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By Travis Yule — CEO & Founder, Full Send Funding
Published 2026-10-28
How medical, dental and other healthcare practices fund payroll while payers pay, add providers and open locations: what a funder reads, the cost, what to prepare.
In one sentence: A healthcare practice runs short of cash because it pays for care before its payers pay for it, so working capital for a practice should be sized on the deposits its payers and patients have already made, not on the charges it has billed, and planned before the gap a new provider or location opens.
A healthcare practice runs short of cash for a reason that has nothing to do with demand. Care is delivered, and the people who deliver it are paid, now: on a weekly or two-week payroll, on the calendar. Each payer pays for that care later, on its own schedule. A growing schedule widens the gap before it closes it, because every new patient, provider and location adds cost at once and deposits afterwards. Working capital sized on the deposits a practice already receives bridges that gap, so payroll, rent and supplies do not wait on the payers.
This guide is for the owners and administrators of established practices that bank $10,000 or more a month: physician groups, dental and orthodontic practices, home health and hospice agencies, independent pharmacies, diagnostic labs and med spas. It is written with the larger decisions in mind — a second location, a new provider, a new service line, a payroll that has grown faster than the payers' calendar — and it answers the questions in the order an owner asks them: what working capital can pay for in a practice, how a funder reads a practice's bank statements, how much a practice can expect, what it costs and how it is repaid, how it compares with factoring, a bank line and an SBA loan, and what to prepare. Each section gives the general answer and then ours, in the same words we use everywhere else on this site.
One thing this guide leaves to another article. The receivables side of the problem — why a claim is not an invoice, and why payer mix says more about a practice's cash than the age of its receivables — is covered in why provider groups run out of cash with full schedules. That article diagnoses the gap. This one is about funding it.
Because a practice pays for care before it is paid for it, and growth adds to the first side immediately and to the second side later. The shortfall is a timing gap, not a loss: the revenue is real, it is simply late.
Three calendars run through every practice, and they do not line up:
Growth is where the gap bites. A new provider is generally paid from the start date but cannot bill a payer until credentialed and enrolled with it, on that payer's own timetable. A second location carries rent, build-out and staff from the day it opens and produces deposits only as its schedule fills. A new service line — imaging, sleep studies, physical therapy, clear aligners, a compounding counter — needs its staff and supplies before its first claim is paid. Each of those is a good decision that makes next month tighter before it makes next year better.
That is why a practice can be busy, profitable on paper and short of cash in the same month, and why the fix is a matter of timing rather than more revenue. The cheapest part of that fix usually sits inside the practice's own revenue cycle — claims paid on first submission, eligibility checked before the visit, patient balances collected at the visit — and working capital is for the gap that remains. The cash conversion cycle calculator puts a number of days on that gap from your own figures, which is a useful thing to know before deciding how much to ask for.
Almost anything the practice spends money on before a payer pays for it. Working capital is not restricted to one use, and in a practice it most often goes to the costs that arrive first:
Equipment, and a vehicle the business buys, are the large purchases we handle differently. We arrange equipment financing through a direct lending partner; what we fund in house is working capital, which can pay for equipment too. Equipment financing is arranged through a direct lending partner, only after talking through the options with you and only if you choose to, at no fee to you; the partner’s terms, including any filing on the equipment, are set out in writing before anything is signed. A vehicle the business buys is financed like equipment, through a direct lending partner, on the partner’s written terms. Equipment financing explains how that conversation works.
Working capital is also the wrong answer for some practice decisions, and it is worth knowing which before applying:
Through the deposits, not the billing report. A practice management system reports what was charged; the bank statement reports what the payers and patients actually paid, and when. Underwriting reads the second.
