Medical equipment is expensive, long-lived, heavily regulated and sold into a market where the buyer's revenue often comes from insurers rather than patients. Every one of those facts changes how a lender looks at the deal, and together they explain why healthcare equipment finance is a specialism rather than a line item on a general lender's page.
Reimbursement is what the lender is really assessing
A clinic's ability to pay for a scanner depends on how many procedures it will bill and what it will be paid for them, and that is decided by payer contracts rather than by the practice. Lenders who know the sector ask about payer mix, contract length and the reimbursement code the equipment supports, because a device that is well reimbursed is close to self-financing and one that is not is a fixed cost against uncertain revenue. Have the payer mix and the utilisation assumption ready; they matter more than the practice's own accounts.
Regulated devices and the secondhand market
A resale market exists for most medical equipment and it is narrower than it looks, because a buyer needs the right licences, service contracts and, for some devices, a site survey and installation that costs a meaningful fraction of the price. Lenders respond with lower advance rates on installed or site-specific equipment and better terms on portable, standard devices. Ask whether the quoted facility covers installation and commissioning, because those are frequently excluded and they are frequently the part a clinic cannot fund from cash.
What the published minimums say
Six lenders in this record keep a live equipment financing page and three publish a minimum on it. The lowest is a five hundred credit score against a hundred and fifty thousand dollars of annual revenue; the strictest published trading requirement on an equipment programme here is two years. None publishes a rate, a term or a deposit, and none publishes a criterion specific to healthcare. Check the two numbers you can check, then ask the sector questions above of a lender that has actually financed a clinic before.
Questions people ask about medical equipment financing
Do medical equipment financing companies lend to new clinics?
Some do, and the trading-history bars in this record start at six months. A new clinic is usually looking at a personal guarantee and a larger deposit, and at lenders who understand reimbursement well enough to underwrite the utilisation rather than the accounts.
Is leasing better than buying medical equipment?
For equipment superseded quickly, or where a service contract and upgrades matter more than ownership, leasing usually is. For long-lived devices with a stable resale market, ownership often costs less overall. Compare total cost of borrowing and the end-of-term position rather than the monthly figure.
Does installation get financed too?
Frequently not. Installation, commissioning and any site works are often excluded from the equipment facility, and they can be a large share of the total. Ask explicitly what the advance covers before you plan the cash.