Ravenwood Business Loans of Waukegan, IL arranges funding through partners for Lake County, IL physician and dental practices: equipment financing for chairs, imaging and sterilization, term loans for buildouts and practice purchases, and working capital while claims are paid. Partners review each request and make their own decision.
| Offices of physicians, Lake County, IL | 544 employers (CBP 2023) |
|---|---|
| Offices of dentists | 404 employers (CBP 2023) |
| Dental offices with 1 to 4 staff | 44.8% (CBP 2023) |
| Physician offices with 1 to 4 staff | 56.2% (CBP 2023) |
Where practice money goes
Practices have two cost profiles. Day to day, staff wages and supplies are paid on schedule while insurance claims take time to process, so receivables build up. Every few years, a large capital cost arrives: a new operatory, digital imaging, a practice-management system, a buildout for a second location, or the purchase of a retiring owner's practice.
The first profile is a working-capital question; the second is an equipment or term-loan question. Mixing them, for example paying for a scanner from operating cash, is how practices end up short on payroll.
Counting Medical and dental practices across Lake County, IL
| Business type (NAICS) | Employer establishments, CBP 2023 | Paid employees, CBP 2023 | Share under 5 employees | ZIP 60085 employers, ZBP 2023 | Nonemployers, NES 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Offices of physicians (6211) | 544 | 5,320 | 56.2% | 19 | 569 |
| Offices of dentists (6212) | 404 | 2,474 | 44.8% | 25 | 186 |
Employer counts come from County Business Patterns (2023, NAICS 2017) and nonemployer counts from Nonemployer Statistics (2024, NAICS 2022). Different programs, different years: the two columns stay apart and are never summed.
Dental offices are larger on average than most local businesses: fewer than half had under five employees in 2023, compared with 61.9% of all Lake County, IL employers (CBP).
Healthcare equipment financing
Equipment financing covers dental chairs and delivery units, intraoral scanners and cone-beam imaging, sterilizers, exam tables, diagnostic devices and the software that runs them when bundled with hardware. Partners treat specialized medical equipment as long-lived collateral, though resale value varies by device. A vendor quote with model numbers starts the review.
To estimate a payment first, use the medical equipment finance calculator; it returns the monthly payment and total cost including any down payment for the figures you enter.
How to finance a dental practice buildout or purchase
A term loan fits a buildout or an acquisition. For a purchase, partners may ask for the seller's recent tax returns and production reports, the purchase agreement, and the buyer's license and experience. For a buildout, they want the contractor's bid, the lease and the equipment list.
Dental practice financing options compared
| Job | Usual funding type | Repaid from |
|---|---|---|
| New chair, scanner or imaging unit | Equipment financing or lease | Production the equipment supports |
| Second-location buildout | A term loan, with equipment financed alongside | Combined practice revenue |
| Buying an existing practice | Term loan | The acquired practice's collections |
| Staff pay during the claims wait | A credit line or short working capital | Insurance payments as they arrive |
Medical clinic financing for the claims gap
When insurance payments trail the work, working capital or a line of credit carries payroll and supplies. The clean way to size it is your own aging report: how much is billed but unpaid, and how many days it takes to arrive.
Claims-gap arithmetic (hypothetical)
If a clinic bills evenly through the month and claims pay in about 30 to 45 days, roughly one to one and a half months of billings are always outstanding. That float, not annual revenue, is the working-capital need. Check it against your own reports.
The practice records partners ask to see
- Collections and production reports
- Bank statements and the latest business tax return
- Professional license and, for purchases, the seller's records
- Equipment quotes or the contractor's bid
- Leases and equipment notes already in place
Practice technology
Practice-management and imaging software, workstations in each operatory, servers or cloud migration, and phone systems are recurring capital costs. Hardware bundled with installation can usually be financed as equipment; subscriptions are operating costs paid from revenue. Ask the vendor to split the quote so the financeable part is clear.
Established practices, not start-ups
Ravenwood does not arrange startup programs, so the usual applicant is a practice with operating history: adding a chair, refitting rooms, opening a second office or buying a colleague's practice. Partners look at that history first. A practice that has kept collections steady through a previous expansion gives a partner something concrete to review.
Physician offices (544) and dental offices (404) together accounted for 948 employer establishments in Lake County, IL in 2023 (CBP; our sum). The data counts establishments only; it does not show how often practices change hands.
Related health pages
Chiropractors, physical therapists and optometrists have a separate page: funding for therapy and optometry practices. Veterinary practices and home health agencies are on the industries page, and county figures on the Waukegan, IL data page.
By Ravenwood Business Loans · Updated
