Equipment Appraisal Blog | Understanding Machinery Appraisals

Stat: Why appraising medical equipment is vital to the health of your practice

Posted by Equipment Appraisal Services on Tue, Jun 26, 2018 @ 03:14 PM

When you run a healthcare practice, your machinery is a big part of your business assets. As a large investment, knowing what it's worth is important to knowing where your practice's finances stand. However, it's also one of the most overlooked parts of your business' overall worth, often only looked at when it's time to sell the equipment or the practice. When you take the time to really keep track of equipment values, you can make smarter decisions that can improve the overall value of your entire practice. Here's why appraising medical equipment helps you keep a pulse on your business' bottom line.

Stat: Why appraising medical equipment is vital to the health of your practice

Why is it important to have your business bank accounts balanced on a regular basis? Why do you take a look at your profit and loss statements? Why do you make sure bad debts are pursued? Much like these other areas of financial concern for your practice, medical equipment appraisal helps you determine your practice's worth in the marketplace.

Like many other types of professional equipment, medical equipment depreciates in value over time. This can happen due to wear and tear, the appearance of new features in updated models, industry shifts to newer technologies and other issues. As it depreciates, your practice loses asset values. With the changes in the tax code, this process is becoming more important than ever, as you can now depreciate the full value of your machinery in a much shorter time period. Where does that fall with your updated tax strategy?

When your medical equipment is appraised, the appraiser looks at a number of factors. What condition is the machinery in? Has it been well maintained and received repairs as needed? Does it currently need repairs or have non-functional features that will impact its value? What about the market? Is this a common manufacturer or model that has a reputation for exceptional performance that will hold its resale value down the road? Is it an odd brand that will be hard to find a buyer for? Has it been largely replaced by more modern equipment that has features that have become standard? Are there features that provide additional benefits to a prospective buyer that are not typical for that type of machinery?

These factors impact the overall value of the machinery and help you determine how much insurance you need, what it's worth in legal proceedings or what you should expect in property tax assessments. By knowing the value, you know whether the value represented by the outside concern is accurate or not.

When you take the time for appraising medical equipment as a regular part of your practice's overall financial management, you can quickly determine which equipment should be sold before it loses value and what machinery may provide significantly more value to your practice before it needs to be replaced. When you decide to have your medical machinery valued, make sure that you verify that the appraiser you're working with is an experienced certified equipment appraiser. This helps ensure that they have the expertise and experience needed to provide you with an accurate value that will hold up in a wide range of areas, including insurance, taxes, legal and financial circles.

Tags: appraising medical equipment