Will Power Podcast by Will Humphreys

How AI Is Quietly Saving Rehab Practices From the Inside Out with Sarah Bootcheck

• Will Humphreys • Season 3 • Episode 35

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In this episode of the Willpower Podcast, recorded live at the Growth Code Conference, Will sits down with Sarah Bootcheck, Account Manager and Speech Language Pathologist at Raintree, to talk about one of the most important shifts happening in rehab right now: artificial intelligence transforming the way therapy practices operate from the inside out.

Sarah brings a rare perspective to this conversation. She is both a clinician who has worked in the trenches of pediatric speech therapy and a technology professional who now helps practice owners understand and leverage the tools that can change the trajectory of their business. That combination makes her one of the most credible voices in this space.

Together, Will and Sarah break down exactly how Raintree, one of the most experienced EMR platforms in the therapy space, made a bold decision to evolve or risk becoming irrelevant. After hearing directly from their largest clients that change was non-negotiable, Raintree acquired Yumi, an AI company that had already developed one of the first AI scribes built specifically for physical therapists. That acquisition became the foundation for ten new products and enhancements rolled out across 2025.

In this episode you will learn:

  • ScribeIQ and AI documentation in rehab
  • NoteIQ clinical insights and patient progress tracking
  • SchedulerIQ and the future of front office automation
  • AI versus AI in medical billing and RCM
  • Why therapists are the most underprotected professionals in healthcare
  • How virtual assistants and AI work together to protect revenue
  • The 29% effective revenue loss hitting every outpatient practice

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Live From Growth Code 26

SPEAKER_01

This is the Willpower Podcast, live at the Growth Code Conference. No scripts, no fluff, just real conversations with OT, PT, SLP owners in the room, sharing what's working right now. And today I'm joined by Sarah Buček, account manager and SLP at Raintree, diving into how AI is transforming documentation and clinical workflows in rehab and what practice owners need to know right now to stay ahead of the curve. Here we go. Okay. Well, Sarah, welcome to the Willpower Podcast. I am so excited to talk about technology and AI. We're filming this in January 2026. So this is like cutting-edge stuff that we're doing. Is today the last day?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, it's going so fast. I know. So you were with RainTree. Give us, give the audience a little, set the table a little bit of like what you do in that space. You're an SLP, the funniest of all the rehab things.

SPEAKER_00

The funniest of all the rehab medicines. And the most charming by far. Hands down. Hands down. I mean, you can just ask, we can pull some hospital systems, do what they say. Um I'm an account manager at Rain Tree and also an SLP. Um I just I joke that I pay Asha every year. So as long as I pay Asha, I'm definitely an SLP.

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00

Oh my God. Um as an account manager, I work with current Rain Tree clients of all shapes and sizes, and we look to see, you know, how their platform is. Do they need more training? Are they looking at more products? Um, and that's something that has been a huge, significant, huge, significant, impactful journey is the rain tree products that have come out since 2025.

SPEAKER_01

Because, and that's really the theme of our show today. We're talking about AI and how it's disrupting even more in 2026 than ever anything that's healthcare related in the rehab space. And you guys, what's interesting about this discussion, Sarah, is that Rain Tree has been around for a very long time. I've been in the industry forever, I've known of Rain Tree, but I didn't know it was

Why Raintree Had To Evolve

SPEAKER_01

40 years old. Yeah. So you guys are you guys have seen it all.

SPEAKER_00

We have seen it all.

SPEAKER_01

So like you were saying, yeah, so you have your partners who've been on rain tree longer than than you've been since you've been in school.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, truly. Truly. No, that is like that is I I BC'd the data of like, oh my god, you you went live in like 2010. I'm like, what was I doing in 2010? I was about to after graduate high school.

SPEAKER_01

That's right. What does that even mean? And you guys were already business owners and now they're in their 70s. So the technology is disrupting the space. And I only am I I honestly feared for your for older companies like yours.

SPEAKER_00

No, and I think that's right because you look at um I sometimes joke that a lot of bigger companies can get stuck in the mud. Absolutely. And it's, you know, sometimes they can make or break you. You be like the stuck in the mud, that's how you that's your persona, that's your marketing. But then you look to see, but wait, everyone else is not stuck in the mud. So why is it just why can't we? And why is it still us? So Rangery as a whole and as a culture really looked at that and they were like, okay, this has got to change. Yes. Like something's gotta change. And honestly, kudos to the Ranger clients if you're listening, because they are the ones who made the most noise.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, so you listen to your customers is how this all evolved.

SPEAKER_00

And that's pretty much how it evolved is that you know, um, Nick Hedges, our CEO, just retold us that um probably two years ago, some of some of our largest customers were like, dude, get with the times.

SPEAKER_01

Pretty much get with the times. You guys, if you guys don't evolve, you guys are gonna be dead.

