Medical and dental practice financing covers clinical equipment, suites, partner buy-ins and payroll while claims are paid. Orchardmark Financial, a small-business funding broker in Scranton, Pennsylvania, explains the options to Lackawanna County practices, where health care is the largest sector, and sends requests to lending partners, which decide and set every rate and term.
| Lackawanna County ambulatory health care | 530 employer establishments (CBP 2023) |
|---|---|
| Physician offices | 197 with employees |
| Dental offices | 83 with employees |
| Ambulatory health care payroll | About $616.6 million |
| Health care and social assistance | Largest sector: 810 establishments |
Practices in Lackawanna County, PA
Health care and social assistance is Lackawanna County's largest sector, with 810 employer establishments and about $1.19 billion in annual payroll in 2023. Within it, ambulatory health care, the offices where patients are seen, had 530 establishments, 8,852 paid employees and about $616.6 million in payroll (U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023).
| Practice type | Employer establishments | Paid employees | Under five employees |
|---|---|---|---|
| Offices of physicians | 197 | 3,054 | 93 |
| Offices of dentists | 83 | 668 | 36 |
| All ambulatory health care | 530 | 8,852 | 241 |
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023; the physician employee count carries a moderate noise flag. A further 824 ambulatory health care businesses had no paid employees in 2024, including 155 physician and 27 dental practices (U.S. Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2024).
Dental office financing
Dental offices tend to finance equipment one operatory at a time: chairs, delivery units, intraoral scanners, panoramic and cone-beam imaging, sterilization equipment. Dentists in the county employed 668 people across 83 offices in 2023, about eight per office, so a single new operatory is a meaningful share of the practice. The dental equipment payment calculator shows the monthly payment, total interest and total cost for a price, down payment, rate and term you enter.
Medical clinic financing
Clinics finance diagnostic equipment, exam room fit-outs, electronic records systems and, at times, a move to a larger suite. Physician offices in the county averaged about 15 paid employees each in 2023, against about eight in dental offices, so a clinic's payroll gap while claims are processed is often the larger number to plan for. Partners review the practice's collections history, payer mix and existing debt. Our article on clinic financing walks through equipment, space and payroll as three separate decisions.
Healthcare and medical device financing
Most clinical devices are financed through equipment loans, leases or EFAs. Technology that is replaced every few years, such as imaging software or lasers, often suits a lease with a buyout option; long-lived equipment usually suits a loan. Partners will ask for the vendor quote, the model and whether the device is new or refurbished.
Chiropractic and therapy equipment
Chiropractic tables, decompression systems, therapy lasers and rehabilitation equipment are financed the same way. Smaller practices may be asked for a larger down payment or a personal guarantee, since the equipment's resale market is narrower.
Claims timing and working capital
A practice sees patients today and may be paid by insurers weeks later. When a new payer, a staff addition or a billing change stretches that wait, payroll can arrive before the payments. Short-term working capital or a credit line covers the gap; partners will want to see the accounts receivable aging and recent collections.
New practices and partner buy-ins
Buying into a practice, or buying one outright from a retiring owner, is usually funded with a term loan secured by the practice's assets, with the partner reviewing the practice's collections history and the purchase agreement.
Before signing for practice equipment
- Confirm whether the agreement is a loan, a lease or an EFA, and who owns the device.
- Get the total of all payments and any buyout in dollars.
- Ask whether service contracts or software licenses are bundled into the payment.
- Check what happens if the device is replaced before the term ends.
- Read the insurance and maintenance requirements.
Bundled service and software can make two quotes for the same device look very different. Ask for the equipment cost on its own line.
The practice file a partner builds
- Collections and production reports for the last year or two.
- Payer mix and the share from any single insurer.
- Business and personal tax returns.
- Equipment quotes and vendor details.
- Existing equipment leases and loans.
Other sectors are under financing by sector, and local context is on our Scranton, PA page.
By Orchardmark Financial · Updated
