APTA Nebraska Podcast
The APTA Nebraska Podcast dives into the stories, challenges, and innovations shaping physical therapy in our state. We’re here to advance, promote, and protect the practice of physical therapy, build our community, and optimize the health and quality of life for all Nebraskans.
APTA Nebraska Podcast
E5 - Member Spotlight with Mike Stodden
Mike Stodden and Wendy Bloomhuff of Rock Valley Physical Therapy share their journeys in private practice and innovative solutions for overcoming administrative barriers to provide exceptional patient care. The conversation reveals how passion for patient relationships drives practice decisions, while exploring the challenges of insurance requirements, administrative burdens, and practice management.
• Mike Stodden merged his successful private practice with Rock Valley PT after 17 years to maintain his patient-centered culture
• Wendy Bloomhuff leads Slate, a service helping private practices manage billing and administrative tasks to focus on patient care
• Insurance pre-certifications and administrative burdens create significant challenges for therapists wanting to focus on treatment
• Direct access has changed how physical therapists interact with both patients and referral sources
• The "art of therapy" comes from experience in knowing where to start with patients and how to progress their care
• Rural clinics face unique challenges in maintaining staffing and administrative support
• Building professional relationships through APTA Nebraska provides support, solutions, and community for therapists
• Physical therapists can help reduce healthcare costs by treating patients directly without unnecessary imaging or medications
Episode Links:
Rock Valley Physical Therapy
Slate
Net Health Therapy Source
Welcome to the APTA Nebraska podcast, where we dive into the stories, challenges and innovations shaping physical therapy in our state. We're here to advance, promote and protect the practice of physical therapy, optimizing the health and quality of life for all Nebraskans. Join us as we connect with experts, share insights and build communities throughout our profession. Connect with experts, share insights and build communities throughout our profession. All right, welcome back to the APTA Nebraska podcast. I'm Brad Dexter, your host, and today I have a little member spotlight that we're going to do for this conversation. So I'm joined by Mike Stodden of Rock Valley PT and Wendy Blumhoff of Rock Valley PT. Guys, thanks for joining me. Thanks, brian, thanks. So both of them are with Rock Valley PT. Both of them are physical therapists by trade, but I've asked them to just tell us a little bit about themselves and we'll carry on a little bit of a conversation going from there. So, Mike, I might start with you and just ask you to share with the audience a little bit about yourself.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm a, I am a physical therapist and I started my own practice in 2004. And then I was telling a patient the other day I've almost been a therapist for 30 years so long time and so I'm operating, mostly treating, out of the Elkhorn Clinic and I started my own practice it was Stodden Physical Therapy and ran that for 17 years, built it to four clinics and then three years ago I merged with Rock Valley Physical Therapy, based out of the Quad Cities in Illinois and Iowa, not to be confused with Rock Valley up in Northwest Iowa that we hear all the time over here. So the and why did I choose Rock Valley? Well, they are a private company owned by therapists, led by therapists, and they wanted to treat the same way I did. They asked me Mike what, what do you want in this? And I said I want my patients taken care of the way I've always done it, I want my culture to stay the same and I want my employees taken care of. If we can make, this merger.
Speaker 2:And they said well, what about you? I said those things are first and that's always the way I've ran my practice are those as priorities? And they Rock Valley executive team said, well, that's perfect, because that's what we do. Also I said, okay, well, let's talk. So I was able to merge into Rock Valley and I'm a partner in Rock Valley and we're joined by Wendy Blumhop who is also a partner in Rock Valley, and so that's kind of what has happened.
Speaker 2:So it's, my clinics were in Elkhorn for the home base and then we added to Bennington and then Gretna and then Alliance out in the Panhandle, and so there was a little bit of a distance there. Also, it was challenging as an owner. It's challenging. There's a lot of different things that pull at you and you wear 19 hats, so it's probably that I wasn't great at any one of them. I tried to be as good as I can. But it's a matter of having a team but also having people around you, like the Nebraska Physical Therapy Association, that you can bounce things off of, because everybody goes through some of the same problems or issues. It's just different scales sometimes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, hey. So when you 30 years ago, or almost 30 years ago, when you had gotten out of school as a new physical therapist, how long did you practice before you started your own clinic, and what made you kind of take that jump when you did it?