For our underwriting that means four months of complete business bank statements for every operating account. What the statements show, and how each line is read:
What a practice's deposits look like depends on what kind of practice it is, and each kind is familiar:
Each is revenue, and the offer is sized on what was actually deposited. Two things help a file more than anything else: complete statements, every page of every account, and a sentence on the application about any month that looks unusual. A thin month because a payer paused, a system changed or a provider was on leave reads better explained than left to be inferred. What underwriters actually look for in your bank statements goes through the reading line by line.
Most practices are estimated at 80% to 150% of average monthly revenue, within $5,000 to $10 million, and the offer itself is set per deal during underwriting. The estimate is taken on what the account received, so a practice that charges well above what it collects will see an estimate built on the smaller number.
In round figures: a practice depositing $200,000 a month in payer and patient revenue is in range for roughly $160,000 to $300,000, and a group depositing $400,000 a month for roughly $320,000 to $600,000. Where a practice lands inside its band depends on the file — how steady the deposits are from month to month, how the balance holds between payroll and the payer batches, payer concentration, and what else is already being repaid.
A larger request asks for a little more paper. Above about $250,000 we often, though not always, also ask for the most recent business tax return and either year-to-date financials or an A/R aging report, depending on the business.
A group with several locations sends the same base, with statements for every operating account. If each location's payer deposits land in a separate account, send four months for every operating account and say which is which; transfers between your own accounts are netted out rather than added. A group that bills centrally and banks centrally has one set of statements to send; one that banks by location has several, and underwriting reads them together.
Before asking for a figure, it helps to know what the practice's cycle actually needs. The working capital requirement calculator builds that figure from your own receivable and payable days, which keeps the request tied to the gap rather than to the top of the band. How much can I borrow? explains the sizing rule in more depth.
Cost is quoted as a factor rate — a flat multiplier on the amount advanced — rather than as an APR, though every offer also carries a SMART Box disclosure stating the APR equivalent. Across everything we fund, cost of capital runs from 4.5% to 45% depending on your qualifications and the term length, and every Full Send Funding offer states the total payback in plain dollars before you sign.
That cost is a total cost on the amount funded, not an annual rate, so no factor can be called good or bad without the term it is repaid over: compare offers in dollars first — what reaches your account against the total payback — and then on the APR equivalent, which brings in the term and is also what puts an offer beside a loan or a line. What your own rate comes to depends on your revenue, time in business, deposit consistency and what else is already being repaid, so it is set per deal rather than published as a single number. An advance is one structure of several, and a stronger file often qualifies for a different structure or for less cost.
Most agreements include an origination fee, taken from the amount funded rather than billed to you, and it is stated in the agreement in dollars before you sign. Those are the two charges: the financing cost and, where the agreement has one, that disclosed origination fee. There is no application fee, no fee to receive a quote and no returned-payment fee.
Paying early is handled in writing, deal by deal. Early payoff is structured deal by deal rather than by a standard schedule: some agreements forgive all of the remaining cost, some half of it, some carry a custom prepayment step-down, on some renewals the outstanding balance is forgiven, and some carry no saving, so paying early settles the full remaining balance. There is never a prepayment fee: paying early never costs more than paying on schedule. Whichever applies to yours is set out in writing before you sign. A practice expecting a payer backlog to clear is well placed to ask about this before it signs.
APR, factor rate, and the math nobody shows you works through how to compare a factor-rate offer with an interest-bearing loan.
Payment schedules are set per deal, and which options are available depends on qualifications: weekly, bi-weekly, monthly for qualified clients or, if desired, a percentage of sales. Daily payments are available on request, but they are not our preferred payment method. On a percentage-of-sales deal, the payment is a fixed debit set from that percentage of your sales, and it does not change by itself.
For a practice, the practical question is which day. Payroll leaves on a fixed day and the payer batches land on theirs, so tell us your payroll day and when your largest payer deposits usually land before a schedule is set. Repayment terms range from 4 months to 3 years depending on the product and your business profile, and repayment is collected automatically from your business checking account by ACH debit.
