Medical school is very expensive. Not only are you in school for much longer than the average American, but you’re also paying top dollar to reap the benefits of both the experience and knowledge of your instructors. Those costs add up quickly. It’s easy to see why, even with scholarships, most graduating from college have significant student loan debt. You’re not done figuring out how to finance things once you graduate. Over and above the normal adult money decisions, if you’re going to practice the medicine you need to know about medical financing.

Traditional Means

A quick search for medical financing takes you in several directions at the same time. Your search engine isn’t sure of the specific topic for which you’re searching. They assume you could be wondering about how to finance your medical degree, whether you have medical bills to pay off or if you’re finding your practice. Let’s go with that last one.

Looking at those results, they think you only want one thing: a loan. You can use traditional loans to fund your practice. An established practice can attempt to secure a business loan. When you’re trying to launch yourself, you may have to choose a personal loan. Regardless of the type of loan, you’ll want to housekeep before applying. Know your credit score and take any steps you can to improve it. Pay down or off whatever outstanding debt you have. Enumerate your assets that could be considered collateral and know their value.

Outside the Box

Once you have your practice established, you can take a look at some more innovative types of financing. Medical financing can take the form of selling off the overdue bills your patients haven’t paid you. Called factoring, this takes the pressure of debt collection off your staff and gives you a partial payment on this outstanding debt. Yes, partial payment. The company to whom you sell this debt for collection needs to be able to earn a living, too.

You may be able to find a factoring company that pays you a flat fee for your patients’ overdue bills. The other option you have is to accept a percentage of what they collect. This may net you more but will take more time. How quickly you need the cash inflow will guide you.

Medical financing can take many forms. You may want to try more than one available to you.