Speaker 2:So I practiced in New York, nebraska, to start, and then opened a clinic in Fremont and that was three years went up to Ottawa, iowa, and then ran the physical therapy department at Burgess Health Center, ran that for six years and I've always wanted to start my own practice and good or bad, I wanted to make. I'm kind of a quick start guy and make fast decisions and I got tired of a bunch of a bunch of committees and and talking with a bunch of different people for years to try and get something and I had a chance to open up my own clinic. I was like, yeah, you know what this looks, great, I'm ready. I've been able to increase productivity everywhere I went and cure and procure my practice and so I was able to open up in 2004 in Elkhorn.
Speaker 1:Okay, awesome. And then maybe just to get into Mike's life a little bit more. Mike, what does family life look like for you? What do you enjoy doing from a recreational or hobby standpoint?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I love golf and I love sports. I love to see some of the kids in the clinic and in fact, that's kind of how I started. I would see the sports athletes first, which would grow to the parents, and then the grandparents and around the clinic. I have a bunch of pictures of high school students that went into college and play. I have jerseys. So those were some of the things that were really important to me. Those were some of the things that were really important to me.
Speaker 2:And the golfing is great because it's a challenge with every shot. I'm not that great but I love being outdoors and love the exercise, and my kids are out of the house and both in college, and so I'm watching them. My daughter runs track in college. My son got into the physician assistant program at UNMC and he loves to golf, so we're golfing together now before he starts his school. So that's and, uh, I guess, one other thing I'm I'm kind of a green thumb. My dad was a green thumb and he taught me how to plant, and so I just spent four or five hours this weekend planning all my planters and I can't wait to see what, how they bloom, and I hope they grow that's great.
Speaker 1:Do you have a favorite golf course?
Speaker 2:well, I'm a member at the Pines and Valley but I've been out to the Western area and the dismal golf courses. Those are challenging but I can get out. The thing about golf is you meet such great people. You talk about business, about life, about just getting to know somebody, and I've met some of the nicest people on the golf course when you just meet them for the first time.
Speaker 1:I love it. Thanks, mike, appreciate that. Wendy, would you mind telling us a little bit about yourself?
Speaker 3:Sure, my name is Wendy Blumhoff, so I have worked for Rock Valley for 18 years. As Mike mentioned, I am a partner as well. I actually started with Rock Valley pretty much had been with Rock Valley my entire career. So started as a student way back in the day for one of my clinical rotations and quickly came back to them when I had the opportunity just a year after graduation.
Speaker 3:So I have worked in several of our different regions, all on the Iowa side. So I and I'm highly involved with APTA Iowa on our side, so friend of Nebraska for sure, but primarily PT in Iowa. More recently I transitioned into a role for our new organization called Slate, and Slate is a service where we provide all RCM services as well as some other insurance verification, authorization services to privately owned practices to really help small private practice owners, like Mike was speaking about earlier, really deal with that administrative burden and really help private practices remain privately owned and privately led and help them just be able to focus on taking care of their communities and their patients, and let us take care of the rest.
Speaker 1:That's great. Thanks for joining us. Like you said, even though you're on the Iowa side, you're a friend of Nebraska and you've certainly been engaged with some of the APTA Iowa things across the river. So thanks for joining us. Just think about the fact that over the course of our careers, there's often simultaneously good and hard things that are happening throughout our lives, throughout our careers. So can you talk a little bit about just what has been the hardest or maybe not the hardest, but what's been hard or challenging about being a physical therapist and also what's brought you joy from being a physical therapist?
Speaker 2:Of course, brad, thanks for that question. So I do believe that some of the hardest things when we have to spend so much administrative time and office time trying to get pre-certifications and verifications for insurance we're fighting those things all the time. All we want to do is see the patients get them in the door and so we can start to treat them and get them better, cause I believe that we're a service industry and we serve our patients and I believe we changed their lives and we have a unique ability to do that with some, with many physician offices, they get to see them once or twice but, yeah, they follow through the lifetime. We get to see them two or three times a week, up for sometimes six, eight, 12 weeks after surgery and they become like family. So that's what's really hard if we are limited by the insurances and visits or pre-certifications. Some other things that's made it hard is well, google everybody's a physical therapist now because they can look up exercises like well careful what you read.
