Best Medical Practice Loans for Dentists, Doctors, Optometrists, and Vets

Opening a medical practice—whether you’re a dentist, physician, optometrist, or veterinarian—is a complicated business. When you’re in the health care industry, you’ve got more rules to follow and more specialized needs than, say, an online store. So when it comes to funding that practice of yours, you want to make sure you’re getting the right kind of loan.

Well, we did a bunch of the legwork for you and rounded up the best loans for medical professionals out there. It doesn’t matter if you need financing to open a new practice or cash flow for your existing medical office—with our list, you can find the right funding for your practice and get back to, well, practicing.

Huntington Bank: Best one-stop shop

Huntington Bank offers financing for veterinarians and dentists. Its practice funding options include everything from startup loans to equipment financing (for that x-ray machine, maybe?) to debt refinancing. So no matter what stage your practice is at, Huntington can help finance it.

But that’s not all Huntington Bank has for your private practice. It also offers things like merchant services, payroll services, malpractice insurance (a must for health care professionals), and even a cybersecurity suite. So if you want to save time by meeting many of your needs with one company, give Huntington a look.

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SunTrust: Best for medical students

If you’re a doctor or a dentist, you can get either a fixed-interest loan or a line of credit from SunTrust. It offers low starting rates (7.99% APR on long-term loans) and long repayment terms (up to 10 years on those loans). So while the loans aren’t the biggest—SunTrust’s loans and lines of credit both max out at $100,000—they are a pretty good deal.

Of course, what really makes SunTrust stand out is the fact that it lends not just to current doctors but also to doctors in training. Fourth-year med students and residents can qualify for SunTrust doctor loans—no need to wait until after graduation. So if you’re the kind of person that likes to plan ahead, SunTrust makes it possible.

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TD Bank: Best for partnership buy-ins and buy-outs

TD Bank has practice financing for health care practices of all sorts, including dentists, veterinarians, physicians, and eye care professionals. No matter which of those you happen to be, you can qualify for up to $12 million in financing. TD Bank lets you use that financing for all sorts of things, from acquiring a practice to buying equipment to remodeling your office.

What sticks out most about TD Bank’s practice financing, though, is its financing for buy-ins and buy-outs. While lots of lenders let you buy an existing practice, TD Bank is one of the few that calls out buying into a partnership or buying out a partner—similar, but distinct from, simply buying a practice. So if your game plan includes buying your way in or buying out the practice from someone else, TD Bank can help.

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U.S. Bank: Best for existing practices

U.S. Bank lends to vets, dentists, and optometrists (but not physicians). Like all the other lenders on this list, it has a range of financing options, so you can fund your practice at various stages. And like most traditional lenders, U.S. Bank offers competitive rates and longer loan terms than you’d find through alternative lenders.

Mostly, though, U.S. Bank emphasizes funding existing practices—acquiring, buying into, expanding, and relocating them. It doesn’t offer loans for starting up a brand-new practice; if that’s your goal, go with a different lender (like Huntington Bank, perhaps). But if you want to take an existing practice and make it something special? Well, that’s just what U.S. Bank wants to fund.

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Bank of America: Best for project help

Bank of America lends to dentists, vets, and physicians—no eye care here. It has some of the biggest practice loans we’ve seen, with loan sizes up to $5 million and terms up to 15 years. You can use those hefty practice loans (or smaller ones) to start, expand, or buy a practice—or for debt consolidation.

What really sets Bank of America apart is the help it provides your business. When you fund a practice through Bank of America, you get a project manager who is dedicated to your business. They’ll use their expertise to help you do your project right—and within your budget and time constraints. You’ll even get specialized market analysis for your practice. So if you want some help doing things right, Bank of America’s practice loan program is the way to go.

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PNC: Best for expert advice

Doctors, dentists, and vets can get practice financing from PNC. Its lending options include term loans, lines of credit, and owner-occupied commercial real estate loans. Its loans range from $100,000 to $3 million, so you can feel confident that you have enough financing to cover whatever project comes your way.

But financing is just one piece of what PNC offers practices; it also offers tons of expert advice and guidance through its resources for practices. PNC has a newsletter, a library of articles, and regular webinars—all sharing expertise on funding and running your practice. That kind of expertise means PNC can understand your practice’s needs and help you select the right funding (and other products) to help it grow.

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Wells Fargo: Best for buying a practice

Wells Fargo has loads of financing options for practices, from a smaller ($25K to $100K) line of credit to a large ($1 million) practice expansion loan—and plenty in between. And unlike most other lenders, it lends to vets, dentists, optometrists, and physicians. So whether you’re acquiring new medical equipment or remodeling your entire medical office, you can find the loans you need at Wells Fargo.

But that’s not all you can find. Wells Fargo hosts its own practice marketplace where you can buy or sell an existing practice. We saw everything from a $10,000 dental practice in Danville, CA, to a $1 million medical practice in Los Angeles. And since Wells Fargo has $1 million practice acquisition loans, that makes it the perfect lender to both find and purchase a practice with.

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Other loan options

While the lenders above have specialized financing programs for practices, they’re not the only way to get capital for your business. You can use all types of business funding, even if they’re not meant specifically for health care practices.

For example, plenty of online lenders offer term loans and lines of credit. These types of working capital loans can be much easier to qualify for than financing through traditional banks (like the ones above), though they usually come with smaller loan amounts and shorter repayment terms. If that sounds like an okay trade-off to you, we recommend applying with Lendio, our favorite online lender.

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You can also get SBA loans, or term loans backed by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). SBA loans take a while to get, and they have stricter qualifications than alternative loans (for example, you need to have been in business for two years and have been rejected for other funding), but they come with low rates and long repayment terms that make them an appealing option.

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And of course, you can always get a business credit card to handle smaller expenses. While you probably won’t want to use it to pay for expensive medical equipment, you can use your credit card to pay for anything from promotional materials to staff lunches to coffee for your receptionists.

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The takeaway

Whether you need real estate for your private practice or medical equipment to upgrade your facility, the practice loans above can give you the working capital you need.

And then you can get back to how you actually want to spend your time: taking care of your patients’ health.

Before you take out a practice loan, calculate the true costs of that capital. Use our business loan calculator to figure out the cost of your monthly payments and the total cost of the loan.

Disclaimer

At Business.org, our research is meant to offer general product and service recommendations. We don’t guarantee that our suggestions will work best for each individual or business, so consider your unique needs when choosing products and services.