Exploring Life & Business with Breanna Barney of VIP Therapy, LLC

Today we’d like to introduce you to Breanna Barney

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My business starts with a twelve-year-old girl. She’s a volunteer with the weekly handicapped riding program. Her pony is one of the mounts for the children receiving treatment. She leads the pony and follows the instructions of the physical therapist guiding the session. As the visits progress she observes the radical changes the children undergo. It seems as if a switch is turned on and these children start to to interact and function in their environment in ways they never could before. Moms and dads make comments about the progress. They are amazed at the changes and how grateful they are for the program. Taking it all in, that little girl begins to realize how much she enjoys helping people.
Fast forward to high school, the girl is now fifteen, choosing her college major. She reflects on her time with the riding program. She remembers the purpose and pride she felt. This leads her to prep for the under graduate physical therapy program requirements. She works hard to obtain the scores and grades to be pre accepted and she makes it. She is enrolled at the University of Findlay as pre physical therapy with a seat in the graduate program. Fast forward another seven years and she is graduating with her doctorate. Life feels exciting and brand new, she cannot wait to start using everything she has learned.
As most of us know, this excitement starts to fall away as the realities of real life start to kick in. That little girl is now a thirty-three-year-old woman and is helping run and manage a rehabilitation department within an assisted living facility. Her patients are seniors, looking for ways to maintain their mobility and independence. She loves working with them but the regulations and requirements through insurance make the job frustrating and overwhelming. The paperwork and demands continue to pile on. The ability to provide treatment to her clients is shortened more and more and their physical limitations continue to increase. In short, the clients need more treatment but insurance keeps providing less.
The woman finds herself at home after work and over the weekends, spending multiple hours finishing her notes and scheduling out her clients. This is the normal pattern, the only way she can keep caught up on her documentation. She is frustrated, overwhelmed, and burnt out. She tells herself, “There has to be a better way to treat my patients and myself, this is just not sustainable.” She says a silent prayer that she has said to herself multiple times, “God, if you can create a way to make this happen, I will do whatever I need to make it happen.” At the time she did not realize how great of a change “whatever I need to” was.
Fast forward another five years and a whole new life. That woman is present day me, working full time in my own concierge, senior wellness practice. I slowly transitioned out of working for another fully insurance-based physical therapy company. I went from full time, to part time, to contingent. I did not stop working contingently until just a few months ago. The business was started from the ground up and funded with my personal savings. One of the first practices of its kind in Ohio, many of the people I previously worked with doubted my ability to be successful. I heard, “you’ll never make it,” from many of my mentors. No one believed that people would pay privately for therapy or wellness services. To get to this point so many things changed, I worked through COVID, went through a divorce, two of my three dogs passed away and I had two home moves. Thinking back to my old life, it almost feels like it belonged to someone else. Sounds crazy, but I do think that for us to make a great change we have to become someone new and that is exactly what I did.
Concierge senior wellness, sounds fancy right? Well, it is not that fancy and is a pretty simple concept. Just think of personal training for individuals with complex medical conditions and that is us! Concierge means we come to you and see you where you live and play. We work with our clients as little or as much as they like. We’ve worked with individuals at the gym, golf course, home, park, senior center, and independent and assisted living facilities. We work on things as simple as getting out of a chair to as complex as navigating nine holes on the golf course. Our clients tend to be dependent on an assistive device, have a history of falls and typically have multiple diagnoses that they and their families are struggling to manage. All of our services are privately paid for and not covered through insurance, which means we work for the client, not the insurance company.
We specialize in caring for individuals living with dementia, Parkinson’s, chronic pain and frequent falls. I’m a certified dementia educator, Parkinson’s BIG certified (special exercise program for this population), fall prevention certified, and a chronic pain specialist. As you can imagine to help these individuals maintain a quality of life and functional mobility, they need to be able to move on a regular basis and practice their daily tasks. This is something that insurance-based care will not cover and where my practice comes into play.
When our services begin, I come into the individual’s home and assess their current mobility and cognitive status, and home set up. Many times, we see clients after therapy services have ended or they have had multiple rounds of therapy in the past that were unsuccessful. I then create a plan with the family and the caregivers to help them achieve their current needs. Many times, this is recommendations for changes in home layout, adding new or different pieces of adaptive equipment, educating family/caregivers on proper ways to complete mobility, care, exercise and manage any types of behaviors or pain associated with the client’s diagnosis. From there we (myself and my physical therapy assistant/personal trainer) start in home, weekly exercise and functional mobility programs based on the client’s status and needs. Most of our clients are in their eighties and nineties and we see them multiple times a week for the remainder of their lives.
When I was actively working in traditional insurance-based therapy the insurance company dictated exactly what I was able to work on and for how long. This left many of my clients continuing with pain and mobility limitations and wanting to continue services but didn’t have anywhere to receive it. With the population continuing to age and living longer and longer I knew that this need was going to continue to grow. With job market changes due to COVID and the increased challenges with staffing in senior facilities, families were looking for alternative means to help keep their loved ones safe, active and in their homes for as long as possible.