On every deal we fund, there is no lockbox account and no control of your card processor: payments are debited from your own business bank account. A practice's payers keep paying the practice exactly as they do today.
When collections slow, there is a request to make before anything else happens. If your sales slow, you can ask us to adjust your payments to your actual revenue; we answer a request within 5 business days. If a debit is returned, we call you first and agree a catch-up — there is no returned-payment fee. We send a default notice only if the agreement is breached — never because sales slowed — and it gives you 10 business days to put it right.
No collateral is required on anything we fund in house. On deals up to $2 million, we file no UCC-1 lien against the business and our agreements contain no confession of judgment. Above $2 million, what the agreement includes is set per deal and shown to you in writing before you sign.
Every owner of 20% or more signs a personal guarantee, and on an advance it is a performance guarantee: a promise that the business will carry out the agreement honestly, keeping its deposits in the agreed account and not closing or selling to avoid the remittance. It is not a promise to repay if the business genuinely fails. Personal guarantees: what you are actually signing explains the difference between the two kinds.
Applying does not affect the owner's credit score. Full Send Funding runs a soft credit pull only, and a soft pull does not affect your credit score. Full Send Funding does not run a hard credit inquiry at any stage — not to pre-qualify you and not at funding. If we arrange a loan with a direct lending partner, the partner's own credit review is set out in writing before anything is signed.
A decision comes within 24 business hours of a complete submission. On deals up to $2 million, most businesses then receive funding within 24 hours of approval, so the whole process — application to money in the account — typically takes 1 to 3 business days. Same-day funding is possible on a clean file submitted before 2pm ET. What slows a file down is almost always a missing bank statement rather than a hard decision.
For a practice, that means applying a few business days ahead of the payroll the money is meant to cover, with every page of every account attached. A practice that knows a gap is coming — a provider starting next month, a location opening next quarter — does better to apply shortly before the cost starts than once the strain shows in its statements, because an offer is open for 72 hours and money taken months early is paid for before it is used. Where the cost arrives in stages, ask about the flex line below.
Each answers a different question, and a practice can use more than one, though not a factor and a receivables lender against the same claims.
Where the cost arrives in pieces you can size when they come — a provider's first months, a build-out paid in stages, a payer that falls behind — a line may fit better than a single advance. Our flex line of credit runs from $10,000 to $2 million, sized the same way as an advance. Each draw is reviewed when it is requested, like a new advance: a decision within 24 business hours of the request and funding within 24 hours of approval. A line can be opened with no draw, and the part of the limit left undrawn costs nothing. The limit refills as it is repaid, as each payment clears. The business line of credit page sets out the rest.
A loan, such as a term loan, an SBA loan or an interest-bearing revolving line, we arrange with a direct lending partner, only after talking through the options with you and only if you choose to, never through a broker, and at no fee to you; the partner's terms are set out in writing before anything is signed.
We fund deals in house wherever we can. For specialized products and premium offerings we may place a deal with a direct lending partner, but only after talking through the options with you and only if you choose to; we never shop a file widely or pass it on to a broker.
The bar is the one every business we fund meets, plus a license: 4+ months in business, $10,000+ in monthly revenue, an active business checking account, no open bankruptcy, a U.S.-based business and an active practice license (for a home health or hospice agency, an agency license where your state requires one), with payer enrollment for a medical practice. Then four things and a few sentences of context. You'll need your most recent 4 months of business bank statements, a valid form of ID, a voided business check and basic business information. A larger request adds the paper described in the sizing section above.
The context is what the statements cannot say on their own. Before applying, write down:
A file that arrives complete and explained is the one that moves fastest. The complete funding application package lists what a lender asks for and why, and the money pages for medical practices, dental practices and home health and hospice agencies answer the questions specific to each. When you are ready, check whether you qualify in about a minute, or start your application.
