Physical therapy origination playbook

A research template, not investment advice. Figures are not stated where the public record does not support them.

Sector

Physical therapy

2022 U.S. NAICS

621340 · Offices of Physical, Occupational and Speech Therapists, and Audiologists

Classification limits

Starting points for discovery, not a complete niche definition. Classify the actual activity and verify scope against the U.S. Census NAICS reference.

Understand the operating model

Physical-therapy businesses can provide outpatient rehabilitation, workplace services and other therapy programs. The classification also includes occupational and speech therapy and audiology, so a code-only search over-includes other practices. Verify the actual therapy discipline, setting and operating entity for every candidate.

Revenue may arise from insurer reimbursement, patient payments and employer arrangements. Repeated visits within an episode of care do not establish subscription revenue or guaranteed demand. Local clinician relationships and referral patterns can support separate practices, but hospital affiliation and group ownership need explicit resolution.

A practice-platform hypothesis asks whether administrative support and local access can improve delivery without displacing clinical judgment. Test it with qualified review of care, staffing and contracts. It weakens where referral dependence is misunderstood, clinician vacancies constrain care, or payer and professional requirements do not support the proposed operating model.

What makes a target worth investigating?

These are fit hypotheses to test against your mandate. They are not verified attributes of any company or a prediction of acquisition performance.

• An explicit physical-therapy service perimeter and clear separation from other therapy disciplines.
• Clinical supervision and scheduling capacity that can continue beyond the owner-clinician.
• A verifiable operating setting with payer, referral and professional requirements available for later review.

Tailor these questions before collection. Each accepted answer needs a supporting verbatim excerpt from a retained page. Options describe permitted answers, not default assumptions. When no source supports an answer, leave it unanswered; absence from a website is not a “no.” See screening criteria for defining gates and weights.

Four questions apply to every playbook (ownership category, locations, sale process, exclusions) and are listed once on the playbooks overview.

Match every source to the correct entity, location and collection date. Use the data-source directory to choose discovery paths, and evidence standards to decide what an excerpt actually supports.

Ownership and succession signals

• An owner-clinician who also manages referral relationships creates distinct clinical and commercial continuity questions. Confirm responsibilities without treating tenure or sparse biographies as proof of intent to sell.
• Compare dated leadership pages with entity records and transaction announcements. A missing management biography is an evidence gap, not proof that the owner lacks a successor.
• These are research signals, not proof of intent to sell. Confirm control, decision rights and succession preferences directly through an approved conversation before treating them as transaction facts.

Read succession and ownership before turning a continuity question into an ownership claim.

Reasons to stop or separate the record

Apply a disqualifier only when supported by evidence and your written mandate. Unresolved facts stay open for review; they do not become negative findings.

• A different therapy discipline outside a physical-therapy-specific mandate.
• A hospital-owned or group-controlled site outside an independent-practice screen.
• A delivery setting or ownership structure incompatible with applicable requirements after qualified review.

Approach with context and approval

• Describe the actual therapy and geographic fit, using a business channel that does not interfere with patient access.
• Avoid promises about visit growth, reimbursement or clinical outcomes, and never request identifiable patient records initially.
• The client approves each target and the messaging before contact. Check suppression records and applicable channel requirements; coordinate email, LinkedIn and phone so the business receives one coherent approach.

Use the outreach compliance guide to define channel requirements and suppression handling before optional outreach begins.

Questions for later diligence

These require direct records, management access and appropriate specialist review. Public screening identifies the questions; it cannot settle them.

• Review clinician retention, clinical supervision, scheduling capacity and referral concentration.
• Assess payer contracts, enrollment, documentation and professional requirements with qualified advisers.
• Reconcile visits, billed charges, adjustments and collections, then assess leases, systems and patient-record controls.