Speaker 1:And now AI right, you can just yeah.
Speaker 2:And so that's the didactic part, or people can look that up. But the art of therapy, I believe, with wisdom and practice, is that you know where to start with the patient and you read the patient because you're looking at them eye to eye, and how you progress that patient in their program, in their plan of care. That's the art and that's what AI or Google doesn't take into account. And you know, people are busy these days and it's sometimes it's hard to get in and hard to have enough time because they don't have a lot of time. They're chasing around, they're in their job, they're working all the time, and so just some of the competing schedules of people. Now it's really hard to get people in, but we do our best to try and be accommodative to whether it's early in the morning, late at night, we have to see somebody over lunch, that's. That's some of the challenges where I always say yes, and I probably need to do better, but that's how I built my practice, so whenever they need to get in, we get them in.
Speaker 1:And I would imagine you know, as a physical therapist that's been practicing for close to 30 years, you've maybe seen the system change a little bit. You've seen, maybe, how patients are able to access information. You've seen those things change. How has your practice even changed and evolved over time?
Speaker 2:The well, with the whole idea of Nebraska being a direct access state, that is such a powerful tool and it's a matter of reminding people hey, you don't need a prescription to come in and see us. We want to be that first person you see for that musculoskeletal orthopedic problem, and so it's a matter of getting that word out and I believe that's what's changed where it used to be. We were so heavily relying on referral relationships. Now they're very important also. Referral relationships with physicians uh, mid-levels, uh and uh, even even other coaches, nurse practitioners I guess that's mid-level, uh, but that's that's what's changed, I believe. And then getting access, and then online scheduling and and calling in and and seeing if they can change. So all the AI and I'm probably the worst AI guy or the IT guy in the company because I'm old and I admit it but those things are changing so fast Sometimes that's just hard to keep up with.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so. You know, you and I have talked before and you mentioned your clinic that you had under Stodden Physical Therapy out in Alliance, right yeah, and you just told me a story about, you know, ultimately needing to shut down that clinic and the hard decision that was made there. Right, I would assume that's been a hard piece of your career as well. You know, ultimately we're getting into PT a lot of the time to help people to solve problems and owning your own clinic right, kind of take some of those things to a new level and it changes the complexity a little bit too. Can you talk about maybe that time in your life where you needed to close down that clinic and what some of the challenges were there?
Speaker 2:Yeah, of course, brad. So our therapist was able to move back home near family, and family is the number one thing always, whether it's in my life or Rock Valley has the same idea. So we're trying to find other people and I talked to eight or 10 different people that could they take this clinic over and they can open up their own shop. They can do their own thing. But I didn't get a lot of people that were really excited about they were somewhat interested, but I really think the barrier was that they weren't comfortable getting their own insurance contracts. What the EMR would look like, how much are they gonna learn? How much is it gonna cost? And then how are they gonna bill? Do they have to hire somebody just to bill? Because if you're trying to take care of patients and you're working 40, 50 hours a week, when do you have time to actually bill? Because if you're trying to take care of patients, you're working 40, 50 hours a week, when do you have time to actually bill? All of a sudden, if you're trying to do that, it's a 70-hour week. And then who to hire? And are they adept with the insurance companies? Do they know what they're doing, especially in the smaller rural communities. So I believe that was a huge barrier and probably people didn't take the leap where they could get in and run their own practice, and so I really.
Speaker 2:It was hard a little story when I was there a month before we had to close down filling in and sometimes I sing to patients. So there's a gal there that we're seeing for a stroke and her daughter was there with her and so I sang the Ave Maria for them. I won't sing it now, but that's okay, and they were there on the last day when we closed down. Of course it's an emotional time. We saw so many people in that community in our clinic and the daughter says to me, seeing me for the last time mike, don't ever stop singing your patients.
Speaker 2:Because it was a blessing. My mother loved it and I and I want to, I want to be fully transparent I cried, I wept and she gave me a hug and I she said, I know this is hard. I said, yes, this is hard. I wish we had other people coming around, are coming and taking this over to continue to take care of you. So it was an emotional time, but the relationships that we all form, no matter if it's elkhorn or iowa or unmc. You're out in the lions. Those are special because we know we're we're making a difference in their lives yeah.