SPEAKER_00

You're gonna crash and we're gonna leave. And we don't want to leave, so please, please, please listen to us. And they did. And the first step of that was acquiring um Yumi, which is an AI company, and so we brought Yumi within Range.

SPEAKER_01

What does Yumi do?

SPEAKER_00

Yumi was essentially the ones one of the first groups in the AI space to develop a scribe for PTs.

SPEAKER_01

Because that's a hot button right now. Everyone's got their scribes out, that kind of thing. And so you know that's where you needed to start.

SPEAKER_00

So we knew that's where you needed to start. We knew that documentation was by far the first thing that AI needed to figure out because it's the let's be honest, it's the one that sucks the most. It's the worst part of doing what we do.

SPEAKER_01

It's it's the reflection of like how insurance companies suppress us and how we have to match what they're gonna do. It's a ridiculous.

SPEAKER_00

It is ridiculous. And unfortunately, I as an SLP, I love words, but like I don't want to be a novelist. No. I'm not here to write a novel, but I still want it to be on my I my name's attached to it. So I want it to make you know good lasting implications for whoever's reading it, which usually no one reads it, but unless you're like, or fearful that you're gonna be like audited or sued and you've got to be.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

It they're very much real. Absolutely. Um so yeah, so you know, we listened, and then the step one was finding Yumi, and Yumi is a group of really young, really smart guys, and they had figured it out, and it was a slam dunk because we were able to make it native. Because then at that, it wasn't a third party, it was a plugin. It wasn't a plug-in, it was ours. So that was a that was a total high fives, high fives. So um almost a year ago um at APTA CSM in Houston, that's when the Yumi crew first started to really be intertwined with Braintree.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

And um we we had Scribe IQ, and we were like, okay, we need to really enhance it. We need to make it, you know, CPT coding recommendations, ICD coding recommendations. And I love telling the story because the Yumi team was there and we're like, can we do that? And they're like, we'll do it. And that night, I kid you not, that night they went to their hotel room, did not sleep, worked on code, and figured it out.

SPEAKER_01

Oh my gosh. So you guys are just moving quickly with the tires.

SPEAKER_00

So, and I think finally

Building A Native AI Scribe

SPEAKER_00

I we realized that we were so um, you know, I live in the south, so think of like that southern like. Take a time, southern drum. It is fun. And then we realized after our eyes were open, we're like, oh my gosh, we need to go lightning speed. So within the year with after acquiring Yumi, we um rolled out ten products and or enhancements in the course of 2025. Ten. Ten. And um Scribe IQ and Scribe IQ Plus are AI driven. And um the other ones, I would say, like the ones that come to mind, touch points especially, are built and hopes to then grow with AI. Okay. So now we have like the we have the skeleton. Okay, and we have the capabilities of how to enhance the systems, but now it's like, okay, that was great, check, chapter one through five. Now we need to like advance it with AI.

SPEAKER_01

Because I think scribe is such again a hot topic, but now it's almost an expectation. If you don't have a a scribe element and an EMR, then what's you know? So you're you what are you doing? So you guys got on that early, implemented it, crushed it, started building the coding in. Yeah. What else have you guys had to pivot to?

SPEAKER_00

So the next one would be okay, so and I I mentioned this recently, I was like, we we had a sort of documentation because that's just the biggest downfall. Absolutely. It really is. So, you know, that we now that we have that in our pocket, you know, what else are the downfalls? So the big one is just the note itself, right? Yeah, you you it's the great that you have ascribed, but like you said earlier, who's gonna tell you what you need to work on? Who's gonna tell you how they've been working on, how they've been progressing, who's gonna analyze that data?

SPEAKER_01

It was for me, that was the worst thing ever. When I there's two cultures when it comes to these therapies, right? People who have their own dedicated patients. And even in those cases, you have people cover you. Yeah. It makes it so hard to go on vacation. If you're gonna leave. And then if you're one covering another person's vacation, you've got to triple your workload, not just the extra caseload, but then you've got to figure out where all those patients are in succession. But other cultures, like my old practice, we had five locations where we would have people who would be dedicated to a team. So you'd have a therapist and a PTA, and sometimes another PTA. So they had to communicate. And this new AI feature totally solves. It like gets people up to speed in the quickest way possible. Tell us about that. How does it work?

SPEAKER_00

So now it's looking at when you open, like you open Note IQ, it's gonna give you insights into your day. So it's gonna be that schedule aspect, but beyond the schedule aspect.

SPEAKER_01

It gives you the the uh the update on your day. Yeah like you'll log into your your user interface and no IQ tells you about your day.

