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Urgent care centers are having a huge boom right now in the U.S. The industry's market size is expected to reach $75 billion by 2033, leading many doctors to consider jumping into the business and opening their own clinics. Just a couple of months ago, in fact, I had a physician group in this exact circumstance come to me for financing advice. They wanted to acquire an existing urgent care center in their city and take it over as their own.
Compared to other industries, and even within the general medical practice world, urgent care centers are quite capital-intensive upfront and take a bit to see significant profit. As seasoned doctors, the group didn't need help on how to run the place. They needed to know how they could realistically finance their idea.
At Clarify Capital, we were able to save them the pain of shopping bank by bank for loan offers and options. In just a few weeks, my team and I helped them understand their financing options, connect with several lenders, and ultimately receive multiple loans to start their acquisition.
They're just one example of the hundreds of medical professionals I've helped finance a healthcare business, so I'm really familiar with the healthcare space and the financing options that best fit it.
I'll walk through the most common options I recommend for this industry, as well as what the highest costs for urgent care centers are, and how you may want to use each option to match those expenses. I'll also show you what it looks like to apply for financing through Clarify when you're ready.
| Best For | Typical Amount | Typical Term | Rate / Estimated Cost | Speed to Funding | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SBA 7(a) loan | Buying or building the clinic, real estate, clinic acquisition, funding the full build-out when you're willing and able to wait for the lowest rate | Up to $5 million | Up to 10 years (working capital, equipment) or 25 years (real estate) | About 9.75% to 13.25% APR (SBA caps the rate at the prime rate plus 3.0% to 6.5%; prime is 6.75% as of June 2026) | As quickly as two weeks (typically 30 to 90 days) |
| Term loan (short or long-term) | One-time, defined costs like an equipment package or a build-out phase | $10K to $5M | Can do short-term loans or long-term loans | APR from 6% | As fast as same day |
| Business line of credit | Smoothing the credentialing/reimbursement gap and payroll before patient volume ramps up (a draw, repay, repeat system) | $5K to $5M revolving | 6 to 36 months; payments weekly or monthly | APR starting at 6%; only pay interest on what you draw | As fast as same day once approved |
| Equipment financing | Buying specific medical equipment/machinery, like tools for the X-ray room, lab analyzers, and exam equipment | Up to 100% of equipment cost | 12 to 72 months | APR from 6% and up; equipment = collateral | As fast as 1 to 5 days |
| Invoice factoring (aka medical receivables factoring) | Turning unpaid insurance and Medicaid claims into cash now | An advance of 75% to 100% of invoice value | Tied to when invoiced customer pays, typically 30, 60, or 90 days | Uses discount fee per invoice (no fixed APR); from 0.5% to 5% per invoice per month | Usually 1 to 2 weeks |
| Merchant cash advance | Fast, short cash gap when speed beats cost | Depends on monthly revenue; higher revenue= higher cost | No fixed term, estimated repayment length based on monthly sales; payments daily, weekly, or monthly | Priced as a factor rate (not an APR); typically from 1.08 to 1.45; typically the highest cost in this list | As fast as same day |
The Biggest Expenses for Urgent Care Centers
Urgent care centers are an enormously fast-growing field: As of June 2025, there were nearly 12,000 active clinics in the U.S. As explosive as it is on the surface, it's also a pretty costly business to go into. To understand which financing options and loans are going to be best for your clinic, you first have to know what parts of the business require the most investment.
These are the four areas where I see the most capital need from doctors who are opening or acquiring an urgent care center, along with the financing options that I think are best suited to cover each of them.
Real Estate Purchase and/or Build-Out
The success of an urgent care center is tied very closely to its location. Your clinic must be accessible, visible, and convenient for people in its vicinity. This is the single most important factor if you're building your own structure from scratch or buying commercial real estate that was not previously a medical facility. If you're taking over an existing clinic, it may already be well situated.
Also, in addition to the purchase or rent cost of the actual property, consider that you'll need to convert your space adequately into a clinic if it isn't one already. That requires a waiting area, reception, exam rooms, X-ray rooms, a lab, and more. An interior build-out for a typical medical office is about $150 to $300 per square foot. That means, for example, a 3,000-square-foot space would run you anywhere from $450,000 to $900,000.
My financing recommendation: An SBA 7(a) loan if you're buying the space; a term loan for the build-out phase
A SBA 7(a) loan is a flexible and partially government-guaranteed loan. They can go up to as much as $5 million and typically require you to put about 10% down. They're known for their great rates and long repayment terms, and are typically quite accessible in terms of qualifying.
A term loan is a loan that's given as a lump sum of money to be paid back over a specific repayment period (whether it's a short-term or long-term loan will determine this) at a set interest rate. Short-term loans are often more costly due to shorter terms and faster access, while long-term loans tend to offer lower interest rates but require a greater commitment.
Medical Equipment
Because urgent care centers treat a huge range of problems and illnesses, you'll have to set up your clinic and exam rooms with sufficient equipment to handle that demand.
The biggest-ticket item is usually imaging. A digital X-ray room costs anywhere from $45,000 for an entry system to $200,000 for a premium one. Outside of imaging needs, there's a bunch of other types of equipment to consider, like:
Exam tables and chairs
Exam lights
Minor surgery/suture instruments
Vital signs monitors
Crash cart
EKG
Vision and hearing screeners
Vaccine refrigeration units
My financing recommendation: Equipment financing
Equipment financing is a type of small business loan designed specifically for buying all types of equipment, machinery, or vehicles. You get it as a lump sum, then pay it each month over a fixed term. There's usually no down payment, and qualifying is also fairly accessible because the equipment itself acts as collateral.