Speaker 1:So you know, as physical therapists, we have a skill set to be able to help people, to step in, to change their lives, to use the knowledge and information that we've gained from a clinical perspective. But you've also shared some information about how you've done that as a business owner. You've talked about the barriers and some of the challenges that exist there. Again, it gets pretty complex, but I think what's something unique that you guys are doing at Rock Valley right now is you're looking at some of those barriers that can exist for private practice owners and you're trying to eliminate some of those. Right and that's not a new concept, right?
Speaker 1:People have been trying to do that for a long time. We need to be customer-facing, we need to be patient-facing. We need to be customer-facing. We need to be patient-facing. We need to give them our time. As people that in your organization are in positions of leadership, you're looking to try to find ways for your physical therapist to spend time with their patients and to help them get better. Right, which means offering efficiencies on the back end of things. So, wendy, maybe I'll open it up to you to talk a little bit about what you guys are doing with Slate and how Rock Valley is using that because maybe that's something that could be beneficial to other private practice owners within our state as well.
Speaker 3:Sure, you know and I'm going to go back to a little bit about the discussion about the Alliance Clinic so you know, the Alliance Clinic was one of Rock Valley's clinics when Mike joined Rock Valley and so you know, the first thing we struggled with was do we have somebody within the organization that wants to, you know, move in and take over that clinic? And we had a hard time. We often have a hard time in those smaller rural communities finding that person that wants to lead that clinic, specifically if they're not from that community. Because we all know clinics that do well are those that when you're living and working in the community, when you're living in the community in which you work, that just seems to be the most successful because you're a part of that community, especially a smaller community, everybody knows you and everybody understands that you're the face of that clinic. And so, as Mike said, then he had several conversations with others to see if they wanted to take over that particular clinic and and and bring that on as their own private practice. And so you know, as he mentioned, the struggle there is is just a lot of the administrative burden or all of the other things that get in the way of us being able to take great care of patients. And so what Slate is?
Speaker 3:You know, the goal of Slate is to be able to take on those things for smaller private practice owners, because we don't want to discourage somebody, you know, just out of school, having several years experience somewhere else, that says I just want to hang my shingle somewhere and start my own practice, like that's what we want to encourage and we don't want to discourage that from continuing to happen in private practice.
Speaker 3:And so, you know, slate's mission is just to say, okay, what is that barrier that we can erase for you? And so that's where we started. Obviously, the billing side of things doing a really great job with getting claims out clean, getting paid in an efficient manner, getting paid what you deserve to get paid for those visits, for that hard work that you're doing, and then giving you some consulting with regards to different patterns and themes that we see with regards to where there may be some improvements that can be made, and then building on that with then, okay, what's that next barrier? As Mike mentioned earlier, verifying benefits in some cases it's just mostly a time taker, right. So being able to do that for organizations as well as to help with the prior biggest time. You know where they're spending most of their time and saying, okay, how can we take that away from you and allow you just more time to spend with patients, which is ultimately what your goal was in opening this practice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you kind of get to do kind of an overall audit of where some of the sticky points or the pain points might be, and then you're helping to try to design efficiencies on the back end. Is that?
Speaker 3:accurate yeah.
Speaker 1:Head nods. Yes absolutely, Mike. Anything you want to add to that?
Speaker 2:Well and part of Slate, and as we have a relationship with Net Health, the EMR and what they've done a nice job and Wendy's really championed this is to make it a very good EMR and note-taking system, scheduling system. That is for therapists. You know that's the last thing we want to do is spend all this time trying to do notes. We're trying to make it as efficient as possible.
Speaker 2:There's templates that are made out there. We can make them just to fit every one of our practices, because I see backs a little bit different probably than anybody else. I mean, everybody has their own individual practice, right. So this is what this EMR allows us to do is to still see these practices and if you want to go into a niche practice, we have the ability to transform that EMR into what that evaluation and that progress note looks like. So it's been a great, a great transfer. Now, it's always hard moving EMRs, but the other thing what Wendy has is has a whole team of how to transition and how to help and how to guide and how to teach. That's the other thing that could be if people are want to change EMRs. Oh, because it's it's like holding back the tide. It's so hard to do, but we want to make that easy as well. Is there a part of that, wendy, that that you want to add to that?