SPEAKER_00

So it's gonna give it and it's such a like a clean it the my way to describe it is clean. It is so clean. You're like, wow, this is so easy to use and so intuitive. And you're gonna click on, you know, Sarah, and you're gonna get to Sarah's patient, and you're gonna see it's gonna give you a whole like AI summary as what it what its initial avow. Why are they here? What does their referral say? Do they have any allergies? Is there any other pernient

Note IQ Summaries And Pulse Checks

SPEAKER_00

medical histories that you need to know like right in the front? And then it's gonna give you and it's gonna have embedded scribe in it. So then you're gonna go ahead and click scribe, and then as soon as you're done with your note, it's gonna go ahead and populate everything you need to know, and it's just so intuitive.

SPEAKER_02

Wow.

SPEAKER_00

It's crazy. And even from a daily note, that's I think the biggest thing is that you look at the daily note, and it could be your first session, your third session, your thirtieth session, it's gonna pull and synthesize all of that previous data to tell you, hey, they're really progressing, like kudos. Or, hey, you actually haven't worked on the school in three weeks, you should probably work on that.

SPEAKER_01

See, that's crazy to me because I can think about you know, the few times I've ever had a team member get audited or get brought to the state board. It is the most horrific, terrifying experience. And all of us, as we do notes, we go back and we go to bed at night going, well, probably nothing happened, but I hope they don't, because I don't know what my notes will actually do in defense. Yeah. So note actually not only helps get people come up to speed quickly, but it gives you a bit of a pulse check.

SPEAKER_00

Totally. I like that pulse check. And especially in this day and age with therapy spaces of value-based care, which is such a hot button topic in itself, is that you know, with load reimbursement rates and this like question mark as to like, is value-based care gonna be the answer to that?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

You look to see, wow, you can see in real time, you can see real analytics from a value-based care point of view, is yeah, they're actually making progress fast. And here's how they're making progress fast.

SPEAKER_01

Wow. So this is a way to keep a busy therapist on track or even anyone who's gonna be covering to get caught up to speed super fast, and it just gives you that 20% of information that gets you 80% into your day instantly, it feels like.

SPEAKER_00

Because I remember, I mean, I would get to work early.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I would look, I had, you know, I was in pediatrics, so I had a pretty consistent cadence as to who I saw in a time period. Sure. And but I still would have to go and be like, okay, so you've been working on this, you know, he has a reval coming soon. I probably should start working on this. And one thing that it does is it also gives you recommendations and not from like an evidence-based standpoint, it's just more so like a skeleton, like, hey, yeah, here's some things that we call we we noticed, here's some areas of concern that you could work on. Which you know, some schools of thoughts are like, well, you know, that's not evidence-based. How would you give that recommendation? And I'm like, no, I look at it as like, here's a nice skeleton. Yeah, you still have the clinical judgment because that can't be AI-fied. Right. So you're gonna, you know, go down that avenue as to what you think is best as a clinician.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, we're not looking at it's not medical advice, it's not telling us how to treat, it's a matter of just saying, hey, you've got a lot on your plate. Here is something that you set as a goal. Yeah. You haven't mentioned this or worked on this, according to what I've seen. It's like I would it's almost like a little um angel over your shoulder saying, Hey. Yeah, it's a reminder. Yeah. Yeah, it's a little reminder. So this is amazing. You guys have developed all this in the last couple of years. Unbelievable. I was at TherapyCon, by the way, where they announced a lot of these things we're talking about. Such an amazing event. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00

We're here at Growth Code.

SPEAKER_01

You guys are out of Arizona this year, though.

SPEAKER_00

No, we're gonna go we we are. We're actually going to Austin. So get your cowboy boots out.

SPEAKER_01

I will. I'm from Texas originally, but I live in Arizona, so I love being able to drive down to downtown Phoenix for that event, but I am excited to go to Austin. It's gonna be such an epic experience. And I say this Growth Code, the one we're at right now, is the best like event in our industry for the for enterprise level, for large companies and small. Yeah. The large events, of all the big events out there, TherapyCon's my favorite. It was such a mind blow, such great collaboration, great content. Uh, it was awesome.

Value Based Care Meets Real Analytics

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and you know, it's historically for Rain Tree clients that one thing that we're really trying to um implement this year is clients who are you know, clients who aren't on Rain Tree, who are just really curious about, you know, the therapy space, the AI technologies, absolutely what's going on there, is you know, even partners like Virtual Rockstar that exist in the space that you know work in tandem with a lot of different EMRs that you know you want to see what is out there. And it's just trying to be the ultimate spot for those who are in the therapy space who want to grow, who want to take down the man. Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_01

It's funny, and I told I told you this offline, and this is me like really putting my money where my mouth is, is that virtual rock star, our favorite EMR to work with with our virtual assistants is RainTree. Oh my gosh. He said that, and I was like, really? It's true. And I'm saying it now live. So that everyone can. I mean, I think it's true, but well, it's listen, we have there's different EMRs that are are have different specialties. Like you have clients that that fit your your zone, but the reason my VAs work so well in Raintree has a lot to do with how you guys operate in terms of customization and with the AI piece. And I get nothing for saying that. We're not type financially to each other. The um you know, going back to the AI component, you know, tell me more. I think the audience wants to know more about this.

