Today we’d like to introduce you to Maria Dobbertien.
Hi Maria, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I started Functional Kids in 2014 right after I had my daughter when my job closed due to an unexpected Medicare audit that closed its doors. I built it from the ground up with no prior knowledge of how to bill insurance or run a medical practice. 11 years later I had started 3 different locations with about 30 staff and offered OT, PT, Speech, Counseling and Chiropractic care. I recently sold this traditional medical practice and I’m now embarking on a new adventure with a new business called Hopeful Insights while I assist the new current owner in running Functional Kids. We are a 100% women owned and operated organization helping more than 300 families per week in our southwest Michigan area.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Never a smooth road dealing with insurances. Struggles with reimbursement, helping needy families find help and transportation, finding new ways to get insurances to cover the needed therapy for kids and finding committed staff to help build and support the mission of every child deserves a champion (our motto) …these are some of the big bumps along the road to success
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We specialize in providing care to children with various neurodiverse needs. Are one of the only clinics that also offers assistance to children with Medicaid and we have staff that are certified and specialized in various areas including feeding therapy and dyslexia treatment. Areas are ones that very few clinics in our area offer. We want people to know that we are set apart from others based on our experience and specialization in various programs and that we offer many out of the box treatment options such as irlen Screening and diagnostics and vital stem feeding therapy intervention that most places do not offer due to the expense and certification that is required to offer these services. Hopeful insights the new company that I started features myself as the sole provider and I offer a variety of services that no one else in the state of Michigan has including: Emotion code release, body code release, belief code release, Irlen Screening and diagnostics as well as the use of specialized equipment including the inharmony vibro acoustic mat
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
My advice is to try to find a good mentor that can help and support your mission while you are building your business so that you can more quickly and efficiently create a structure that works for you. I do wish that I better understood many of the requirements of owning and operating a facility and being a formal employer because this would have allowed me to more quickly offer support to staff and families in the early stages of the business
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