Ridgepoint Credit, a small-business funding service in Owensboro, Kentucky, explains how Daviess County, KY physical therapy, chiropractic and optometry practices finance their equipment. The article covers what equipment is typically financed, the physical therapy equipment financing options available, when a lease suits better than a purchase, and what funding partners commonly review before making their own decisions.
A county of small practitioner offices
Daviess County, KY had 73 offices of other health practitioners with employees in 2023, the Census category that includes chiropractors, physical, occupational and speech therapists and optometrists. Half of them, 50.7%, had fewer than five employees (County Business Patterns 2023). Another 184 practitioner businesses operated without paid staff in 2024 (Nonemployer Statistics 2024), a separate program.
For a practice that size, one decompression system or imaging unit can be a large share of a year's equipment budget, which is where financing comes in.
Equipment used in chiropractic care
A chiropractic office's core equipment is its tables: standard adjusting tables, drop tables, flexion-distraction tables and spinal decompression systems. Around them sit therapy modalities such as electrical stimulation, ultrasound and laser units, plus rehab equipment and, in some offices, digital X-ray. Each has a different life span, and that difference shapes the financing.
Physical therapy equipment financing options for a Daviess County, KY clinic
Physical therapy clinics need more floor equipment: treatment tables, parallel bars, treadmills, bikes, cable systems and balance equipment, sometimes aquatic or specialty gear. The main options are:
- Equipment financing: the clinic owns the equipment and repays in installments, with the equipment as collateral.
- A fair market value lease: lower payments, with the option to return, renew or buy at the end.
- A $1 buyout lease: higher payments, ownership for a nominal amount at the end.
- A term loan: for a build-out that includes equipment, financed as one project.
A clinic opening a second location may combine a term loan for the space with equipment financing for the gym.
Optometry equipment financing
Optometry practices sit in the same Census category. Exam lanes, slit lamps, autorefractors, retinal cameras and OCT units are clinical equipment and finance like other medical devices. Frames and lenses for the optical counter are retail stock, which suits inventory financing or a line of credit better than an equipment agreement.
Lease or buy for a therapy clinic
Durable equipment that will be used for years, such as tables and parallel bars, often suits a purchase or a $1 buyout. Technology that dates, such as laser units, imaging or software-driven devices, often suits a fair market value lease. The lease or buy article sets out the questions in more detail.
A labeled example for a two-therapist clinic
Hypothetical, for arithmetic only. A clinic with two therapists plans an illustrative $28,000 of new tables and rehab equipment. Spread over a five-year equipment agreement, the cost is shared across roughly 20,000 or more patient visits if each therapist sees about 40 patients a week. The point is to compare the payment with the visits the equipment supports, not to predict revenue. These figures are not offers or typical costs.
For vehicles, such as a mobile therapy van, the commercial vehicle calculator estimates payments, total interest and total cost with the down payment.
Used therapy and chiropractic equipment
Refurbished tables and modalities are available from dealers, and partners will consider them with an invoice from a dealer that shows the model, age and any refurbishment. Private sales between practices are possible but may need photos, proof of ownership and a lien search. Older imaging equipment deserves extra care, because parts and software support may end before the agreement does.
What a therapy equipment quote should spell out
Physical therapy equipment financing options are compared most easily when every quote is written the same way. Ask each vendor to list:
- Each item by make and model, new or refurbished, with its price.
- Freight, installation and any electrical work the room needs before delivery.
- Software or subscription charges for connected devices, billed separately from the hardware.
- Training for the therapists, and whether it is included.
- Any trade-in credit for the equipment being replaced.
- The vendor's own service terms, in writing.
A partner reviewing the request reads the same lines, and a quote that leaves out installation or software tends to come back with questions.
Items a partner tends to read first
- The equipment quote, with vendor, model and any installation.
- Bank deposits and time in business.
- Payer mix and how long insurers take to pay.
- Existing equipment agreements.
The chiropractic and therapy page covers the wider cash cycle, and the Owensboro, KY page has the county figures. Ridgepoint's other three articles are listed on the blog.
By Ridgepoint Credit · Updated
