Selling an Allied Health Practice in Australia

How long it takes to sell

Ninety to one hundred and eighty days is typical, and the variable is rarely buyer interest. It is practitioner retention. Buyers will not commit until they understand which clinicians are staying and on what terms, and those conversations take time to have properly and confidentially. Practices that have restraints and employment agreements already in order move considerably faster.

The five things buyers pay for

Registration, provider numbers and patient records

Professional registration belongs to the practitioner, not the practice. A buyer must either be registered in the relevant profession themselves or employ practitioners who are. This is why corporate and private equity buyers are so active in the sector: they already have the clinical structure and are buying patient flow.

Medicare provider numbers are issued to an individual practitioner for a specific location, so incoming practitioners apply for their own. NDIS registration is held by the provider entity and involves an audit process, which means it does not simply pass across with the business. Both need to be sequenced so the practice can keep billing from day one under new ownership.

Patient health records carry retention and privacy obligations that continue after the sale. How records transfer, who holds them and how patients are notified all need to be dealt with in the contract rather than left to settlement. Handled poorly, this is a genuine compliance exposure for both parties.

What buyers will ask for

• Practitioner retention and restraints. Who is staying, on what terms, and whether existing agreements include enforceable restraints. Buyers frequently make this a condition.
• Billing mix by funding source. The split across Medicare, NDIS, DVA, workers compensation and private fees, and how that split has moved over three years.
• Referral concentration. How much of your new patient flow comes from a small number of referrers, and whether those relationships are with the practice or with you.
• Your own clinical hours. How much of the revenue you personally generate, and what happens to it when you leave. This single figure often decides the multiple.
• Compliance and audit history. Billing compliance, any audit correspondence, and your records management practices.

Common questions

What happens if I am the main practitioner?

It reduces the multiple, because a large share of revenue leaves with you. The usual answer is a handover period of twelve months or more, often with part of the price tied to retained revenue, or recruiting a second practitioner before going to market.

Do my patients transfer with the sale?

Patients are not property and cannot be assigned. What transfers is the practice, its records and its referral relationships. In practice retention is high where the clinical team stays and patients are notified properly.

Does NDIS registration pass to the buyer?

Not automatically. Registration sits with the provider entity and involves audit, so the buyer generally needs their own. Where a share sale keeps the entity intact the position differs, which is one reason deal structure matters here more than in most sectors.

Will a corporate group pay more than an individual buyer?

Often, particularly above roughly $1 million in EBITDA where a practice fits an existing network. Corporates also run longer due diligence and more structured terms, so the headline number and the net outcome are not always the same thing.