Speaker 3:No, I think that's great, mike.
Speaker 3:I think you know and we've had people you know ask us well, we like our EMR, can we?
Speaker 3:You know we don't really want to change EMRs, as Mike said, it's a big undertaking, but can you just do billing services for us?
Speaker 3:And you know our answer to that is no.
Speaker 3:It's a package deal and the reason for that is we specifically vetted EMRs, vetted Nuthouse, specifically the therapy source product, to meet the needs of private practices and ensure that we were getting as accurate of information as we can out of the system, as unique information as we can out of the system, so that your billing looks exactly the way you want it to going out the door. There's not a whole lot that needs to be finagled on the back end to ensure that you're getting your claims paid the way they want to, and so just the custom, the ability to customize, as well as the compliance side of things for TherapySource is what made like made our decision to partner with TherapySource. So we really encourage, you know, those who are looking for someone you know, like Slate, to do RCM services for them, like to look at for that package deal where they're really working closely, intimately with the EMR to ensure that they're continuing to grow together, because then that ultimately is going to impact. You know how efficiently and how well you're getting paid, so Good.
Speaker 1:Well, that's. I think that's just a great example of recognizing hey, there's certain challenges and barriers to what we're doing, but let's try to find solutions to this instead of becoming disillusioned with the process, right? So I think I appreciate that, definitely. All right, I have one more question, Mike, I'm going to aim this directly at you, just because Wendy's on the other side of the river. We like you, Wendy, I appreciate that we like you, wendy.
Speaker 2:Mike, I would love for you to just answer what value have you found in being a member of APTA Nebraska? So the idea about the NPTA is you get to meet so many people across the state and no matter if they're in a hospital or if they're in a private practice or they're in a large group or a small group or in nursing homes. I mean, we all have some of the same issues and then we start to talk oh yeah, I used to do this and I did this. So the relationship building throughout the state is really, really important. I think the NPTA Nebraska Physical Therapy Association is a great medium for that. When we went out to Kearney just a month ago, we got to talk to all kinds of people, meet new people, catch up with some of the people that I haven't seen for five years. It was great to do that and I believe the strength is in the numbers, because we're having not as many applicants for NPTA, but they're coming in on other ways.
Speaker 2:I think the students are starting to get more involved and I think having the students involved and then they stay a therapist, they stay in Nebraska and that's going to allow us to grow and we start with a student and then they become leaders in our state, in our profession. So as we work together of the student and then they become leaders in our state, in our profession. So about as we work together because that's we can't do it individually when talking to insurance companies and looking at different ways to get in front of insurance companies and promote our physical therapy practice, to promote direct access, and that's ultimately going to be saving patients money. So if we can see them first and get their back better without x-rays, medicine or MRI, hey you know what, it's great for the whole medical system and the payments that we're trying to curb so much and being as efficient as we can.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I really appreciate that. I think what you said in terms of you know, really there's strength in numbers and listen, a lot of what we do it's not going to end up being perfect, right, we're not going to find solutions quick solutions really really fast through legislative processes or developing new policies, right, right, like those things take a long time to do, but the way that you move the needle on it is by having some amount of unity and and hopefully you know, this is our first member spotlight for the APTA Nebraska podcast and hopefully getting to know people, even through some audio, in this way helps us take the next step to connecting and developing a little bit more community among our profession within our state too. So, mike, thanks for being a guinea pig and Wendy, thanks for joining us on the podcast as well. Appreciate having you guys.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 2:Brad, thank you for the opportunity. It's been great. So, again, I've not met you before, brad, but we're getting to know you and I got to know you at the conference. So this is what it's about. So we appreciate the opportunity and how can we help Nebraska and Iowa too?
Speaker 1:Drop that in there, all right. Listeners, thanks for joining us and hope you enjoyed this episode. Thank you, brad. Thank you everyone. Thanks for tuning in to the APTA Nebraska podcast. Stay connected with us for more conversations that elevate our profession and improve the lives of Nebraskans. Don't forget to subscribe, share and join the discussion, because together we're driving the future of physical therapy forward.
