebody who's not

[00:18:09] looking, not really, not really interested. So it's not a big enough of a problem to have that solution.

[00:18:13] So somebody with high chronicity, oh, they're willing to listen. So that's number one, time of

[00:18:19] injury. So total chronicity. The second part of this is, um, the person with urgency. So for instance,

[00:18:27] uh, the NBA playoff is in five days and my back is hurting. It's crunch time and this person needs a lot of

[00:18:36] help. They're willing to pay a lot of money to get the problem solved. Somebody who's like,

[00:18:40] I just want to lose weight, but I really don't have an idea. I was thinking about going exercise.

[00:18:44] I was thinking about it. They haven't moved forward with it. There's no urgency. So of course you're

[00:18:49] going to be expensive because there's not a problem. There's not a problem enough, big enough that you

[00:18:53] can solve. So number one is the time. Number two is urgency. And number three is what have they

[00:18:59] tried in the past. If they've tried a lot of things in the past and you offer something different,

[00:19:05] you're the fourth physical therapist. Uh, they've tried, uh, two massage therapists,

[00:19:11] two chiropractors, two MDs, two nutritionists, two acupuncturists, and they're looking for a solution.

[00:19:16] That person is more willing to see that it's not expensive because they can value this.

[00:19:20] So the person who's had a long chronic injury, the person who's had a lot of different providers,

[00:19:26] and the person who has high urgency is willing to listen to you and say, you know what? Um,

[00:19:32] tell me what I get differently. Everyone in between that is a case by case basis. So there's a couple

[00:19:38] different things. Number one, you're the problem because you see it expensive because you're not

[00:19:43] the customer. You have to see it from the customer side. And just because you can do it fast,

[00:19:48] doesn't mean that it's cheap. One of the best things I learned from my own personal attorney is,

[00:19:56] um, you value your time. You've put a lot of, uh, time, money and energy and effort to get your

[00:20:02] degree. The problem is you don't want to charge for it. You want to be paid for it, but you don't

[00:20:06] want to charge for it. Well, I deserve 125,000, but the reality is you wouldn't want to charge the

[00:20:12] person accordingly to gain that money. And you're like, Whoa, I, I don't want to charge anybody

[00:20:18] because it's expensive. The problem is you're the problem. You don't want to offer your services

[00:20:25] at the rate that you feel you should earn. So because of that, you think it's expensive.

[00:20:31] The patient is just saying it's expensive because that's all they know how to say.

[00:20:35] They, what are the girls going to say? Well, that sounds affordable. No affordable means I know

[00:20:40] what I'm getting in exchange for this. So the question is, what is the value you bring? Well,

[00:20:44] I understand you've had back pain for six years. You've tried two other chiropractors,

[00:20:49] four other physical therapists, two massage therapists, and you're looking to get rid of this as fast

[00:20:53] as possible. Now, while I can't get rid of it in two months, what I can do is give you the best foot

[00:20:59] forward to tell you, I'm not going to do what other people did. I'll take a plan to establish

[00:21:04] this within the next three to six months and make sure that you're improving at the rate that you need

[00:21:10] to. And that should be about five to 10% every single week by the three month mark,

[00:21:14] you should at least see 50% improvement. And that is my promise to you. Now you have to be willing to

[00:21:20] commit to that. Now, if they say, if you can genuinely feel that way and feel comfortable

[00:21:24] and honest and saying, listen, I can get you at least to sitting with 50% less sciatic symptoms,

[00:21:29] I can get you back in the gym and I can help you lose the weight that you want and improve your

[00:21:33] health overall. The thing that you haven't been able to do the five years. Now there's value

[00:21:36] because you're saying I can improve your health that no one else has been willing to do.

[00:21:40] Everyone's been doing the superficial insurance-based projects of, well, let me just increase your

[00:21:44] back or decrease your back pain. Let me get your multifaried. Let me get your,

[00:21:47] you know, hips mobilized. Let me get your, I don't know, Easton and ultrasound and McKenzie

[00:21:51] and load your barbell and increase your mechanics. That's all superficial. What is the thing that

[00:21:56] they're limiting them in life? And once you figure that out, you're in a better position. And so

[00:22:01] expensive starts with a physical therapist. If you want to get paid, charge appropriately.

[00:22:07] If you want to get paid, you got to charge appropriately. That's step number one. Number two,

[00:22:12] see it from the patient's eye. They value it and they're willing to do it. So it's your job to

[00:22:18] understand what value you bring to them via health. So it's your fault that you think it's expensive.

[00:22:24] Number two, you, you need to be able to explain the value that you, you provide to your patients.

[00:22:30] And then understanding that there's three key factors that will help, uh, help that patient

[00:22:36] understand how much value you bring to them. Time of chronicity, urgency, and everything they've

[00:22:43] tried in the past. If they don't have those things, there's no urgency. There's not a lot of time and

[00:22:47] they haven't tried other things. Why would they pay for a lot? Let them go to an insurance-based

[00:22:51] setting. Let them go to the mills, let them get burnt out. Why? Because what they're going to do

[00:22:56] is go to those mills and you might work in one where you're now forced to see four to six people

[00:23:00] because insurance rates are dropping, uh, and you're knowing this and you're, you're feeling this. Uh,

[00:23:04] so even though you want to improve quality care, quality care, you can't do anything about it

[00:23:08] because your time's stuck. Now you're treating every 15 minutes. So they're going to go to that

[00:23:12] person. Uh, they don't have enough time. Uh, and so now they're going to be a number, right? That was,

[00:23:16] I tried that physical therapist. I tried that. So they have to go through that in order to value

[00:23:20] something. They'd rather pay $20 an hour for 24 visits and then now go to a different clinic and try

[00:23:26] that. And now you logically, what you want to explain is, well, uh, if you go there, you're going to

[00:23:30] save, you're going to waste $280 or if you can come with me for three visits, it's going to be,

[00:23:34] uh, the same. And you're now you're doing it in less time. And people don't think like that.

