Healthcare business valuation glossary

The agreement between the Australian Government and the Pharmacy Guild of Australia under which the Government reimburses pharmacists for dispensing PBS medicines and for community pharmacy medication management programs and services. It commenced on 1 July 2024 and remains in effect until 30 June 2029. An addendum agreed on 12 June 2026 changed the PBS wholesale mark-up from 1 July 2026 and adjusted pharmacist remuneration to offset the effect. Because the agreement sets much of a pharmacy's dispensing income, its remaining term, and the terms of whatever follows it, shape the earnings a valuer is willing to treat as maintainable.

The national regulator of Australian Government funded aged care. It describes its role as protecting and improving the safety, health, wellbeing and quality of life of people receiving aged care services, and it registers providers, monitors performance and handles complaints. A valuation of a residential or in-home aged care business examines registration status, audit history, any current compliance action and the cost of meeting the standards, because non-compliance findings can interrupt subsidy income, restrict admissions and materially narrow the pool of buyers.

The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency. Ahpra works in partnership with 15 National Boards to implement the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme, which regulates 16 health professions under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law as in force in each state and territory. Registration is personal to the practitioner and cannot be sold with a business. In a valuation it matters because conditions, undertakings or suspensions on a key practitioner can interrupt earnings, and because a buyer must be able to staff the practice with registered practitioners.

The Australian National Aged Care Classification, the funding model for the care component of residential aged care. It links subsidy to the characteristics of the home, including its location under the Modified Monash Model (the classification of locations by remoteness and town size) and any specialised status, and to residents' assessed care needs. Funding is calculated by applying National Weighted Activity Units to the AN-ACC price, which the government updates on 1 October each year using advice from the Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority. A valuer reads a home's classification profile and occupancy together.

Two ways of buying the same practice. In an asset sale the buyer takes the business itself: goodwill, plant and equipment, patient or participant records, and usually an assignment of the lease, while the company or trust stays with the seller. In a share sale the buyer takes the entity and everything inside it, including its trading history, contracts, employee entitlements and any liability that has not been provided for, such as unpaid payroll tax. The structure changes what is being valued, what a buyer will investigate and the tax outcome for each side, so it should be settled before the valuation and confirmed with your accountant and lawyer.

The standard of value a valuation is prepared on, and the first thing to fix in an engagement. Market value assumes a hypothetical willing but not anxious buyer and seller. Fair value may take its meaning from an accounting standard or from the wording of a shareholders agreement. Tax, family law and dispute contexts each carry their own conventions about what is assumed and whose circumstances count. Two competent valuers can reach different figures for the same practice at the same date simply because they were asked for different bases, which is why the basis, the purpose and the valuation date belong at the front of any report.

The Australian Government initiative that provides Medicare benefits for selected mental health treatment services delivered by eligible general practitioners, prescribed medical practitioners, psychologists, social workers and occupational therapists. Eligible patients can claim a benefit for up to 10 individual and 10 group services in a calendar year, on a mental health treatment plan or a psychiatrist assessment and management plan. It is the main funding pathway for many psychology practices, so a valuer examines how much of the practice depends on it, how much comes from private, NDIS, insurer or employer-funded work, and how exposed the earnings would be to a change in the item settings.

Billing Medicare directly for a service instead of charging the patient. The practitioner accepts the Medicare benefit as full payment and the patient assigns their right to that benefit. No additional charge may be raised except to cover the supply of a vaccine. Bulk billing incentive items are separate payments for eligible unreferred services. A practice's split between bulk billed and privately billed services is one of the first things a valuer examines, because it sets the capacity to lift fees and the sensitivity of earnings to Medicare policy.

A broker's or agent's opinion of the price a business might achieve, usually prepared at no cost as part of winning a listing. An appraisal is a marketing estimate: it is often built from asking prices and sector rules of thumb, it rarely sets out a full normalisation of earnings, and the person preparing it may have an interest in the outcome. An independent valuation states the purpose, the basis of value, the valuation date, every adjustment made and the reasoning behind the multiple or rate adopted. Tax, family law and dispute purposes generally call for the second rather than the first.