I truly love what I do. It is so rewarding to know that you are the reason a family member can safely care for their loved one or that loved one can maintain their mobility and independence. That being said, starting this business and getting it up and running has been no small feat. To be honest, I have almost given up a few times. Being in northwest Ohio, we tend to be a little hesitant to try new health care options. And the fact that I was one of the first businesses of my kind made for some interesting growth challenges. Most people have no idea what senior wellness (personal training for seniors) even is let alone the benefits. Many of the physicians that work directly with my clientele were often too busy to meet with me or only referred within their hospital-based systems. I finally found referral success when I partnered up with other likeminded, private pay, senior care providers. We truly knew what this population wanted and needed and were able to provide that!
To start my practice, I left a very well-paying job. I went down to making a fourth of what I had previously. I had zero experience in the realm of business or even managing a practice from the business side of things. I had never networked or even knew what setting up an LLC was. I was excited and absolutely terrified all at the same time.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
See previous entry.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Concierge senior wellness, sounds fancy right? Well, it is not that fancy and is a pretty simple concept. Just think of personal training for individuals with complex medical conditions and that is us! Concierge means we come to you and see you where you live and play. We work with our clients as little or as much as they like. We’ve worked with individuals at the gym, golf course, home, park, senior center, and independent and assisted living facilities. We work on things as simple as getting out of a chair to as complex as navigating nine holes on the golf course. Our clients tend to be dependent on an assistive device, have a history of falls and typically have multiple diagnoses that they and their families are struggling to manage. All of our services are privately paid for and not covered through insurance, which means we work for the client, not the insurance company.
We specialize in caring for individuals living with dementia, Parkinson’s, chronic pain and frequent falls. I’m a certified dementia educator, Parkinson’s BIG certified (special exercise program for this population), fall prevention certified, and a chronic pain specialist. As you can imagine to help these individuals maintain a quality of life and functional mobility, they need to be able to move on a regular basis and practice their daily tasks. This is something that insurance-based care will not cover and where my practice comes into play.
When our services begin, I come into the individual’s home and assess their current mobility and cognitive status, and home set up. Many times, we see clients after therapy services have ended or they have had multiple rounds of therapy in the past that were unsuccessful. I then create a plan with the family and the caregivers to help them achieve their current needs. Many times, this is recommendations for changes in home layout, adding new or different pieces of adaptive equipment, educating family/caregivers on proper ways to complete mobility, care, exercise and manage any types of behaviors or pain associated with the client’s diagnosis. From there we (myself and my physical therapy assistant/personal trainer) start in home, weekly exercise and functional mobility programs based on the client’s status and needs. Most of our clients are in their eighties and nineties and we see them multiple times a week for the remainder of their lives.
When I was actively working in traditional insurance-based therapy the insurance company dictated exactly what I was able to work on and for how long. This left many of my clients continuing with pain and mobility limitations and wanting to continue services but didn’t have anywhere to receive it. With the population continuing to age and living longer and longer I knew that this need was going to continue to grow. With job market changes due to COVID and the increased challenges with staffing in senior facilities, families were looking for alternative means to help keep their loved ones safe, active and in their homes for as long as possible.
I truly love what I do. It is so rewarding to know that you are the reason a family member can safely care for their loved one or that loved one can maintain their mobility and independence. That being said, starting this business and getting it up and running has been no small feat. To be honest, I have almost given up a few times. Being in northwest Ohio, we tend to be a little hesitant to try new health care options. And the fact that I was one of the first businesses of my kind made for some interesting growth challenges. Most people have no idea what senior wellness (personal training for seniors) even is let alone the benefits. Many of the physicians that work directly with my clientele were often too busy to meet with me or only referred within their hospital-based systems. I finally found referral success when I partnered up with other likeminded, private pay, senior care providers. We truly knew what this population wanted and needed and were able to provide that!

The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
When I was actively working in traditional insurance-based therapy the insurance company dictated exactly what I was able to work on and for how long. This left many of my clients continuing with pain and mobility limitations and wanting to continue services but didn’t have anywhere to receive it. With the population continuing to age and living longer and longer I knew that this need was going to continue to grow. With job market changes due to COVID and the increased challenges with staffing in senior facilities, families were looking for alternative means to help keep their loved ones safe, active and in their homes for as long as possible.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.vipseniorcarespecialists.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/viptherapypt/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/viptherapypt/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@viptherapypt8250