How to finance your fast growing medical office

Regardless of what industry pundits say, opening a medical practice can be both very rewarding and very lucrative. Of course, as with any business, medical offices have their own specific financial challenges. One of the biggest challenges for medical practices of all sizes is adjusting to the long payment cycles of private insurance providers and Medicare/Medicaid. It is not uncommon for bills to insurance companies to take up to 120 days to pay. This slow payment cycle wreaks havoc in the office’s cash flow, forcing the medical office to carry the costs of doing business – paying rent, equipment leases and office staff – while waiting to get paid. This can be prohibitively expensive and prevent the office from growing and hiring additional staff. At its worst, it can threaten the very existence of the medical practice.

However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. There is a financing tool that lets you capitalize on your slow paying insurance companies and turn their slow payments into immediate payments. The solution is to factor your medical receivables.

How does medical receivables factoring work?

Medical factoring is a financing tool that allows you to turn slow paying invoices into actual cash, by selling them to a medical factoring company. The medical factoring company pays you for them and waits to be paid by the insurance companies. It eliminates the slow payment cycle, reducing the payment time from 90 days to two days. This provides the medical office with the necessary funds to meet expenses, such as paying rent and staff. It also frees up capital to grow the business into new areas.

The medical factoring process is fairly simple. Once a factoring arrangement is established, your office sends its weekly receivables to the factoring company for immediate financing. The factoring company will calculate the actual amount paid by insurance companies (called the net collectibles) and advance you up to 80% of that amount. The remaining 20% is called the reserve, and is used to settle billing discrepancies. Once the insurance company pays the medical bill, the remaining 20% is rebated, less the financing fee. The financing fee varies based on how long the invoices were financed.

Although qualifying for factoring is relatively simple, most financing companies will only work with medical offices that have net collectibles of at least $50,000. Terms usually get better as the practice grows. Medical practices, testing centers and medical supply companies that have over $200,000 a month in net collectibles are in the best position to get the best terms. This is because insurance payment processing can be very complex and there are a number of efficiencies that can be realized with high volumes.

Advantages of medical office factoring

Medical factoring has some advantages over other financial products. The most important is that the financing is recurring and happens every time you invoice an insurance company. This makes it a cash on demand product. As opposed to loans and lines of credit, the factoring line has flexible limits. As a matter of fact, the limits are based on your ability to invoice, making it an ideal growth tool. Lastly, doctor office financing is easy to qualify for and the personal credit of the practice owners is usually not involved in the financing decision.