The method used most often for an established healthcare practice. The valuer assesses the earnings the business can sustainably produce, then applies a multiple, or the equivalent capitalisation rate, reflecting the risk and growth prospects attached to those earnings. The result is a value for the operating business on a control basis, assuming a normal level of working capital comes with it, to which surplus assets are added and debt deducted where an equity value is required. It suits a settled trading history and is less reliable for a start-up or a practice in the middle of a large structural change.

The rate applied to maintainable earnings to convert them into a capital value. It is the reciprocal of the earnings multiple, so a higher capitalisation rate produces a lower value. The rate is a judgement about risk and expected growth, not the output of a formula. In healthcare it is influenced by practitioner dependence, workforce stability, patient or participant concentration, funding and compliance exposure, lease security and the transferability of goodwill. A valuation should explain the reasoning behind the rate adopted rather than assert a sector standard.

A Services Australia program that covers part or all of the cost of some basic dental services for eligible children. A child must be aged 0 to 17 for at least one day in the calendar year, be eligible for Medicare, and either receive a qualifying payment or have a parent, carer or guardian who does. For a dental practice this is a distinct revenue stream with its own eligibility checking and claiming, and a valuer assesses how much of the practice's activity and chair time depends on it.

The additional amount attributable to a parcel of shares or units that carries control, measured against the value of an equivalent parcel that does not. Control brings the ability to set strategy, appoint management, decide distributions and initiate a sale, so a pro rata share of the value of the whole business already reflects those powers. The mirror image is the minority discount applied to a parcel without them. Whether a premium or a discount applies depends on the purpose of the valuation, the size of the parcel, the constitution or shareholders agreement, and any statutory or court context, so it is decided case by case.

A group that acquires and operates a number of practices in one sector. Consolidation is a feature of dental, veterinary, radiology, pathology, optical and general practice markets in Australia. Consolidators buy for scale, so they tend to look for practices above a certain size, with associates or employed practitioners already carrying the clinical load, documented systems and a lease with term remaining. They commonly structure a purchase with deferred consideration and a tie-in for the selling practitioner. Their activity affects the pool of buyers for larger practices, but the terms they offer are not evidence of what a smaller owner-operated practice is worth.

A non-refundable daily payment a residential aged care resident may make towards their accommodation, instead of or alongside a refundable accommodation deposit. The maximum daily payment is calculated by multiplying the agreed room price by the maximum permissible interest rate current when the resident agreed that price, then dividing by 365. Where part of the room price is paid as a lump sum, the daily payment is calculated on the unpaid balance. The mix of lump sums and daily payments across a home affects both its income and its cash position.

Treatment funded by DVA for Veteran Card holders. DVA funds all health services necessary to meet a clinical need for Gold Card holders, and services required for accepted conditions for White Card holders. A provider who accepts the card agrees to accept the DVA fee as full payment and does not charge the patient a gap. For a medical, dental or allied health practice this is dependable income with no bad debts, but the fee is set by DVA rather than by the practice, and the patient group is ageing, so a valuer looks at how large the DVA share is and whether it sits with one practitioner.

A reduction applied because an interest cannot readily be sold. Shares in a private healthcare company have no market, transfer is usually restricted by the constitution or a shareholders agreement, and a buyer must be found and approved. The size of any adjustment depends on those restrictions, the likely pool of buyers, whether a buy-sell mechanism exists and the purpose of the valuation. It is separate from a minority discount, although both can bear on the same parcel, and some purposes and court contexts do not accept it.