SPEAKER_00

So that's the same peak as today. So so then we get into okay, so and I and I mentioned this um to someone here at the conference. I was like, we had to look at each section of the therapy was like lifeline, right? So front, you know, we look at clinical, we check, we got that. Then you look, okay, so what other pitfalls happen in terms of the day-to-day of therapy? The next one would be the front office.

SPEAKER_02

Yes.

SPEAKER_00

And the front office, you know, there's it's it's hard to hire. It's a huge staff turnover. I'm still really close. It's why I'm in business. It's why you're in business. That's why I'm in business. I'm still really close to who was our patient care coordinator at the clinic I uh I was attached to. And she has a hard ass job. Dude, it is not easy to be a friendly.

SPEAKER_01

And we don't have the funding as or gross mar the margins to pay them what the right person would want to do that job, which is a sales position, by the way, and a customer service position. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

It's tough. And even just from you know, her stance, especially, is a there's a weird, almost gray area of wanting to be the best customer service experience.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00

And like making sure that your families and your patients are getting the greetings and the welcome that you want it that want you want them to have.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_00

But then sometimes that gets taken advantage of and then they get lost in their workload because they're busy talking to Sam's mom for 45 minutes. Which happens all the time. And you're like, it's this again, this weird in-between of how to be successful. And then you add on the burden and the it just it's just a cra it's a hard job.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so how does Rain Tree address that?

SPEAKER_00

So what we're doing is, you know, one thing that is AI focused is um scheduler IQ. So that will come out later this year, and it's it's really assisting with that workload when it comes to scheduling.

SPEAKER_01

I am the most excited for this before you go into it because one of the pivotal moments in my practice is when we got to the point where my therapist would walk the patient to the front desk and say, Mrs. Jones, you want to be able to hold your grandkids again. I want you to meet uh Sally our front desk. She is here to make sure you attend all your visits. So we're not gonna schedule your next visit, we're scheduling all of your visits for your plan of care out now. Yeah. And she's gonna hold you accountable to that. And then they'd spend the next 30 minutes sometimes figuring out the next six weeks of their lives. Oh, totally.

SPEAKER_00

And even

Conferences And The Vendor Partner Mindset

SPEAKER_00

30 minutes, I think, is pretty conservative.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, totally. And meanwhile, she's got facts as she's missing calls, she's missing people who are calling the schedule for their first.

SPEAKER_00

That's a big one because you, you know, someone signed in and you didn't collect the copay.

SPEAKER_01

It's insane. It's insane. So all that bottlenecking around one person that we're underpaying, and we wonder why sometimes we hire people that show up like we're doing them favors. So it's now let's go into schedule IQ.

SPEAKER_00

Schedule IQ is is is using the AI technology to give the schedule prompts so that especially in you know the rehab space that you you dupe schedule the whole plan of care. Right. Or you in pediatrics, you schedule the whole plan of care and I be P T O T speech.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_00

And then so that's three appointments maybe twice a week. So, you know, you have six appointments for one child. In one week, in one week, and then you're scheduling out weeks maybe. Yes, and you're and you're scheduling for the full six months.

SPEAKER_01

I'm talking about like dozens of appointments in those cases.

SPEAKER_00

Dozens. So it's looking at that and knowing that, you know, everyone has a life. I mean everyone has a life. So everyone's got stuff to do, everyone's got stu, you know, preferences. So looking at that and being like, okay, I know that Will wants to come Mondays and Fridays, but he can't come the third Monday of the month because he has um, you know, his his massage therapy.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, I get my massage therapy the third Monday of the month. That's weird that you just knew that. That's so specific.

SPEAKER_00

You seem like a you know a Swedish massage kind of guy. I am.

SPEAKER_01

It's out of my juggling practice, but yes, one of those two things.

SPEAKER_00

So we know that, okay. So it's assisting with the AI technology of giving the AI that prompt to be like, hey, can you please schedule Will? This is his insurance, he does not need to be on the third Monday of the month, and he wants these time slots. And the AI will then go into the schedule and find those holes, which in it in matters of seconds.

SPEAKER_01

Amazing. It finds those holes.

SPEAKER_00

It finds those holes. So that you're not going, because I mean I've been guilty of that too. I'm like, okay, I think I found the the I found a spot for the kid. And you go, okay, you move it and you move it and you move it, and you go, damn it! I didn't see that spot. Why me? Why me? I forgot that's Christmas Day.

unknown

Yes.

