How much does a medical practice valuation cost in Australia?

The short answer

Oliver Group's fee for a medical practice valuation is fixed and set by the annual turnover of the practice: $1,495 + GST where turnover is under $2 million and $2,495 + GST from $2 million to $10 million. Where the practice runs the common service-entity structure, the additional entity adds $795: a practice turning over $2 million to $10 million is therefore $3,290 + GST all in. Across the wider market, full valuation reports at traditional firms typically run $5,000–$15,000 or more, and most providers do not publish a fee at all, you find out by requesting a quote. Healthcare-specialist advisers and practice brokers also offer appraisals, some free; these serve a sale-campaign purpose and are not signed valuation evidence. The honest headline, though, is not the number: it is why medicine takes more work to value, at the same fixed fee, than a trades business or a retail shop with the same revenue. The answer is practitioner dependency, and it shapes the analysis throughout this article.

The goodwill split: the scope item that defines a medical valuation

In most small businesses, goodwill is a single question: how much is there. In a medical practice, it is two questions: how much is there, and how much of it actually transfers. Personal goodwill, the patients who book because of a specific doctor, the referrers who refer to a specific practitioner, attaches to the person and leaves with them. Practice goodwill, the location, the brand, the appointment systems, the nurse-led services, the contracted doctor cohort, the patient database, attaches to the entity and can be sold. Market value is a price for what remains after the vendor departs, so the split is not a refinement; it is the valuation. Settling it takes analysis a generic small-business engagement never performs: billings broken down by practitioner to see who actually generates the earnings; patient re-booking patterns, to test whether patients follow the clinic or the clinician; and the contract terms: whether doctor agreements are written, current, assignable, and carry restraints that would actually hold. The full framework is set out at /insights/personal-vs-transferable-goodwill.

Oliver Group's fixed fees for medical practice valuations

Every fee is fixed at engagement, never billed by the hour, and never contingent on the outcome. Oliver Group's fees are set by the annual turnover of the business: a Small Business Valuation is $1,495 + GST for turnover under $2 million, a Medium Business Valuation is $2,495 + GST for turnover between $2 million and $10 million, and a Large Business Valuation is $3,495 + GST for turnover over $10 million. Every report is signed under an independence statement, prepared with the ATO's market valuation guidance in mind, and the working file behind it is retained for ten years. For small-business reports a draft is delivered in 2 business days and for medium-business reports in 3 business days, and the delivery date for a Large Business Valuation is agreed before commencement. Delivery time starts once payment and all required information have been received. Retrospective valuation dates are +$495 each and additional entities are +$795 each.

What makes a practice valuation more involved

These are the features that expand the work: each one is more analysis, not padding, and only the two fixed add-ons noted in the list change the fee:

• ·Multiple practitioners on differing arrangements: a practice with a principal, two percentage-of-billings contractors and a salaried GP registrar has four different earnings and dependency profiles, and each needs its own billings and normalisation analysis
• ·Service entities and trusts: each additional entity valued adds $795, and the analysis must trace how fees flow between the practice, the service entity and the practitioners
• ·Co-located allied health, pathology rent or treatment-room licensing income: separate earnings streams with different risk, different maintainability and different transferability, each assessed on its own evidence
• ·Owner-doctor clinical earnings mixed into profit: where the principal has never drawn a market-rate clinical wage, the normalisation work is heavier and the value impact larger
• ·Retrospective valuation dates: historical dates add $495 each and restrict the evidence to what was reasonably knowable at the time

The ecosystem problem: service entities and associateship models

Ask what a medical practice is worth and the first professional question back is: which entity, exactly? Most established practices are not one business but an ecosystem. A common structure runs a service entity, often a trust, that owns the premises fit-out, employs the reception and nursing staff and supplies rooms and administration to the doctors, who practise as independent contractors paying a service fee, frequently a percentage of their billings. In associateship models, practitioners may hold interests in the service entity without any entity ever owning the patients or the billings. So the valuation scope has to be defined before the methodology starts: is the subject the service entity's maintainable service-fee stream, the operating practice entity, a specific doctor's interest, or the combined ecosystem a buyer would actually acquire? Each answer produces a different analysis, and getting it wrong produces a technically tidy report about the wrong asset. This is a second reason medical engagements carry more scope than generic ones: the valuer is frequently valuing two or three entities and the arrangements between them, not one set of accounts. It is also why the additional-entity surcharge exists as a published line item rather than a quiet quote adjustment.

Medicare, bulk-billing and the earnings evidence

A maintainable earnings conclusion is only as strong as its evidence, and in a medical practice the earnings evidence runs through the payer. The valuer reviews Medicare billing profiles by practitioner, item mix, billings per session, consistency over time, because these are the substantiation behind any claim about what the practice can sustainably earn. Billing mix matters to risk: a heavily bulk-billed practice has earnings that move with Medicare rebate settings and incentive programs, while a private-billing practice carries different sensitivity, and the multiple should reflect whichever exposure the evidence shows. Two further review items sit in the same category. State payroll tax treatment of payments flowing to contractor doctors has shifted materially in recent years and now varies by state, with relief in some states tied to GP status or bulk-billing thresholds, so a supportable valuation documents the practice's position rather than assuming the exposure away, since it directly affects maintainable earnings and any historical liability a buyer would price. And accreditation status and Medicare compliance history bear on whether the earnings are durable at all. None of this makes the valuer a tax or health-regulation adviser: Oliver Group values the practice and documents the evidence; the payroll tax position and compliance questions themselves belong with the practice's accountant and lawyer. But a medical valuation that has not looked at any of it is not evidence, and reviewing it is part of what the fee buys.

What the complexity changes: the work, not the fee

Fixed-fee pricing only stays honest if it is clear what moves the fee and what does not. A medical practice valuation has to carry a goodwill-split question, and often a service-entity structure and several practitioners on differing arrangements as well. None of that changes the fee, which is set by the annual turnover of the practice and the two fixed add-ons, and the scope of the report is the same at every package. What it changes is the amount of analysis and the time it takes to get the information complete. One limit applies at every package: the fixed fee does not cover a cross-check of the conclusion against a second or third methodology, expert witness work or tax advice. Fixed-scope efficiency is the pitch; corner-cutting is not.

Scoping your practice valuation

The fastest way to an accurate fixed fee is to send the shape of the practice before anyone commits: a simple structure diagram showing the entities and who owns what; financial statements for each entity for the last three to five years; billings by practitioner; the doctor agreements and service agreements; and the purpose and valuation date. Two companion pages complete the picture: what practices actually sell for, including multiples and the owner-wage normalisation that surprises most principals, is at /insights/how-much-is-a-medical-practice-worth-australia, and the full industry methodology sits at /industries/medical-and-dental-practices. One boundary stated plainly, as always: Oliver Group prepares independent valuations only. We are not registered tax agents and do not provide tax, legal or financial advice: concession eligibility, payroll tax exposure and transaction structure are matters for your accountant and lawyer, working from the valuation evidence. Our part is a supportable value for the right asset, at a fee you knew before we started.