A Community-Based Clinic
In late 2019 I purchased Berkeley Physical Therapy, where I had worked for 10 years, with the intention of saving the PT clinic from being shuttered. The owner was ready for retirement and prepared to shut down the operation completely. We were off to a bumpy start, but with the help of my colleagues who had also been part of the clinic for years, and the addition of new staff, we continued to implement the vision to expand our healthcare coverage to include more MediCal patients.
We changed our name to Berkeley Community Physical Therapy (BCPT) to underline our commitment to serving all of those in our locality who are in need of high-quality PT. My core belief, after working in this industry for 20 years, is that healthcare is a human right. Too many physical therapy clinics have become high class spas catering only to the needs of a select few who are in a financial position to afford their services.
Within eight months of the purchase, just as we were beginning to achieve a sustainable economic model, the pandemic hit. While I had to furlow all of the staff, I ensured that our doors stayed open by treating the post operative cases myself. In June 2020, I was hospitalized with COVID-19 and we had to close our doors. As a result, we owed our landlord over $45,000 in back rent. With the help of attorneys, we were able to extract the clinic from an onerous and possibly terminal tenancy situation, but not without incurring hefty legal fees.
Last year, to prevent BCPT from going under, we turned to the community — whom we had served for so many years — to raise over $50,000. Thankfully, through the community’s generosity, and with a significant loan from the small business administration, we were able to achieve this goal. This has allowed us to continue providing world-class PT for our beloved Berkeley community.
Sadly, as the economy reopened, Covid continued to affect all of us and hampered our anticipated comeback. This past December, several staffers were unable to work for multiple weeks and as a result we lost $20,000. Compounding matters, one of our clinicians was stranded in Texas because of Southwest Airlines’ nationwide grounding, also a pandemic-related fallout from cutbacks in the airline industry.
Despite these continued COVID-19 related setbacks, the state and federal governments no longer supported small businesses — as if clinics like ours could magically bounce back. Instead, many small businesses closed. If you look around, a significant number of small businesses at and around downtown are now gone for good. In addition, other businesses are selling to big corporate chains. Berkeley’s independent, vibrant small business district, much valued and discussed by local politicians, is no more.
Exacerbating the issue of post-pandemic fallout is the greed of the insurance companies. We’re currently struggling to get compensated by insurance companies for services rendered over the past two years! For-profit insurers are denying patients and practitioners critical reimbursement while posting billions of dollars in profits.
We at Berkeley Community Physical Therapy believe that change begins with us. While we’re a business, we operate on a unique economic model because of our circular faith. We trust that if we put our patients and our community before profits, they’ll support us so that we can continue to serve them.
We need your help to keep our clinic — your clinic — alive as a vital resource for the holistic health of the community. Below is the link to our GoFundMe campaign. Please donate what you can. We appreciate your contribution and your partnership.
This article was first published in the Berkeley Times on June 22, 2023.