SPEAKER_01

Um scheduler IQ sounds phenomenal. I'm so excited that um that's gonna reduce some of the friction. A lot of the friction and protect that plan of care in a way that patients are able to attend in their appointments without any of that work. Yeah, phenomenal.

SPEAKER_00

When you and you mentioned bottlenecks too, because the the uh the goal is that then that is such a time suck job. Yeah, it is. Part part of the job, not even the job, that then it reduces it to seconds so that then the time could be spent on allocating to anywhere else. Because especially with AI, this comes up a lot, is that we're we're not looking to you know reduce the workforce. Yeah. I think that's always the biggest misconception about using AI. It's like, oh, well, are you gonna replace jobs? Right. No, because this is gonna be assisting with allocating resources and time

Front Desk Bottlenecks And Burnout

SPEAKER_00

for that particular full-time employee into something that maybe she wants to he or she wants to do more so. Because I'm sorry, no one wants to schedule.

SPEAKER_01

No one wants to schedule. So it's kind of this is where our VAs and the AI overlap. So because I have a lot of friends who own VA companies and they're super worried and they're like trying to sell. Yeah. I couldn't be more bullish for the very thing that you just said because uh my vision is to see supercharged AI VAs. So if we can have our VAs supercharged with AI, they're gonna be able to go in there and handle those things because the the human beings at the practice, what they would do best at are sales cycles and customer service cycles. Yes. The technical things, if it can't be completely automated by AI, it can be managed by a VA with AI. And then the human beings that are present can focus on those other elements. And it's so cool because we can live in a day. I don't look, I'm like you, where I, you know, I love technology and all these elements, but even people who are resistive, you know, I think always give the grocery store self-checkout analogy.

SPEAKER_02

Yes.

SPEAKER_01

You know, we see those things and we go, I would never do that. And then you just get irritated if you can't check yourself out because all I do.

SPEAKER_00

I only self-check out. We do that.

SPEAKER_01

There will be a day, and this is my prediction by the end of this decade, that every outpatient practice, private practice in America will not have a human being. And I know there's a lot of pediatric people here at this conference that would say there's no way. Well, here's why. When someone can still have some human interaction when they absolutely need it, and it's doesn't matter if it's a physical person or not, but most of it is automated through AI, we are going to reduce so much resistance around people just having these long conversations at the front desk that I used to think was vital to the quality of my experience for my clients.

SPEAKER_00

But but then I you look at that too, and you're like, okay, so where can that full-time employee go? Right. And that's always a question of like, well, you know, I really like Val. Where's Val gonna go? Well, Val has capabilities for from a business sense to be allocated to something that's probably gonna make her grow, you know, professionally and personally in more aptitude.

SPEAKER_01

Totally. And that could be maybe it's still patient interacting, but what if her reach out was it what if his or her reach out was completely focused on customer service, like, hey, I'm I really want to see how it's been three weeks in your appointment. I know the therapist's checking in, I want to know how it's going. Or hey, we were discharged two months ago and do a whole reactivation cycle.

SPEAKER_00

Oh I like that from like a net promoter score.

SPEAKER_01

It's a great idea. So you're you're constantly like nurturing these relationships in ways that you are so much more effective than talking about the weekend at the front desk. And by the way, that there's power in that. I'm not minimizing that. I'm just saying that like it goes back to the grocery store moment. We used to have those wonderful connection moments with our grocery store checkout individuals as well. But we'd rather just get on with our day. As long as the service in the back office, as long as that speech therapist, OT or PT is really connected to that person, they're not gonna be in a position where they feel less. No. If anything, there'll be more time for those people to do that because there's more money and less uh schedule constraints because these things are blocking those flows.

SPEAKER_00

Well, I think that's a the Gorgia store example is a great example because, you know, I told you I'm a Southern girl, so I love Publix. And Publix um, you know, has really moved to that model of having self checkout, which is great from a consumer standpoint. But now, because of, you know, they still have the cashiers who are there, you know, Publix employees are like super committed to Publix. But now I find it to be better from a consumer point of view that if I'm in a position where I can't find something, or I'm having an issue, there's more people at my disposal to help me because they're not waiting on a f like a 20, 15 person line to check out.

SPEAKER_01

At the end of the day, when I go to a grocery store, what I want at the end of that experience is a quick out. Yeah. I don't care about anything else more than that. And if I can have a better journey, like if I have people to say, hey, I I don't know where the peanut butter is, like having someone available, kind, not in a hurry, do that is amazing. So I think as we start developing our practices, it's gonna evolve that way out of necessity. Um I just learned from Chad Madden from Breakthrough, uh, a marketing company in the PT space specifically. Oh, and I breakthrough, yeah. Oh, he was telling me three days ago. He said that the inflationary impact on our practices today, just from 2019, when you look at inflation plus decreased reimbursement, is that we have 29% less money. 29% this is a real number we can look up. I look it up. So we so this is why AI, like for from a rain tree perspective, this is something that you guys can use with your customers as well. It's just this idea that, like, hey, listen, you're m you have almost 30% less money because of decreased reimbursements and so on. So we have to automate things where we can. We have to save money on personnel, which is where I come in with virtual. So like it, but the but I'm not trying to sell our services. I'm just trying to say that like there's solutions out there. We have to look at those are the no-brainer ones. Then there's like bigger ones, like we have to change our model. We have to change how we're treating, we have to fight the insurance companies, which we're doing better at.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. But need to lobby, you need to advocate.

