SBA 7(a) Medical Office Feasibility Study in Wisconsin

Small tickets, no cancellations, no franchises

Physician offices in Wisconsin borrow small sums. The $187,500 median is only 0.75x the nationwide level, and the middle of the distribution runs from $53,500 to $376,250. The state recorded 38 loans between FY2017 and FY2026, worth $16.4 million in gross dollars, and ranks 33 among states, while medical offices hold 18 of 39 places among Wisconsin's classes. Further marks stand out: none of the approvals through FY2024 was cancelled (0.00% as a floor and as a ceiling), and franchises are absent, at 0.00%.

Milwaukee, Madison and the Fox Valley

Milwaukee County has 10 loans, Dane and Waukesha 6 each, and Outagamie 5, so the largest metros and the Fox Cities carry the class. Eau Claire, Kenosha and Rock have 2 each, and La Crosse, Ozaukee and Racine 1. American National Bank-Fox Cities holds 5 loans worth $803,000, the only lender listed, and SBA's present-holder data cannot say more than that. Annual volume is modest: 2 loans in FY2017, 6 in FY2019, a one-year jump to $6.1 million on only 3 loans in FY2022, and 5 loans and $3.4 million in FY2026.

What the figures leave out

Older funded loans are too sparse for a loss percentage, so none is printed. The class covers offices of physicians; dentists, imaging centers and outpatient surgery sit in other classes, so a multi-specialty or procedural project is only partly captured here. FY2024 shows a single loan of $150,000, a reminder that small samples vary a lot from one year to the next.

What a Wisconsin medical office study has to examine

The study should begin with the referral base and payer mix of the specialties proposed: how many patients the practice can see per provider per day, what share is covered by commercial plans, Medicare or Medicaid, and how reimbursement converts to collections. Recruitment of physicians and staff is an operating constraint, as is the time to credential with payers, which delays revenue. For a small loan, the project is often a buy-in or tenant improvement, so the study should show the lease and the build-out cost. If real estate is bought, an appraiser should value the building as medical space and also as general office, since a lender will care about the second use. Cash flow should cover the payment through a slow first year.