How to get a business loan for a medical clinic: what lenders read and what to have ready

A general practice looks odd on paper. Revenue comes through Medicare, private fees and incentive programs, much of it earned by doctors who keep a share. A lender used to cafés or tradies can misread that, and a clinic owner can misjudge what the lender needs to see.

This guide covers what a lender is actually reading, the pack worth assembling before you ask, and which kind of loan suits which purpose. It is written for business lending only: the loan is to the practice, never to a patient or a doctor personally.

What do lenders want to see from a medical clinic?

Business.gov.au lists what most lenders consider: your income, expenses, debts and cash flow; how much you can afford to repay; any security you can offer; whether someone will guarantee the loan; and your business plan. For a clinic, five questions sit underneath that list.

1. Where does the money come from? Medicare benefits, patient gap fees, private billings, incentives and other income, each on its own line.
2. How much of it do we actually keep? Gross billings are not practice income if doctors are contractors paying a service fee.
3. What happens if one doctor leaves? Lenders test concentration.
4. How reliably does cash arrive? Medicare bulk bill claims are paid quickly; incentives arrive in arrears.
5. What is the money for, and what does it do to earnings? A new CT room that adds billings reads very differently from a general top-up.

How does a lender read Medicare, private fees and incentives?

Think of a clinic as three streams with different rhythms.

Income stream	How it behaves	What a lender looks for
Bulk billed Medicare claims	Frequent, small and steady	A regular pattern of deposits that matches claimed volume
Private and gap fees	Patient-paid on the day	Card and EFT receipts that reconcile to the practice software
Quarterly incentives	Lumpy, in arrears	Past quarterly deposits showing the pattern

Services Australia’s operational guidance sets the minimum payment time for a Medicare bulk bill webclaim at one day, so a clinic that bulk bills should see Medicare money in the account almost daily. That steadiness is a strength in a bank statement.

The Bulk Billing Practice Incentive Program is the lumpy part. The Department of Health describes an extra 12.5% loading on MBS benefits for eligible GP services, and the RACGP reports that it is paid quarterly in arrears and split 50/50 between practice and GP. Practices must register and fully bulk bill GP non-referred attendances to qualify. Two things follow for your loan application:

• Your bank statements will show a quarterly bump. Tell the lender what it is before they ask.
• Only the practice’s half counts as practice income. A lender who sees the whole amount in the account without the split explained may mistake it for retained earnings.

There’s also a deadline to know about. The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons reported that the window to submit bulk billed claims was cut from two years to one year for services from 5 September 2025. Unlodged older claims are cash you may not be able to collect, so tidy backlogs before you apply. A lender who finds a chunk of unclaimed work will ask why.

Why do lenders care so much about which doctors bill what?

Because in general practice, the doctor is the revenue engine. A clinic where two doctors produce 70% of billings has a different risk profile from one where eight doctors produce 12% each, even if profit is identical this year.

Prepare a one-page table of billings by doctor for the past 12 months, with start dates and agreement status:

Doctor	Start date	Agreement	Share of fees (illustrative)
Doctor A	2019	Signed, current	28%
Doctor B	2022	Signed, current	24%
Doctor C	2024	Signed, expires mid-2027	18%
Others (5)	Various	Mixed	30%

The numbers above are illustrative and describe no real practice. The shape is what matters: long tenures, signed agreements and no single person above about a third. If your clinic is more concentrated than that, say so and show what you’re doing about it. If a doctor is leaving, the lender will find out, so tell them first.

Contractor arrangements matter for another reason. Payroll tax treatment of contractor doctors differs by state, and a liability can arrive years later. Our guide to payroll tax for medical centres explains it, and a lender will want to know you’ve taken advice.

What should the application pack contain?

Assemble this once and you can use it for any lender.

• Identification for owners and directors, plus the entity details (company, trust, partnership).
• 12 months of business bank statements for every operating account, including the account that receives Medicare deposits.
• Financials: the last one or two years’ profit and loss and balance sheet, and a current year-to-date.
• Billings by doctor, from your practice software, with the service-fee split.
• Contractor agreements for your key doctors, and any employment contracts for nurses and allied staff.
• Your lease, including term and options. For a fit-out it also shows how long you have to earn the money back.
• A BBPIP summary, if registered: the last four quarterly payments.
• A short purpose statement: what you’re buying or funding, the quote or contract, and what it should add to income.
• A list of existing debts with balances and repayments.

Business.gov.au suggests compiling these details “into a professional-looking report”. Take that literally. A tidy pack signals a well-run practice, which is half of what a lender is judging.

Which loan suits which purpose?

The purpose decides the structure, so be specific.

What you need	Usual fit	Notes
Fit-out or refurbishment	Business loan, often with staged drawdowns	Builder’s progress claims set the timing. See clinic fit-out finance
Clinical equipment (ultrasound, ECG, spirometry, imaging)	Equipment-style finance	The asset itself supports the loan. See medical equipment finance
New practice or second site	Mix of loan and working capital	Evidence rests on forecast and doctor commitments. See new practice start-up finance
Wages, rent and supplier gaps	Line of credit or short-term working capital	Smooths the wait for quarterly incentives. See Medicare and bulk billing cash flow
Larger amounts	Property-secured loan	First mortgages, second mortgages and caveat loans over residential or commercial property

In round terms, property-secured business loans run from $20,000 to $5,000,000, and unsecured, cash-flow and line-of-credit options for trading practices typically run from $5,000 to $500,000, sized on turnover and bank statements. Which one fits depends on your trading history, your security and what you are borrowing for.

If you’re planning equipment or a fit-out, the fit-out and equipment calculator gives you a number to put in the purpose statement before you ask. And if you want a feel for what’s realistic for your clinic, you can check your options here first.

What are the common mistakes that slow an application?

• Mixing gross billings with practice income. Lenders will rebuild the figure themselves, and a gap between your story and their maths raises doubts.
• Hiding a departing doctor. It will appear in the statements within a quarter.
• Unexplained transfers between personal and business accounts. Label them.
• A vague purpose. “Working capital” with no description reads as a rescue; “bridge to quarterly incentive payments, with last four payments attached” reads as management.
• Out-of-date contractor agreements. An expired agreement is an undocumented risk.
• Applying everywhere at once. Multiple full applications can leave multiple credit enquiries. Ask what’s possible first, then decide where to proceed.

Illustrative example: a clinic buying a second ultrasound room

Illustrative only; this describes no real clinic. A suburban clinic with six doctors wants to add an ultrasound room. It prepares billings by doctor, 12 months of statements, the quote, the last four incentive deposits and a one-page note estimating the extra scans per week. The lender can see a steady Medicare pattern, no doctor above a third of fees, and a purpose with a plausible earnings lift. The conversation is about structure and timing, not about whether the lender trusts the numbers.

Running a clinic is hard enough; the finance side shouldn’t be

You look after patients all day, then the rosters, the payroll and the landlord. Putting a funding pack together on top of that is the last thing you want, which is why it helps to have someone who already reads clinic numbers for a living.

An enquiry takes about 60 seconds and won’t touch your credit file, because there’s no credit check when you first ask. We don’t pass your details around to a pile of lenders, so your phone stays quiet. A real person on our team looks at your individual situation and calls you to talk it through. The more accurately you fill in the form, the figures, the doctors, the purpose, the better the chance we match the right option first time.

Find out where your clinic stands →