Lodgehollow Funding Group arranges funding requests for physician practices and medical clinics in New Bern, NC and Craven County. Practices can wait on insurance reimbursement, buy costly equipment and bring in new partners through buy-ins. This page covers working capital, equipment financing, buy-in and expansion loans, and what partners review, with County Business Patterns 2023 figures for local physician offices.
| Doctors' offices with employees, Craven County, NC | 55 employers (CBP 2023) |
|---|---|
| Employees at those offices | 845 (CBP 2023) |
| Under five employees | 20, or 36.4% |
| Listed in ZIP 28560 | 12 (ZBP 2023) |
| Health care payroll, county | $454.7 million, the most of any sector (CBP 2023) |
Reimbursement Timing Shapes a Practice's Cash
A physician practice delivers care today and may be paid by insurers, government programs and patients over the following weeks. Payroll for nurses, medical assistants and front-desk staff runs on a fixed schedule regardless. When a payer slows down, when a new provider joins and is still being credentialed, or when billing systems change, the gap between work and payment widens.
Medical practice business loans can answer three needs: covering that gap, replacing or adding equipment, and funding ownership changes or a new site.
Covering the Wait for Claims to Pay
Working capital sized to the receivables lag, repaid as claims are paid, is one way to bridge it. Partners look at the practice's accounts receivable aging by payer, its collection history and its payroll. A partner reads a practice whose claims are clean but slow differently from one with a high denial rate.
Illustrative example only: a practice billing $180,000 a month, half of it to one major payer, sees that payer stretch payments from 30 to 50 days. Roughly $60,000 of extra receivables builds up while payroll stays the same. That is the gap to fund, and the payer's eventual payments are the source of repayment.
Medical Clinic Financing for Equipment
Exam tables, imaging, ultrasound, lab analyzers, EKG units, sterilization equipment and practice-management systems are financed through equipment loans or leases. Imaging that dates quickly can be leased; durable equipment may be bought. The post on equipment loans for doctors walks through a practice's equipment request in detail.
Physician Practice Buy-In Loans for New Owners
When a physician buys into an existing practice, the buy-in price comes from the practice's own agreement and any valuation. A physician practice buy-in loan is typically a term loan to the buying physician or the practice, repaid from the new partner's share of income. Partners review the buy-in agreement, the practice's financial statements and the physician's own credit and income history.
Expansion and New Locations
Adding a satellite clinic, building out a procedure room or renovating space is a one-time project with a known cost. Medical clinic loans for build-outs are reviewed on the practice's existing cash flow, with the contractor's bid and the lease for the new space. Equipment for the new site can be financed separately.
Questions a Practice Should Answer First
- Is the need a one-time purchase or a recurring gap between billing and payment?
- Which payers pay late, and has that changed recently?
- Does the equipment quote include installation, training and software?
- Is a new physician joining, and on what timeline will their schedule fill?
Clear answers let the request be shaped around the real cause of the cash need, which helps the request match the real cause of the cash need.
Craven County, NC Doctors' Offices in the Census Count
County Business Patterns counted 55 physician office employer establishments in Craven County in 2023, with 845 employees and $84.4 million in annual payroll (noise-infused). Twenty of them, 36.4%, had fewer than five employees, and 12 had a ZIP 28560 address (ZIP Code Business Patterns 2023). Nonemployer Statistics counted 85 no-payroll physician offices in the county in 2024, a separate program and year.
Health care is the county's biggest payroll: Health Care and Social Assistance employers paid $454.7 million across 7,471 employees in 2023, more than any other sector. The New Bern, NC data page sets out the full sector mix.
The File a Practice Sends In
- Receivables aging, payer by payer
- Bank statements and the practice's payroll
- For bigger requests, financial statements and tax returns
- Equipment quotes, or the buy-in or purchase agreement
- Leases and loans already running on practice equipment
Related Health Care Pages
Business loans for doctors in other specialties follow the same pattern. Dental practices are covered on the dental practice page, and chiropractors, physical therapists and optometrists on the therapy practice page.
By Lodgehollow Funding Group · Updated