This guide applies Full Send Funding’s own published terms — the requirements, the sizing rule, the cost range, the payment schedules and the servicing commitments — to the way a healthcare practice is paid, in the same words the rest of the site uses. It states no statistic and cites no source of its own. Payer rules differ by payer, plan and state, so where timing matters it points to the practice’s own deposit history rather than to a payer’s rule, and it states no cost, approval rate or payment schedule for an industry.
Yes. Underwriting reads the deposits the payers and patients have already made, so the funding rests on revenue the practice has rather than on claims it is waiting for: a claim billed but not yet paid adds nothing until it is deposited, and the lag itself does not count against the practice. Working capital suits a gap with an end, such as payroll while a new provider is credentialed, a new location fills its schedule or a growing census adds payroll before its deposits arrive. Where the gap reopens every pay period with no end, a line may fit better than a single advance.
Most practices are estimated at 80% to 150% of average monthly revenue, within $5,000 to $10 million, and the offer itself is set per deal during underwriting. A practice depositing $200,000 a month is in range for roughly $160,000 to $300,000. Where it lands depends on how steady the deposits are, payer concentration and what else is already being repaid. Above about $250,000 we often, though not always, also ask for the most recent business tax return and either year-to-date financials or an A/R aging report, depending on the business.
The base is the same as for a single practice: your most recent 4 months of business bank statements, a valid form of ID, a voided business check and basic business information. Above about $250,000 we often, though not always, also ask for the most recent business tax return and either year-to-date financials or an A/R aging report, depending on the business. If each location’s payer deposits land in a separate account, send four months for every operating account and say which is which; transfers between your own accounts are netted out rather than added. Explain anything the statements cannot show on their own, such as a payer that paused or a location still filling its schedule.
No collateral is required on anything we fund in house. On deals up to $2 million, we file no UCC-1 lien against the business and our agreements contain no confession of judgment. Above $2 million, what the agreement includes is set per deal and shown to you in writing before you sign. Every owner of 20% or more signs a personal guarantee, which on an advance is a performance guarantee rather than a promise to repay if the business genuinely fails.
Payment schedules are set per deal, and which options are available depends on qualifications: weekly, bi-weekly, monthly for qualified clients or, if desired, a percentage of sales. Daily payments are available on request, but they are not our preferred payment method. On a percentage-of-sales deal, the payment is a fixed debit set from that percentage of your sales, and it does not change by itself. Tell us your payroll day and when your largest payer deposits usually land before a schedule is set. If your sales slow, you can ask us to adjust your payments to your actual revenue; we answer a request within 5 business days.
It depends on where the gap sits. Factoring buys specific claims and can suit a large, clean claims book whose gap sits with a few slow payers, where each payer's rules on assignment allow it. Working capital is sized on the practice’s deposits and suits a gap about timing across the whole practice, such as payroll, a new provider or an opening. Invoice factoring is available through our direct lending partners, arranged only after we have talked through the options with you and only if you choose to, at no fee to you; whether a partner's program fits a practice's claims is part of that conversation.
It can lower the figure, because sizing reads the deposits, and a payer that paused or took back an earlier overpayment leaves a thin month that has nothing to do with how busy the practice is. That reads better explained than left to be inferred, so tell us which payer, when, and whether its payments have resumed. If it happens after you are funded, call before a payment is missed rather than after. If your sales slow, you can ask us to adjust your payments to your actual revenue; we answer a request within 5 business days.
A few business days, with every page of every account attached. A decision comes within 24 business hours of a complete submission. On deals up to $2 million, most businesses then receive funding within 24 hours of approval, so the whole process — application to money in the account — typically takes 1 to 3 business days. Same-day funding is possible on a clean file submitted before 2pm ET. What slows a file down is almost always a missing bank statement rather than a hard decision.
Travis Yule worked in business funding before starting Full Send Funding in 2021, and has more than five years in business funding in all. He leads the company from Middle Grove, New York, and writes about working capital from the underwriting side of the table — what the numbers actually have to say before a business gets funded.