Coastglen Financial, a small-business funding service in Pensacola, FL, helps chiropractors, physical therapists and optometrists request equipment financing, term loans for build-outs and working capital. Escambia County, FL had 212 offices of other health practitioners as employer establishments in 2023, 71.7% with fewer than five employees.
| Other health practitioner offices (2023) | 212 |
|---|---|
| Under five employees | 71.7% |
| Employees | 988 |
| Average employees per office | 4.7 (our arithmetic) |
| No-payroll practitioners (2024) | 521 |
| In ZIP 32502 | 15 |
Small payrolls and clinical equipment costs
A chiropractic or physical therapy office may employ only the practitioner and one or two staff, yet it needs adjusting or treatment tables, therapy equipment, a scheduling and billing system, and a space built for clinical use. An optometry practice adds exam lanes, diagnostic instruments and an optical frame inventory.
Because the practices are small, one large purchase can be large relative to monthly profit. Equipment financing and build-out loans are two options for those purchases.
Chiropractic equipment financing
Tables, decompression units, x-ray equipment and therapy modalities all qualify for chiropractic equipment financing. Partners may look at the vendor quote and whether the item is new or refurbished. For a practice opening a second room, financing the room's equipment separately from the fit-out keeps the payment tied to the asset that earns it.
Equipment financing covers the structures: loan, lease and equipment finance agreement.
Business loans for physical therapy clinics
A physical therapy clinic may need floor space for gym equipment, treatment tables and private rooms. A move to a larger space or a build-out of a new clinic can be a term loan, with the lease length an important part of the file.
Illustration only: a therapy clinic spending $60,000 on a new space, with $35,000 of that in equipment, could split the request: $35,000 as equipment financing secured by the machines, and $25,000 as a term loan for walls, flooring and plumbing.
Optometry practice loans
Optometry practices combine clinical equipment with retail: frames and lenses on display are inventory, while slit lamps, retinal cameras and refraction systems are equipment. A practice might use equipment financing for the instruments and a line of credit for frame stock. Practice purchases, for example when an optometrist retires, follow the acquisition steps described on the medical and dental practices page.
Payroll while claims are paid
Insurance claims take time to pay, and a small practice may have little cushion. Working capital can bridge that gap, sized to the claims outstanding rather than to annual revenue. An aging report showing what each payer owes is a useful document here.
Other health practitioners in Escambia County, FL
Escambia County, FL had 212 offices of other health practitioners (chiropractors, physical and occupational therapists, optometrists and others) as employer establishments in 2023, with 988 employees and an annual payroll of about $51.2 million (U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023). 152 of them, 71.7%, had fewer than five employees, and the average was about 4.7 employees per office (our arithmetic).
15 of those offices used a downtown ZIP 32502 address (U.S. Census Bureau, ZIP Code Business Patterns 2023). Separately, 521 practitioners in the same code had no paid employees in 2024 (U.S. Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2024).
Cash-pay and insurance mix
Some chiropractic and therapy practices take both insurance and cash-paying patients, sometimes with treatment packages paid up front. Cash and package payments arrive at the visit; insurance claims arrive after processing. A practice weighted toward cash pay can have a smaller receivables gap, while one weighted toward insurance may need more working capital as it grows.
Show the mix in your file: a simple split of last year's collections by payer type tells a partner something about timing.
Related pages
Medical and dental practices cover larger clinical employers; the practice funding article walks through equipment, build-out and receivables timing. County counts are on the Pensacola, FL page.
By Coastglen Financial · Updated