Clasp’s Physical Therapy Employer Network Adds Four Major Employers, Bringing Future Loan Repayment Commitments to $5M+ as Employers Race to Staff Clinics

Boston, MA, USA – WEBWIRE – Tuesday, September 15, 2026

Professional Physical Therapy, Therapy Partners Group, Brooks Rehabilitation and HealthPRO Heritage join Confluent Health and other partners using Loan-Linked Hiring programs to recruit and retain physical therapists.

Clasp is now working with five of the largest outpatient and rehabilitation employers in the country, in a profession the BLS projects will grow 12% between 2025 and 2035

Commitments now cover more than 100 physical therapists and DPT students, a number Clasp expects to double annually

Physical therapy employers are opening clinics faster than they can staff them, and four more of them are now paying down their clinicians’ student loans to close the gap.Professional Physical Therapy,Therapy Partners Group,Brooks Rehabilitation and HealthPRO Heritage have each launched a Loan-Linked Hiring program through Clasp, a workforce infrastructure company that ties student loan repayments to how long a clinician stays. Across its Physical Therapy Network, Clasp employers have committed $2.6 million to date toward repayment for more than 100 physical therapists and DPT students.

Rather than competing for graduates primarily through one-time sign-on bonuses, the employers are investing in DPT students earlier and making the benefit worth more the longer a clinician remains. The new programs build on Clasp’s existing work with Confluent Health, a national network of physical therapy and rehabilitation companies, as well as Valley Health, UNC Health, and Ignite Medical Resorts.

A career AI can’t do

Physical therapy is one of the fastest-expanding corners of American healthcare and one of the harder jobs to automate because of its hands-on nature. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects PT employment will grow 12% between 2025 and 2035, four times the rate across all occupations. Demand is being driven by an aging population, rising rates of chronic conditions, a shift toward non-opioid pain management, and more patients needing rehabilitation after surgery. The need for post-operative care is growing quickly: hip replacement volumes rose 130% to 210%, and knee replacements rose 150% to as much as 664% between 2010 and 2023. Interest is keeping pace, with a record 19,236 people completing the DPT application process during the 2025–26 cycle.

For employers, that growth has a catch. A clinic can only see as many patients as it has PTs to treat them. Without enough clinicians, organizations can’t add appointments, staff new clinics, or expand into new markets, directly limiting revenue and growth.

Part of what’s slowing the pipeline is the cost of entering it. The profession requires a three-year clinical doctorate, and early-career PTs carry debt averaging $152,882, excluding mortgages, roughly $50,000 more than the median physical therapist earns in a year. And as federal graduate lending rules shift, future DPT students face more uncertainty about how to finance the degree.

“Physical therapy has almost everything America says it wants in a career: growing demand, meaningful work, hands-on patient care, and jobs that are difficult to replace with AI. Then we ask people to take on six figures of debt to do it,” said Tess Michaels, Founder and CEO of Clasp. “The PT shortage is an economic problem. Employers can’t control what a DPT costs, but they can decide whether a new graduate has to carry that cost alone.”

“Every new clinic, new market, and additional patient we want to serve ultimately depends on having great physical therapists there to provide the care,” said Brent Mack, CEO at Therapy Partners Group. “We need to reach future PTs earlier, invest in them meaningfully, and give them a reason to build their careers with us. Helping pay down student debt allows us to do exactly that.”

“Physical therapists today aren’t just choosing a job; they’re choosing an organization that will invest in their future and professional growth,” said Steve Schneider, Chief Executive Officer of Professional Physical Therapy. “Helping clinicians pay down student debt is one of the clearest ways we can demonstrate that our commitment extends long after they sign an offer letter.”

The four new programs build on Clasp’s established work with Confluent Health, a Louisville, KY-based network of 750+ private physical and occupational therapy practices across the U.S., which uses loan repayments to recruit and retain clinicians across its own PT network.

“The student debt conversation and the talent conversation have become impossible to separate in physical therapy,” said Alyson Cadman, PT, DPT, OCS, TPS, Director of Organizational Effectiveness at Confluent Health. “When an employer helps shoulder that burden, it can change where a clinician chooses to begin their career and where they can see themselves staying long term.”

Across all healthcare specialties, employers in Clasp’s network have committed more than $130 million toward student loan repayment through programs designed to reward tenure rather than simply signing an offer.

Physical therapists and DPT students interested in finding employers that offer student loan repayment can visit /www.clasp.com/pt. Physical therapy employers interested in building loan repayment programs to recruit and retain clinicians can visit www.clasp.com/healthcare.

About Clasp

Clasp is a workforce infrastructure company that connects clinicians with healthcare employers and ties student loan repayment to tenure. Through its Loan-Linked Hiring model, Clasp helps healthcare employers secure talent earlier and improve long-term retention. The company was founded by Tess Michaels in 2018 while she was completing her MBA at Harvard Business School. Raised in a family of physicians, she saw how staffing gaps strain care teams and how student debt shapes where clinicians work and how long they stay.