Office Technology
Your practice is going to need to invest in an electronic health record (EHR) to keep track of patient records built for fast throughput, e-prescribing, and billing. You'll have to get:
Computers
Wi-Fi system
Phone system
Software and practice management systems (PMS)
Planning through the first year of EHR use typically costs about $47,000 per physician.
My financing recommendation: For the hardware, I recommend equipment financing or a term loan. I'd suggest rolling software subscription costs into a business line of credit.
A business line of credit (LOC) is designed for borrowing cash. It gives you access to a pool of funds which you can draw from as needed, pay back, and then re-draw from continuously. You only pay interest on that borrowed portion, not on the unused credit.
Staffing and Working Capital in Early Months
In the early months of opening your clinic, you might not be bringing in steady business right away. That's especially true if there wasn't an urgent care clinic in your space before you got there. The physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and other support staff have to be there and on payroll from day one, though. As does rent, if applicable, and other day-to-day costs. That creates a cash gap issue.
My financing recommendation: A business line of credit
Another note on early cash gaps
A new urgent care center can't bill an insurance company until that company has approved the clinic and its providers. That can take several months, so in the early days of your business, there may be a long stretch of time between when you begin providing services and when you get reimbursed. If you’re really in a pinch from these costs in the early months and a business line of credit isn’t going to work, invoice factoring (also known as medical receivables factoring) is also an option once the claims start flowing, as is a merchant cash advance for short-term and urgent needs.
Why Urgent Care Operators Work With Clarify
Clarify Capital's 5.0 Trustpilot rating is the highest in the industry, and we've placed more than $1 billion across 50,000+ small to midsize businesses.
Clarify matches you across 75+ vetted lenders and can get you a written offer in as quickly as 24 hours. Every applicant works with a U.S.-based lending advisor (not a chatbot or a call center) from application through financing.
Minimum Qualifications
$10,000 in monthly revenue
Your business must earn at least $10K per month in a business bank account.
500+ credit score
You can get approved with any credit score. But the better your credit rating, the better interest rates lenders offer. Your FICO score should be above 500.
Minimum six months in business
Your company should be operational for a minimum of six months. This shows business lenders that your company is sustainable and won't go out of business.
Have a business bank account
Your Clarify advisor will need three or four months of your most recent bank statements to verify income. This is just to see you're actually making $10K+ month in revenue.
How To Apply for Urgent Care Center Financing with Clarify
Step 1: Apply online
It takes about two minutes. You’ll need your medical practice's legal name, EIN, time in business, monthly revenue (or projected revenue), requested loan amount, owner contact information, and a credit authorization. Apply here.
Step 2: Connect with a lending advisor
A U.S.-based Clarify Capital lending advisor reviews the application, runs a soft credit pull (no impact to your score), and requests 3 to 4 months of recent business bank statements. For acquisition financing, expect a deeper request: trailing 12 months profit and loss statement (P&L), balance sheet, tax returns, and the target practice's financials.
Step 3: Get matched and funded
Clarify works with 75+ vetted lenders and matches your profile to the lender most likely to approve you at the best terms. Approved files often get a written offer the same day. You can sign electronically, complete the ACH setup, and the funds will hit the practice's business bank account as soon as that day.
Fund the Build and Bridge the Gap
Here are the two things I most want you to take away as an urgent care operator:
Match your needs to the type of financing best built for them rather than reaching for one all-purpose loan to cover everything.
Plan for those first several months of business during which it's likely that patients and payments won't be super steady.
My team and I at Clarify can help you explore the best options for your business. Get started and apply today.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are answers to questions I often get about financing for urgent care centers.
How Much Does It Cost To Open an Urgent Care Center?
For many new clinics, it can run into the seven-figure range. An interior build-out for a typical medical office is about $150 to $300 per square foot. That means, for example, a 3,000-foot space would run you anywhere from $450,000 to $900,000. That's not including the costs to furnish, equip, and staff your facility.
What Do You Need To Open an Urgent Care Center?
A visible, accessible, and convenient location; a clinic build-out with a wide range of medical equipment; an EHR and billing system; licensed providers and support staff; insurance enrollment and credentialing; and enough working capital to cover the first several months of unstable revenue.
How Long Before a New Urgent Care Can Bill Insurance?
A clinic cannot bill an insurance company until that company has approved its providers and services (this is called getting “credentialed.”) Even Medicare enrollment requires a site visit, which can take 85 to 100 days to process. Commercial insurance credentialing often takes even longer, so expect to have to cover cash gaps for the first few months of business.
Can I Get Financing to Buy or Expand an Existing Urgent Care Center?
Yes. Practice acquisition and expansion are classic SBA 7(a) use cases. Clarify Capital specifically helps finance businesses that have been operating for six months or more, so buying or expanding an established business fits while starting from zero generally won't.
Do Urgent Care Center Loans Require Collateral?
It depends. For an SBA 7(a) loan or a bank loan, you may have to put up collateral. In equipment financing, the equipment serves as collateral. For invoice factoring, the invoice is the collateral. For merchant cash advances, short-term loans, and business lines of credit, no collateral is typically required.
How Much Do Urgent Care Center Owners Make?
It depends on the clinic's patient volume, location, payer mix, growth strategy, and how many other (if any) locations they run. There's no single figure. What matters for financing purposes is steady visit volume and reliable collections.
Bryan Gerson
Co-founder, Clarify
Bryan has personally arranged over $900 million in funding for businesses across trucking, restaurants, retail, construction, and healthcare. Since graduating from the University of Arizona in 2011, Bryan has spent his entire career in alternative finance, helping business owners secure capital when traditional banks turn them away. He specializes in bad credit funding, no doc lending, invoice factoring, and working capital solutions. More about the Clarify team →
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