[00:23:39] You think like that you're an analytical OCD type of a person. And only you think about that. The

[00:23:44] consumer doesn't think like that. They're not logical when it comes to this, when they're in pain,

[00:23:49] when you're like, Oh my gosh, my toothache, the dentist is naturally in their head. You know what

[00:23:53] they're thinking like, Oh my gosh, I, I, I get paid $300 an hour for this and it's going to take me

[00:23:58] 30 minutes. So it's really an hour, hour, $150 job. They don't, the, the, the dentist thinks like that.

[00:24:02] Maybe they're employed by their dentist. They think, Oh, it's $150. Sure. Let's just charge

[00:24:06] them 200, but, uh, this physical therapist, you know, this dentist want to charge them 900.

[00:24:11] The reality is the customer doesn't think, wow, it's going to take the dentist 15 minutes.

[00:24:15] So therefore I should pay less. No, it's only because insurance raised you that way that you're,

[00:24:20] Oh, every 15 minutes you get paid or billed. No, that's your problem. The problem is you should

[00:24:25] be charging per the solution. What is the solution you need? And that's what you need to be able to do.

[00:24:29] My attorney showed me this years ago. I've had numerous cases with my attorney and, and, and we,

[00:24:35] you know, we manage, uh, to gain or to, to resolve issues when it was, what's the solution you want?

[00:24:43] I want this off my back. Okay, great. If that's what you want, this is the rate. Oh, I see. I see.

[00:24:50] I see. It's not, I'm $200 per 10 minutes. It's here's what the solution is. And here's what the

[00:24:58] rate is. And when you can understand that it's not expensive. It's what's the value I bring for

[00:25:04] this is a thousand dollars expensive. No, not for a Ferrari, not for a BMW, not for a house,

[00:25:12] not for a boat is a thousand dollars expensive for physical therapy. What's the solution that

[00:25:18] you're providing is $200, uh, expensive for a pair of shoes. What do they do for me?

[00:25:25] That's the problem. What are you paying for? What are you getting for physical therapy? And don't

[00:25:29] say really pain relief because pain relief can be done by massage therapists. It can be done by

[00:25:32] an athletic trainer. It can be done by an MD. It can be done by meds. So if pain release was with that,

[00:25:38] why can't they just take five, 500 milligrams of ibuprofen? Why are you at $300 different than

[00:25:45] a $5 bottle of ibuprofen? Well, if you want pain relief, just do that. No, I want a long-term

[00:25:50] solution. Ah, that's what you're paying for a long-term solution. So get rid of that idea.

[00:25:55] If you're stuck, you're probably thinking, gosh, you're thinking old school. You've just been

[00:25:59] trained by insurance-based companies who've trained local PT schools to think that way. And then you're

[00:26:05] stuck in a mill that does that. And so you're just lost in this like ecosystem of like brain dead,

[00:26:10] like manufacturing of, oh, well, this is normal and this is the way it is. Well, it's expensive

[00:26:15] because you know, with $40 copay, the problem is you. And I think you got to overcome that. You got

[00:26:19] to realize that it took me years to get to this point. And I understand how frustrating and how

[00:26:24] challenging this can be. If you're new to this, welcome. If you've heard me before, you understand,

[00:26:28] I'm very passionate about this. You got to understand this. This is how you can help more patients.

[00:26:33] Genuinely, it comes from self-belief first, not educating them on, well, you can get a super bill.

[00:26:37] Now I'm cheaper than eight visits over here. You're trying to approach, they're coming in with

[00:26:42] emotion. You're trying to hit them with logic. That doesn't make sense. You match them with,

[00:26:47] listen, this is how I can help you. This is what the rate is. And once people do that,

[00:26:52] they're like, oh, that's a pretty good deal versus it's expensive. They only say it's expensive

[00:26:56] because they're used to the $40 copay they got in the insurance-like mill that you're no longer part

[00:27:02] of, or that you want to provide high level care with your cash pay patients or your athletes.

[00:27:06] It really doesn't matter. So if you ever feel that way, it's expensive, replay this episode for

[00:27:11] yourself so that way you can see that you're the problem and not the patient. So if you're stuck,

[00:27:16] you want to work with more athletes and you're trying to figure out, gosh, this is like what I'm

[00:27:19] trying to figure out. How do I get, how do I be able to work with more athletes even though I have

[00:27:24] this rate or I charge or my clinic charges this, whatever it is, sign up for my SportsPT Kickstarter.

[00:27:29] It's an eight-week online mentorship course that runs you through every aspect of this,

[00:27:33] everything from acute energy management to sports rehab, to strength conditioning,

[00:27:36] to wellness programs, to seeing cash pay patients, to be in a cash pay setting,

[00:27:41] to be an out of network, to be in network and how to blend all of that. So if you're stuck and you

[00:27:45] want to work with more athletes and you're thinking, well, I know I'm missing something,

[00:27:49] sign up for the course. It's at drchrisgarcia.com forward slash Kickstarter.

[00:27:54] If I don't see you in the course, I will see you on the next episode. Take care.

[00:27:57] Thanks for tuning in to the SportsPT Academy podcast. It means the absolute world to me.

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[00:28:15] professionals and fitness professionals just like you with great information to become sports experts.

[00:28:21] If you have any questions, reach out to my team at drchris at drchrisgarcia.com

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