A Message from Mike: Mobility Matters

Mobility Matters: A National Physical Therapy Month Letter

Mike Billings, PT, DHSc, MS, CEEAA
President and Co-Founder

Happy National Physical Therapy Month

Team,

October is National Physical Therapy Month, and I want to start by saying thank you. To our PTs, PTAs, OTs, COTAs, SLPs, and every leader and support team member who makes our work possible across 15 states: you are why our patients walk out of our facilities and back into their lives.

This month is personal for me. I became a physical therapist in 1994, and I have spent most of my career in skilled nursing, working with older adults. I have seen what happens when a resident is helped out of bed, onto their feet, and down the hall. I have also seen what happens when they are not. Those two paths diverge quickly, and that difference is the reason I still believe in this work after more than 30 years.

What I Heard at Mobility Matters

Last month I joined leaders from across the country at Mobility Matters, hosted by the University of Colorado Physical Therapy Program on the CU Anschutz campus, September 23–24. It was not a typical conference. It was set up as a working think tank, bringing together researchers, policy experts, payers, post-acute administrators, technology innovators, clinicians, and resident and caregiver representatives.

The group shared one ambitious goal: make mobility a standard of care in every skilled nursing facility in the United States within the next 10 years.

The case is clear. Mobility decline is one of the biggest drivers of rehospitalization, long-term institutionalization, rising costs, and loss of independence for older adults. It also places real strain on families. At the same time, value-based care, workforce shortages, and new technology are changing how rehab and mobility care get delivered. That combination creates both urgency and opportunity.

Sitting in those working sessions, I kept thinking the same thing: this is the conversation Infinity Rehab has been having for more than a decade. It was energizing to hear it echoed nationally.

We Have Been Moving in This Direction for Years

At Infinity, mobility and high-intensity rehabilitation in SNFs have been a priority for well over a decade. Long before it was a national talking point, we made a choice: older adults deserve the same evidence-based, challenging rehabilitation we would give anyone else. Age and diagnosis are not reasons to aim lower.

That belief shapes how we practice:

• High-intensity, goal-driven therapy. We challenge our patients with progressive, meaningful activity because the evidence shows older adults respond to it.
• More Movement Matters. Our mobility program carries movement beyond the therapy gym and into every part of the resident’s day, working alongside nursing and the whole care team.
• Measuring what matters. We track functional outcomes so we can prove our value to residents, families, facility partners, and payers.

This is what our mission means in practice: delivering the best of science with the art of caring.

What It Will Take to Get There

A 10-year vision only becomes reality if the system changes around it. From what I heard in Colorado and from my own years in this field, a few things must happen together:

1. Measure it. Mobility retention needs to be publicly reported and counted in quality ratings and value-based payment, so every facility can see its results.
2. Pay for it. Payment needs to reward keeping residents moving every day, not only skilled therapy episodes.
3. Hold the line on existing standards. Federal rules already require facilities to prevent avoidable mobility decline. They deserve real attention.
4. Make it everyone’s job. Therapy alone cannot walk every resident every day. Nursing assistants and the whole care team need the training and time to make mobility part of daily care.
5. Rethink risk. Fear of falls too often keeps people in bed. Immobility carries serious risks of its own, from pressure injuries to delirium to lost independence.
6. Prove it with data. Outcomes data showing fewer hospitalizations and better function will move policymakers faster than anything else.

That last point is where companies like ours can lead. We already have the clinical expertise and the outcomes data to help show what is possible.

Our Priorities Ahead

Improving mobility in older adults remains one of Infinity Rehab’s core strategic priorities. Over the coming year, we will:

• Grow More Movement Matters in our partner facilities and strengthen how we partner with nursing to keep residents moving between therapy sessions.
• Use our data to show the impact of mobility and high-intensity rehab on function, hospitalizations, and successful discharges.
• Add our voice nationally by staying engaged with Mobility Matters and other partners working toward the 10-year goal.

What you can do this month

Every one of us can move this forward, starting now:

• Get one more resident up and moving today, and invite a nursing colleague to join you.
• Share a patient success story with your regional leader. We want to celebrate them.
• Document function carefully. Strong data help us prove what we already know.
• Ask your facility partners how we can help their whole team support mobility.

Thank You

When I started as a PT in 1994, mobility was something therapy did for a few minutes a day. Today, a national movement is working to make it the standard for every resident in every skilled nursing facility in the country. Infinity Rehab intends to help lead that movement, and that starts with the work you do every day.

Thank you for the patients you get moving, the families you give hope to, and the care you bring to this profession. Happy National Physical Therapy Month.

With gratitude,

Mike Billings, PT, DHSc, MS, CEEAA

President, Infinity Rehab