SPEAKER_01

Those are the better long-term solutions. What we provide is a long-term strategy to help make things more efficient and easier, which happened to save money. And that's wonderful.

SPEAKER_00

No, and I think you're exactly right. That's actually pretty much the reason why I left the clinical field. Yeah. Is because for such a long time, you know, it's any therapist is patient-centered care, right? Yeah. I'm here to fight for the patient, I'm here to fight for the family. And then it got to the point where I was looking around and I was like, who the heck is fighting for the therapist?

SPEAKER_01

Who is fighting for the therapist?

SPEAKER_00

Who is fighting for the therapist? Because I look around and these therapists are my friends. They're pretty much my family. We've worked together for I have cruise bumps. We've worked together for years. Yeah. And I look around and I'm like, they're getting a cut on reimbursement. They're not getting the pay they deserve. They didn't get the bone the bump and bonus. The their comp got slashed, and you look at their PTO got denied because there's not a person to cover for the clinic. Yeah. So you look at that and you're like, man, you know, it's so easy to pinpoint on the company who you're working for, but I don't think it is the company. I think it's the culture of the of the field of being like, well, yeah, reimbursement's low. Can't do much about it. And it's like, no, you can do something about it. Yeah, you can call your congressman.

SPEAKER_01

All those things that were happening, while United Healthcare has a 40% increase in their profitability.

Scheduler IQ And Plan Of Care Booking

SPEAKER_01

Like they are getting that because of you. Correct. You suffering is why they're more profitable. So that's what I did as well. That's why I sold. I had a chance, I did not want to sell. I was using my business as a platform to do other things that were more industry-facing, but it worked out to where here you and I are. We've been in the trenches. Now we're outside trying to call in reinforcements. Absolutely. And some of those reinforcements we manage, but we all need each other. Good EMRs, good B2B services, technologies, and legal representation. So as we continue to fight together, every time we do something like this, every time we leverage technology, we're not just making our companies more profitable, we're making what's possible a reality.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and I think that, you know, so many, so many vendors, right? EMR, virtual, any kind of third party, people get in this rut of being like, well, you're the bad guy. And it's like, no, no, I'm not the bad guy. Like, if anything, I'm your partner who is gonna be.

SPEAKER_01

Well, they see us as possibly someone who's wanting more of their money. And they don't feel like they have enough.

SPEAKER_00

So it's there's no value add. And it's like, no, the value add is that, you know, Raintree has really put so much emphasis on this partnership within the clients and any future clients in order to again fight the good fight. And that whether that's you know lobbying, whether that's trying to get reimbursement rates up, whether that's to, you know, go against the payer. It's it's that is where you have to look at it as a true partnership, no matter what the vendor is, as long as everyone's on the same page.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it's amazing. Um one of the things that really got me solid and excited about Rain Tree was when I was working alongside Chris Redding, who's the owner of who's the CEO of uh USPH. Yeah. And so they exclusively use Rain Tree as their EMR. And when I was working with them, it was because and I can't get into detail, but it was on another business front. I was using, I realized USPH is the gold standard of, in my mind, physical therapy. Yeah. Because they do a great job. They're publicly traded, they're one of the four publicly traded companies. Their stock rises when everything else is volatile. Their their um NPS scores, their their the way that the people they acquire love them is is just palpable. And I I don't think the reason I say it's a gold standard because of their scale, and because they, although they're publicly traded, they are PT operated. Yeah. And it's so powerful. And when they used RainTree, that's when I started to really understand it. Yeah. And so it's it's important for us to recognize that there, you know, success leaves clues. And as we look at those clues of where we can go for support, we can trust those sources because of those elements.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So what do you see down the road for a rain tree in terms of uh you know change and technology and all the fun things that are AI centric?

SPEAKER_00

I mean, it will be very AI centric. I hope you're not tired of AI yet. No, I think we're all getting I think we're loving it more and more. I know my mom uses Chat GPT. I was like, you're you go, girl. I'm impressed. She calls it at him. I'm like, I don't really know if you could genderize it, but that makes you feel better.

SPEAKER_01

As long as she's not like he tucks me in. I think that's where we get to a point.

