This article was originally published December 2, 2022 on McKnights Home Care.
As more healthcare shifts to the home, at-home physical therapy provider Luna is setting an aggressive 2023 goal to double its staff from 2,500 therapists to 5,000 across the 27 states and 50 markets it serves.
The Rocklin, CA-based firm recently named veteran healthcare recruiter Amber Mauro as head of therapist acquisitions and people operations to take on the task of recruiting so many new workers. Palak Shah, Luna’s co-founder and head of clinical operations, told McKnight’s Home Care Daily Pulse in an email that Mauro’s experience recruiting therapists for work in the home could give her four-year-old firm a leg up in the competitive labor market.
“The shortage of healthcare workers is a problem. However, challenges and pressures experienced by healthcare workers is an equally big problem,” Shah said. “Luna’s focus to leverage technology to reimagine the therapists’ experience is what makes therapists love Luna. Today, Luna is signing two therapists per hour.”
Therapy at home is not a new concept. Many small mom-and-pop home therapy agencies contract with payers and home health agencies to provide physical, occupational and speech therapy at home. A 2016 study found patients who received physical therapy in their homes recovered just as well as those who were treated in outpatient clinics.
The $46 billion dollar physical therapy industry is ripe for growth, as business consulting firm McKinsey & Company estimates up to $265 billion of care for Medicare beneficiaries will shift to the home over the next few years. That could pay dividends to larger players, such as Luna, in the highly fragmented home therapy industry.
Still, competition in the segment is heating up. Chicago-based InHomeTherapy, which offers in-home services in eight states, has also been growing aggressively. This year it has acquired five smaller agencies through $22 million in capital it raised from private equity investors TT Capital Partners and NewSpring.
Shah said Luna aims to be the leading in-home physical therapy platform and has grown the number of patient visits more than 6,000% in the four years since the firm was founded in 2018. Continued growth is predicated on growing staff. To that end, Shah said Luna is offering flexible scheduling, competitive wages and other incentives to attract talent.
“A therapist that does an average of 10 visits a week with Luna has the potential to make an additional $30,000 a year,” Shah said. “Luna ensures therapists never drive more than 30 minutes between visits. These are all game-changing enablers in healthcare
delivery and prove to be big incentives for therapists.”
