SBA 7(a) Medical Office Feasibility Study in Oklahoma

Oklahoma physician offices: Tulsa-centred and modest

Oklahoma's medical office (physicians) cell holds 66 loans under SBA 7(a), approved from FY2017 to FY2026, worth $26.9 million. Oklahoma's rank by loan count is 22, with the class at 9 of 39 in-state. The median loan of $201,550 sits at 0.80x the nationwide ratio, with an interquartile range of $102,000 to $489,750, and no loan carries a franchise. Counties tell the story: 34 loans sit in Tulsa County and 19 in Oklahoma County, while the next counties have 3 or fewer. Because so many counties show a single loan, a borrower should ask whether a proposed site has any local precedent.

Arvest, BancFirst and a thin tail

Arvest Bank holds 16 of the loans, worth $3.2 million, BancFirst 8, worth $3.3 million, and JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association further back at 5 loans and $1.4 million. Cleveland and Garvin counties have 3 loans each, and a long tail of counties have just 1. Annual volume has stayed between 3 and 10 loans, and FY2022 raised $6.2 million on 9 loans, the largest dollar year.

Oklahoma physician-office approvals over FY2017 to FY2024 saw at least 5.6% cancelled, rising to 7.4% when undisbursed loans are counted. Among the 34 loans that funded earlier, 2.9% is the running write-off floor, with an identical five-year figure. These are minimums from a small cohort.

Testing an Oklahoma practice request

An Oklahoma study should treat the practice as the borrower and the building as a secondary question. The practice's payer mix, referral relationships, patient volume per provider and collection history determine whether payments can be met. For a new office, the study should test the number of physicians in the area, the hospitals nearby, and how long credentialing will delay income. For an acquisition, it should separate the price paid for equipment and goodwill from the price of the property. Given the concentration in two counties, a project outside Tulsa and Oklahoma County has few local comparables, and the study should fill that gap with a demand analysis of its own. Coverage should be tested for a year without a key physician. The study should also set out the borrower's licensing and credentialing status.