SPEAKER_00

Like, let's let's cut off. Let's cut the cord. Time to cut it off. Time to cut it off. Um no, AI AI centric is gonna be the the pulse, the blood, and the oxygen of ring tree from here into forever. We have really bought into it. Um, I mean, no pun intended, that's why we bought Yumi, but acquired him. But beyond that, though, it's really just looking at the best solution and and you know, just how people were moving from paper to document to then an EMR, it's the same mentality of like that was a better solution. And now that we're at an EMR, the better solution is AI capabilities.

SPEAKER_01

It's so fun to see how you guys have we can't say it's the oldest, but we can say it's the most one of the most experienced out there is the seniors in a way that is rare. And it's thriving. Yeah. I think that says so much about not only where you guys have been, but where you're going. Yes. And it gives me hope for the industries because as we as healthcare industries are looking forward to the future, we realize that like what we can do is still stay true to our core and

AI Plus VAs Without Replacing People

SPEAKER_01

what made us who we were to begin, but then to evolve into something we could become using technology, leveraging these tech these elements to help us grow.

SPEAKER_00

And looking beyond too, like what you know, there's really no limit.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So, you know, 2027 is looking at um is the RCM component.

SPEAKER_01

Yes.

SPEAKER_00

So looking to see, you know, because billing and pediatric billing in any space, pediatric or adult, is a lot. That's what we I would say another word, but it's a podcast.

SPEAKER_01

My mom might be watching. Yeah, I appreciate that for sure. And it's funny because just so you know, that's where we have decided we're specializing on the virtual assistant side. Yeah. That's where we are honing in. Because we do lots of things, but that's where we have found the greatest success, the greatest like praise from our clients. Absolutely. So think about think, and by the way, I have a bet I own a medical billing company.

SPEAKER_00

That's where my What do you not do besides juggle?

SPEAKER_01

The main thing I do, yeah. Huh? You're joking around juggling before we hit record. So the idea is that I um Virtual Rockstar is 90% of my time, but I own lots of other companies. And I started with a medical billing company that ended up producing Virtual Rockstar. Where was I started hiring overseas and I was like, this is all we're gonna do. But I still own my medical billing company. I do a yearly retreat for them that I facilitate, and this was two weeks ago. And they told me AI is making medical collecting exponentially more difficult. And so so honestly, VAs and AI through Raintree are gonna have to come together to combat it. And what's cool about it is that that solution is baked into yours. Yeah. And it's something that mine's very affordable. So these are very low cost, high output solutions that control revenue cycles. So you guys in 2027, exactly where we're going as well.

SPEAKER_00

We're on the same page, and that's something that you know I'm really passionate about because I s wholeheartedly believe you should not mess with people's money.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

You shouldn't. And especially when it's a small business or even a big business, like that money is people's 401k, that money is people's salary, that's their mortgage, that's third, that's children's future. It's children's future, you know, um, all those things to note, you know, you shouldn't mess with that. And especially against a an institution like a payer, where it just makes it so difficult. It's like it doesn't have to be this difficult.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_00

So I'm here for the the battle of the beasts, the AI versus AI. Let's go. Let's go.

SPEAKER_01

I had a whole season on the podcast of AI versus AI. Yeah, it's so fun. I'm so excited to see where we're going. Sarah, I'm grateful to have you in the corner of not just for me and my company, but for the whole industry. Um, you know, one thing I love to, oh, before I get to this next part, how do people get a hold of Rain Tree or you? Or if they have questions, they want to learn more about things, how do they get a hold of it?

SPEAKER_00

Um how do they get a hold of me? So let's see. Um if you want to get a hold of Rain Tree, um, we have a very nice website. So go to the website. Um you can find us via Google. Um I'm trying to think of my website's name right now. I think it's Rain Tree.

SPEAKER_01

I'll put it in the show notes.

SPEAKER_00

Put in the show down.

SPEAKER_01

I will make sure to have it in the show notes. If you want to get into it, if you put Rain Tree EMR, it will pop up.

SPEAKER_00

It will pop up. Um, not Rangree neighborhood, because there's lots of tree neighborhoods. Um if you can get a hold of me personally, and even just to I talk to a lot of um clinicians who are looking to move to non-clinical. Yeah. I, you know, a lot of a lot of people took my phone call when I tried to make the transition. And I mean a lot of people took my phone call at that. I really try to pay it forward because it's a it's tough. So um, especially in the technology SaaS space.

SPEAKER_01

So it's an evolution at the very least.

SPEAKER_00

It is an evolution, and it has such value being a clinician in the position that we're in. So you can find me on LinkedIn. I have a very distinct last name, so you will I'm the only one.

SPEAKER_01

Can't miss me. Sarah, you have been a treat. I um am so excited to have you on the show. We're gonna I like to wrap things up with a rapid fire set of questions you're ready.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, let's hear it.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. What is your favorite thing culturally about being a team member of Rangery?

