Don Pelto, DPM - Podiatry Practice Mastery

Many podiatrists accept insurance and stay busy but still struggle to make their practice as profitable as it should be. In this episode of Podiatry Practice Mastery, Don breaks down why simply seeing more patients isn’t always the answer—and why seeing the right mix of patients and fully utilizing the services insurance reimburses can make a major difference.

Don covers evaluating low-paying insurance plans, improving billing and coding, performing appropriate procedures, incorporating DME and custom bracing, improving imaging efficiency, and reducing unnecessary low-value appointments. He also explains why some practices don’t have a profitability problem at all—they simply need more patient demand.

Keywords: profitable podiatry practice, podiatry insurance reimbursement, podiatry billing and coding, DME for podiatrists, podiatry practice profitability

Online reviews are important for a podiatry practice, but relying on yourself or your staff to remember to ask every patient can make it difficult to consistently generate them. In this episode of Podiatry Practice Mastery, Don shares how his practice automates Google review requests and a mistake he discovered in the way those requests were being sent.

Don explains why he’s working to build reviews for individual doctors as well as the overall practice, how his two-location, four-doctor practice structures its Google presence, and why he focuses primarily on Google reviews. He also shares several ways practices can repurpose patient reviews in newsletters, waiting room content, websites, advertising, and other marketing.

Keywords: Google reviews for podiatrists, podiatry practice marketing, online reviews for doctors, medical practice reviews, podiatry reputation management

Learn more at https://www.podiatrypracticemastery.com/accounting

Most podiatrists understand the clinical side of running a practice far better than the financial side. But decisions about equipment purchases, hiring, expansion, taxes, cash flow, and eventually selling a practice can have a major impact on profitability.

In this episode, Don talks with Tomer about a subscription-based approach to accounting, tax, bookkeeping, and fractional CFO services for medical practices. They discuss financial forecasting, overlooked tax credits, preparing your books for a future practice sale, and why having better financial information can help private-practice owners make smarter growth decisions.

Keywords: podiatry practice accounting, medical practice CFO services, podiatry practice profitability, medical practice tax strategy, selling a podiatry practice

What happens when multiple doctors in the same podiatry practice have different treatment protocols? In this episode of Podiatry Practice Mastery, Don shares a real challenge from his own practice: deciding how many shockwave therapy sessions patients should receive when doctors have different approaches.

Don explains why he has traditionally used six shockwave sessions, why his colleagues prefer four, and the compromise he’s testing—four initial treatments followed by additional sessions at the 6- and 12-week follow-ups when needed. He also discusses how prepaid treatment packages created an unexpected production issue when other doctors covered his patients while he was away. It’s a practical look at balancing clinical preferences, patient convenience, doctor production, and consistency in a multi-doctor practice.

Keywords: shockwave therapy protocols, podiatry practice management, multi-doctor podiatry practice, shockwave therapy sessions, podiatry production

Your waiting room shouldn’t just keep patients occupied—it can educate them about the conditions you treat and the services and products available in your practice. In this episode of Podiatry Practice Mastery, Don shares how he used ChatGPT and Canva to quickly create patient-facing waiting room videos covering everything from shockwave and DME to common foot and ankle conditions.

Don walks through the simple process of using AI to generate the content, turning it into slides in Canva, exporting those slides as videos, and displaying them throughout the practice. He also explains how the same content can be repurposed for your website, YouTube channel, patient education, and other marketing.

Keywords: podiatry waiting room marketing, AI for podiatrists, ChatGPT for medical practices, podiatry patient education, podiatry practice marketing

In this episode of Podiatry Practice Mastery, Don breaks down his practical approach to choosing shockwave therapy settings, adjusting treatment intensity, and building confidence with both radial and non-radial shockwave devices. He covers pulse counts, frequency, treatment areas, patient tolerance, and why more intensity does not necessarily mean a better treatment.

You’ll also hear how Don structures a six-session shockwave protocol, what he expects patients to feel during treatment, when he uses touch-up sessions, and how shockwave fits alongside orthotics, stretching, soft-tissue work, and physical therapy. If you’re a podiatrist who is new to shockwave or unsure how to adjust your settings, this episode provides a simple framework for thinking through your treatment.

Keywords: shockwave therapy for podiatrists, shockwave therapy settings, radial shockwave therapy, focused shockwave therapy, podiatry shockwave protocols

Patient education webinars can be a practical way to educate patients, create content, and potentially generate new appointments—but the details matter. In this episode, I break down what happened with my latest heel pain webinar, including how we promoted it, registration and attendance, the tools I used, and what I would change next time.

I also share lessons around webinar reminders, tracking whether attendees actually become patients, repurposing presentations into content, and why an in-office heel pain event may work better than a virtual webinar. If you’re considering patient seminars or webinars to grow your podiatry practice, this gives you a simple framework to test.

Keywords: heel pain webinar, podiatry marketing, patient education webinar, podiatry practice growth, heel pain marketing

Urgent care centers are seeing plenty of foot and ankle problems—but those patients may be better served coming directly to a podiatrist. In this episode, I share how I’m building stronger relationships with urgent care groups through a dedicated urgent care webpage, educational lectures, procedure videos, office visits, and referral outreach.

I also break down why I’m willing to teach urgent care providers how I handle common foot and ankle problems without worrying about “giving away the secrets.” The bigger opportunity is to provide value, build trust, create reciprocity, and become the podiatrist they think of when a patient needs specialized care.

Keywords: urgent care podiatry, podiatry referrals, podiatry practice growth, physician referral marketing, foot and ankle urgent care

Have you wondered whether an AI scribe can actually replace a human scribe in a busy podiatry practice?

In this episode, Don documents his first week using an AI scribe inside his practice. He shares the day-by-day realities of implementation, including documentation challenges, workflow adjustments, ModMed integration issues, patient communication, and the learning curve involved in changing long-established habits. Along the way, he explores where AI performs surprisingly well and where traditional documentation methods still have advantages.

You'll learn practical lessons about protocol development, note automation, EMR efficiency, and how AI may impact staffing decisions and practice profitability. Whether you're actively considering an AI scribe or simply curious about the future of documentation in podiatry, this episode provides a transparent look at the process.

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