Most owners learn what the practice is worth only when someone else asks.
An indicative valuation analysis for physician-owned practices and surgery centers: a normalized value range built from your own numbers, benchmarked against what the market has paid for comparable practices, with the drivers ranked so you can see which ones you control. Prepared for internal management planning, and refreshed every year rather than once, under pressure.
The number matters before you need it.
By the time a letter arrives, the levers that would have moved the number take two years to pull.
An offer showed up
A platform, a strategic, or a partner put a number in front of you, and you have nothing independent to measure it against.
A partner is buying in or out
A buy-in, a retirement, or a departure needs a defensible price range that both sides can work from without a fight.
An exit is somewhere ahead
Five or ten years out. That is exactly the window where value drivers still respond to decisions you make now.
You want a baseline to run against
A yearly number that tracks whether the practice is compounding or drifting, alongside the monthly financials.
Five pieces of work behind one range.
Earnings normalization
Owner compensation set to market, personal and one-time items separated out, and cash-basis books adjusted so the earnings baseline is the one a buyer would use.
Market-based benchmarking
Comparable transaction multiples for your specialty, size, and geography, with the reasoning for where in that range your practice sits.
Value-driver analysis
Provider concentration, payer mix, growth, lease terms, and books quality, each scored for how much it adds or subtracts, and ranked by what you can actually change.
The buyer-lens read
What a buyer would find in diligence, surfaced now while there is still time to fix it rather than concede it at the table.
The annual refresh
The model re-run against actuals each year, so the range moves with the practice and the value work has a scoreboard.
The walkthrough
A live session on the number, the assumptions, and the decisions it implies, with the model behind it handed over so it can be re-run.
Three ways owners get to a number.
| Comparison criteria | Indicative valuation analysis | Independent appraisal coordination | Online calculator or broker estimate |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is for | Owner decisions and planning | Tax, litigation, lending, or reporting uses | A rough directional figure |
| Who prepares it | Healthcare M&AI, from your financials | An outside credentialed firm, briefed and pressure-tested by us | A formula, or someone hoping for the listing |
| What you get | A range, the drivers, and the model behind it | A formal deliverable that meets the required standard | A multiple applied to a number you typed in |
| Who pays for the answer | Flat fee, set before the work starts | Firm fee, plus coordination scope | Free, and priced accordingly |
Built by someone who has valued the practices and bought them.
Healthcare M&AI is led by Shawn Rothlis. He previously built and reviewed medical-practice and ASC valuations at HealthCare Appraisers, and has since spent most of a career on the buy side of healthcare M&A: 150+ healthcare services businesses valued, 130+ centers acquired and integrated, and $1B+ in cumulative transaction value.
That combination is the point. Knowing what a defensible formal valuation contains, and knowing what a buyer actually pays attention to in diligence, are two different things, and an owner planning around a number needs both.
What this is and is not. This is an indicative valuation analysis prepared for internal management planning. It is not a formal valuation opinion and is not prepared for tax, litigation, financial reporting, lending, or regulatory use, and it is not investment, legal, or tax advice. Where a formal opinion is required, the engagement shifts to independent appraisal coordination: selecting and briefing the outside firm, assembling what it needs, and pressure-testing what comes back.
Three steps, a flat fee, and the model in your hands at the end.
Sources in
Financials, tax returns, payroll, the payer and production detail, and the lease. The list is short and specific, and the fee is agreed before anything starts.
Build and benchmark
Earnings normalized, comparable transactions pulled, drivers scored. Typically two to three weeks once the sources are in hand.
Walkthrough and handover
A live session on the range and what moves it, then the model and a short decision memo you can hand to your attorney and your accountant.
The fee is flat and fixed, set in writing before the work starts. There is no percentage of a sale, no fee contingent on a transaction, and no referral arrangement with a buyer. The range can come back lower than you hoped and the fee is the same. Healthcare M&AI does not facilitate, broker, or intermediate securities transactions.
Match the scope to the question.
Practice valuation (this page)
What it is worth, what drives it, and what would move it. Refreshed annually.
Fractional CFO
The standing seat that works the drivers month to month instead of once a year.
ASC conversion economics
Whether adding a licensed facility changes both the earnings and the asset you own.
Common questions about practice valuation.
What is an indicative valuation analysis?
A normalized value range for your practice, built from your own financials and benchmarked against comparable transactions, prepared so the owner can make decisions. It shows the earnings baseline, the multiple range the market supports, and what is pushing your number up or down.
How is this different from a formal valuation opinion?
A formal opinion is a regulated deliverable prepared by a credentialed outside firm for uses such as tax, litigation, financial reporting, or lending. This analysis is prepared for internal management planning and is not a substitute. When a formal opinion is required, the engagement shifts to independent appraisal coordination.
What drives the value of a medical practice?
Normalized earnings after owner compensation is set to market, payer and case mix, provider concentration and whether the practice runs without the founder, growth and site economics, lease and real estate terms, and the quality of the books. Each gets scored and ranked in the analysis.
How often should the number be refreshed?
Annually for most owners, and immediately when something structural changes: a partner leaves, a payer contract resets, a location opens, or an unsolicited offer arrives. A number that only exists when someone else asks for it is a number you are negotiating against blind.
Someone made an offer. Can you tell me if it is fair?
Yes, as an independent read for your own planning: what the offer implies about the earnings baseline and multiple, how that compares to what the market has paid for similar practices, and which levers would move it. The fee is flat and set before the work starts, so the answer is not tied to whether you accept.
Know the number before someone else sets it for you.
I will tell you what a buyer would see if they looked at your practice today. No pitch. Just a straight read on where you stand.