SBA 7(a) Imaging Center Feasibility Study

Imaging centers in 7(a): equipment risk shows

Imaging centers took 298 SBA 7(a) loans worth $234.4 million in FY2017 to FY2026. The median loan is $350,000 and the middle half spans $125,450 to $948,300, sizes that fit a scanner purchase or a center's fit-out more than a building. Our distinctness screen finds nothing that sets this cell apart from its parents, and franchise share is 0.00%.

A loss floor a lender should weigh

The charge-off floor is 8.2% for the 122 imaging loans disbursed in FY2017 to FY2021, and 4.1% inside five years. That is a high floor for a medical class, and it fits the asset: imaging equipment loses value quickly, reimbursement for scans can be cut, and a center that loses its referral relationships has little else to sell. Cancellations run from 13.6% to 14.9%. For a borrower, the lesson is to finance equipment over a term no longer than its useful life and to show the lender where replacement money will come from.

Banco Popular de Puerto Rico and JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association lead the lenders with 16 loans each, for $10.9 million and $4.3 million. Wells Fargo Bank National Association has 12 loans and $11.0 million, and The Huntington National Bank and Newtek Bank, National Association 11 each, for $6.2 million and $4.0 million. California leads with 54 loans, then Florida with 45, Texas with 38, New York with 21 and Puerto Rico with 19. Volume reached 46 loans and $35.5 million in FY2024, the top count; the top dollar year was FY2021 at $37.1 million, and FY2026 brought 30 loans and $16.8 million.

What an imaging study must test

No limitation line applies to the class. A feasibility study for a 7(a) imaging loan has to test referral demand by modality and the physicians and hospitals sending it; the payer mix and its sensitivity to reimbursement changes; the cost and useful life of each machine, with a reserve for replacement; debt service coverage at scan volumes the center has achieved; and, for any owned space, an appraisal that does not credit shielding and power upgrades with value the next tenant would not pay for. A borrower who can show contracted referrals and a replacement plan answers the questions this loss floor raises.