SPEAKER_00

The people. The people easy. We have a there is such such good people. Like, and just people that I mean, we have so many people who work in Estonia, a lot

Reimbursement Pressure And The RCM Future

SPEAKER_00

of our engineers in Estonia. Interesting. Which is really interesting. So even just culturally having differences, and even it's nationwide. So even people who am like, what is it like in Vermont? In the South, I cannot compute you got two feet of snow. So having a like a fully remote company just provides so much different perspective. Yeah, right. But also, you know, so you have the empathy, but the people just keep you warm.

SPEAKER_01

I love that.

SPEAKER_00

It's and it's true, like the rain tree is for people. It really is.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. What is um an AI tool that you like to use privately? It can be even a common tool. Like, what's the tool that you love to use privately?

SPEAKER_00

This is uh this is a hot take, but I do use Chat GPT like my mom, and um I use it mainly for two things, and you're gonna giggle for math related issues.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, totally. Like who cares? Who cares anymore?

SPEAKER_00

I don't care. I I'm sorry. There's new math, there's old math, there's new math.

SPEAKER_01

There's new math, there's old math.

SPEAKER_00

I don't care. You know, uh help it help me like create, you know, percentages and fractions. I'm like, I don't want to do this anymore.

SPEAKER_02

Okay, this is just a 15.

SPEAKER_00

You can't be a percentage of this number by this number. Totally. Um, and then I like this is like a really sad thing to say, but I like to use it for um greeting cards. Explicitly like to give me like an I sometimes if I have like a writer's block, if I'm writing like a wedding card or a birthday card.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, just like your message that you put in your card. That's exhausting.

SPEAKER_00

It is exhausting. Well, honestly, uh to write a sympathy card is really exhausting because you feel terrible and you're like, I don't know what to say. Hey, sorry about it. Yeah, sorry about it. You're my thoughts.

SPEAKER_01

Your life sometimes sucks. Hope you have a better diet. Like what do you say?

SPEAKER_00

What do you say? So I just like to read it from like a you know, just a like a brainstorm session. What would I say, you know? But I do do my own narratives though, but it's just more so like a hmm, what would you like to do?

SPEAKER_01

Well, I think that's a great tool with A.

SPEAKER_00

What did Chat GPT say?

SPEAKER_01

When A I love to use it as like an idea creator, or if I have a concept, an idea refiner. Yes, those are my creator. Um tell me about um a book, TV show, a movie, or a song or a concert that you've seen recently that you that you loved.

SPEAKER_00

Oh gosh, this always happens that I'm on the spot and I'm um I'm like, what book am I reading? Um oh god, I'll have to think about it.

SPEAKER_01

It can be a TV series that you're into.

Rapid Fire Favorites And Final Takeaway

SPEAKER_01

It can be anything. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, a TV series I'm into. Um, well, this is a hot take, but I'm really excited for a TV series that's about to come out. I love Top Chef. Oh, what's it called? Top Chef. Oh, okay. It's um, you know, I just love the cooking competitions.

SPEAKER_01

Ooh, those are fun. They're big for a reason.

SPEAKER_00

They are big for a reason. And um, yeah, but I am reading, I'm reading a couple books right now. But um I like that.

SPEAKER_01

No one's done a TV series, so I'm glad that you went with that one.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Where's somewhere in the world that you've been, that you loved, or somewhere that you want to go?

SPEAKER_00

Um, we actually just um for New Year's Eve we went to Paris.

SPEAKER_01

Who's we?

SPEAKER_00

Me and my partner Chris. Nice. And we just had the best time. I mean, it was just like magical, and it it snowed the day we left. Romantic. This is like a storybook, it was awesome. I love it. We we love Paris, but we go that we've been to France quite a bit, and I really want to go. Um I'm a big wine person, so I like to go and I like to go to the wine regions of France.

SPEAKER_01

Love that next. Love that.

SPEAKER_00

All right, gotta manifest it, you know?

SPEAKER_01

Totally. All right, last thing. What this is out there in the universe, you know, your future descendants, family members are gonna see this. What would you want them to know about what we talked about today?

SPEAKER_00

I would like them to know that although it seems scary, it is really exciting.

SPEAKER_01

All these things that are coming.

SPEAKER_00

All these things that are coming.

SPEAKER_01

Sarah, thank you so much for being on the show. I sure can't thank you enough for taking time to be.

SPEAKER_00

Thank you for having me. Thanks for making my podcast podcast a view. I know. I feel so honored. I feel so honored. Thank you for asking me.

SPEAKER_01

Well, Rockstars, this is it for the Will Power Podcast today. Thank you so much for tuning in. We are so grateful that you joined us here at Growth Code 26. This is Will Humphreys, as always, signing off, reminding you to lead with love and to remember to never give up. Until next time,

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Will Humphreys

Host