Business Line of Credit for Healthcare Practices in New York

Why the money arrives late

A medical, dental or therapy practice delivers care first. Then comes coding, claim submission, payer review and, eventually, payment. Some claims are paid cleanly; others are denied, returned for corrections or pended for more information. Each of those paths adds days or weeks.

Meanwhile staff are paid every pay period, rent is due and supplies are reordered. The practice is owed money and short of cash at the same time.

A claim's journey, and where cash waits

1. Visit: care is delivered, costs are incurred.
2. Coding and submission: billing staff prepare the claim.
3. Payer review: the insurer processes, approves, pends or denies.
4. Corrections: any rework restarts the clock.
5. Payment: funds finally arrive in the practice account.

A line of credit is meant to carry you across steps two to four.

Why a line suits this lag

The reimbursement gap repeats every month, and its size changes with patient volume and payer mix. A line of credit is designed around that kind of recurring, uneven need. The general idea is that you draw what you need and refill the cushion as payments arrive. How any offer is structured appears in its paperwork, so review it carefully.

Practical guardrails

• Track days in accounts receivable monthly. A rising number means the lag is growing.
• Use funding to bridge a known delay, not an unresolved denial problem.
• Keep payroll and supply costs separate in your own planning so you see the true monthly gap.

What we look at

We fund $25,000 to $5,000,000, and funding can arrive in as little as 24 hours. A FICO score of 500 or higher is considered, we ask for about three months of business bank statements, and no tax returns are required. The application takes about 5 minutes and uses a soft credit pull. Sole proprietors can apply.

A worked example, for illustration only

A small group practice bills about $90,000 in a month and gets paid, on average, about six weeks later. Payroll and rent run $70,000 each month. If a new payer is slower than expected, the practice may need $40,000 or so to cover the extra weeks. These figures are invented and rounded. They are not a quote or typical outcome.

When a line is not enough

If the practice is losing money before reimbursement lag is counted, because fees are low or overhead is too high, a credit line cannot help much. The same goes for a large equipment purchase, such as imaging or dental chairs, which may be better matched with equipment financing. Use a line for the recurring gap and a different format for the one-time purchase.

Dental, medical, therapy: same lag, different shapes

A dental office with a large share of patient-paid work may have a short lag. A multi-provider medical group billing several payers may have a long and uneven one. A therapy practice may depend on a handful of payers whose payment timing matters a lot. The size and rhythm of your own gap is what should set the amount you consider, rather than a rule of thumb from another practice.