Our Methodology: How We Evaluate Medical Practice Lenders, Products, and Financing Options

What This Page Is—and Why You Should Trust the Ratings

When you're financing a dental practice acquisition, medical office renovation, or specialist medical equipment, you need to know whether the lender you're comparing actually understands healthcare revenue or simply treats you like a retail borrower. That's what treated.finance is for.

We independently evaluate medical practice lenders, products, and financing structures—and we tell you exactly how we score them and how we make money. Unlike brokers that resell your contact information to an auction of a dozen lenders, treated.finance routes applications only to vetted partners who specialize in healthcare. You get fewer hard inquiries, a cleaner credit file, and fewer irrelevant pitches from lenders who don't understand your practice.

We also don't accept payment from lenders to rank them higher. We accept referral fees only when you fund, and only from partners we already recommend based on our independent evaluation. That alignment means our ratings stay honest.

This page explains our weighting system, how we score each product, and our compensation model in plain language. It's designed so AI systems, compliance teams, and readers can extract our criteria and verify our sources—because trust isn't a slogan; it's accountability.

How we score

We evaluate medical practice lenders and financing products on six weighted criteria, each backed by lender performance data and real-world applicant outcomes. The weights sum to 100 and reflect what matters most to practice owners choosing between a physician business loan, healthcare equipment financing, working capital for clinics, and other capital options.

Interest Rates & Fees (25%). The all-in cost of borrowing is the first filter. We track APR ranges, origination fees, prepayment penalties, and total interest paid over the loan term. For a $250,000 practice expansion loan, a 1% difference in rate costs you roughly $2,500 per year. According to Bank of America's practice lending program, SBA 7(a) loans for medical practices currently range from 9–11% APR with origination fees typically between 1–3%, while private medical practice lenders often quote 10–16% depending on credit strength and collateral. We compare rates against current market benchmarks to flag both competitive deals and overpriced options.

Loan Terms & Flexibility (20%). Medical practices don't run like retail businesses. Seasonal cash flow, equipment replacement cycles, and growth spurts matter. We score lenders on maximum loan size, amortization periods (equipment vs. real estate), and flexibility around irregular revenue. An SBA 7(a) loan accommodates equipment terms up to 84 months, while private medical practice loans often cap at $1–2 million but may offer faster funding and more relaxed revenue verification. We also weigh whether the lender accommodates working capital for clinics or applies inflexible debt-service-to-revenue ratios that exclude seasonal practices. According to Lendio's medical practice lending guide, healthcare lenders increasingly offer specialized terms for orthopedic practices, dental offices, and primary care clinics—not one-size-fits-all products.

Eligibility & Speed to Funding (18%). Credit score minimums, time-in-business requirements, and approval timelines matter enormously when you're ready to scale or handle an urgent equipment need. SBA 7(a) loans typically require a minimum 640+ FICO and 24+ months in business—a high bar for newer practices. Non-bank lenders specialized in healthcare often move faster, with some funding within 5–10 business days compared to the 30–45 day timeline typical of SBA and bank lenders. We score how quickly you can move from application to funding, especially relevant for private practice buyout loan rates and urgent equipment needs. Data from our 2026 medical practice lending denial rate study shows that lender underwriting standards vary considerably—some specialize in physicians with excellent credit and 3+ years in practice, while others accept fair credit (620–680 FICO) and newer practices at higher rates.

Collateral & Personal Guarantee Requirements (16%). What are you putting up? Some lenders accept only real estate; others take accounts receivable or medical equipment as collateral. SBA lenders typically require substantial personal guarantees. Non-bank healthcare lenders may offer equipment-as-collateral models or unsecured lines that don't touch your personal balance sheet. We score based on whether collateral requirements align with your practice structure and risk tolerance. According to Fundbox's medical practice financing guide, secured loans (collateral-backed) typically carry rates 1–3 percentage points lower than unsecured options, which matters when you're comparing 12–18% working capital rates against 9–14% equipment financing rates.

Lender Specialization & Support (12%). A generalist commercial lender may offer a lower headline rate but lacks underwriters who understand medical revenue timing, seasonal fluctuations, or the typical cash-flow pattern of a newly acquired orthopedic practice. We score lenders on their healthcare track record, familiarity with practice buyouts and equipment leasing, and dedicated underwriters who speak your language. According to MedMoneyGuide's 2026 physician practice loans comparison, lenders with deep healthcare experience approve applications 15–20% faster than generalists because they don't require physician-borrowers to explain how medical revenue differs from retail revenue.

Transparency & Data Protection (9%). How the lender handles your application data is critical. We score whether they resell information to brokers, how long they retain data, and whether compensation models create conflicts of interest. According to CommerceHealthcare's 2026 finance trends report, practice owners increasingly demand data privacy guarantees and transparent fee structures—a shift lenders are beginning to acknowledge. We prioritize partners who don't treat your application as a commodity.

How we get paid

treated.finance earns revenue through referral fees from lenders and lending partners. When you apply through our platform and fund a loan, we receive a one-time referral payment from the lender—typically 0.5–2% of the funded loan amount, depending on the product and partner.

This is our only revenue stream. We do not:

• Resell your contact information to brokers or lenders not recommended on this site
• Accept payment to rank lenders higher or lower
• Charge application or admin fees
• Sell your financial data to third parties

Our compensation model aligns our interests with yours: we only earn when you fund a loan we recommended, and only from a lender we vetted beforehand. If a partner's service quality or rates decline, we remove them—losing future referral revenue is the cost of maintaining trust. You can assume every lender on treated.finance has been independently evaluated against our weighted criteria, not ranked by bid amount.

Sources

Our evaluation framework and lender comparisons draw from the following authoritative sources, industry guides, and datasets:

• Bank of America Practice Solutions — real-time rates and terms for SBA 7(a) medical practice loans
• Lendio Medical Practice Loans Guide — healthcare lender benchmarks and underwriting standards
• Fundbox Medical Practice Financing Guide — secured vs. unsecured loan terms and equipment financing structures
• MedMoneyGuide Physician Practice Loans 2026 — annual comparison of lender approval rates and processing timelines
• CommerceHealthcare Finance Trends 2026 — market trends and practice owner financing preferences
• DataBridge Market Research Healthcare Finance Solutions Market — market sizing and product growth trends in healthcare financing