The rate used in a discounted cash flow to convert forecast future cash flows into a present value. It represents the return a provider of capital would require for the risk attached to those cash flows and is built from evidence about the cost of equity and debt rather than chosen at will. A higher discount rate produces a lower value. It differs from a capitalisation rate, which is applied to a single maintainable earnings figure rather than to a forecast stream over an explicit period, although the two are related: a capitalisation rate is broadly a discount rate less the sustainable growth expected in the earnings being capitalised.

A method that values a business by forecasting its cash flows over an explicit period, estimating a terminal value at the end of that period, and discounting both back to the valuation date. It suits businesses whose future differs materially from their past: a practice mid-expansion, a new NDIS service line, a pharmacy about to gain or lose a nearby prescriber, or an aged care home filling beds. Because it depends heavily on the forecast, a valuer tests the assumptions and usually cross-checks against a maintainable earnings result.

The part of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 that can treat certain payments, loans and forgiven debts from a private company to a shareholder or an associate as deemed dividends. It appears often in healthcare practices where an owner has drawn funds from the practice company. A valuation is not tax advice, but loan accounts affect both net assets and the earnings being normalised, so their existence and terms should be identified in the report and their tax treatment confirmed with your accountant.

Part of a sale price payable later and only if agreed performance conditions are met, usually measured over a period after settlement. Earn-outs are common in healthcare because the buyer is exposed to whether patients, participants and practitioners stay once the owner steps back. They complicate valuation twice over: a headline price reported for a comparable transaction may never have been paid in full, and a valuation of the business being sold must consider whether the conditions attached to the deferred amount are realistically achievable.

Earnings before interest and tax: operating profit after depreciation and amortisation but before financing costs and income tax. EBIT is often preferred to EBITDA for capital-intensive healthcare businesses such as dental practices, radiology and diagnostic businesses and pharmacies, because depreciation is a reasonable proxy for the cost of replacing chairs, imaging equipment and fitout. A valuation should state plainly which earnings measure is being capitalised, since a multiple applied to the wrong measure produces a figure that means nothing.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation. It approximates the operating cash earnings of a business before financing, tax and non-cash charges, which makes results easier to compare between businesses with different debt levels and asset ages. It is not free cash flow: it ignores the capital spending needed to keep clinical equipment and fitout current, and in healthcare that spending can be substantial. EBITDA must be normalised before it is used, and EBIT is sometimes the more appropriate measure.

The value of the business operations as a whole, before deducting borrowings and before adding assets not used in the business. It answers what the operating business is worth to any owner, regardless of how that owner has funded it. A capitalisation of maintainable earnings usually produces an enterprise value. Where the subject of the valuation is shares or units rather than the business itself, the valuer then moves from enterprise value to equity value.

What the owners' interests are worth. It is derived from enterprise value by deducting interest-bearing debt and adding surplus assets such as excess cash, an unrelated investment, or a property held in the operating entity but not required by the practice. Further adjustments may be needed for unpaid tax, employee entitlements not already in earnings, and shareholder loan accounts. Equity value is the relevant figure for a share sale, a shareholder exit, family law property proceedings, or a tax event on shares or units.

A financial reporting concept. Australian Accounting Standard AASB 13 defines fair value as the price that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date. The ATO notes that fair value is used for financial reporting and is not always identical to market value for tax purposes, although the two are usually defined in similar terms. A shareholders agreement may give the term its own contractual meaning, so the document is read before the standard of value is fixed.

The value of a business above the value of its identifiable net assets. In a healthcare practice, goodwill reflects what brings patients or participants back and keeps referrers sending work: location, reputation, systems, brand, the clinical team and the recurring nature of care. Goodwill is not an item you can inspect; it is a residual, the difference between the value of the business and the value of its tangible assets. The decisive valuation question is how much of it transfers to a buyer.

The risk that earnings depend on one individual, usually the owner practitioner, and would fall if that person left. It is the dominant issue in single-practitioner medical, dental, psychology and allied health practices, and in owner-led NDIS providers where the founder holds the relationships with support coordinators and families. Key person risk shows up in a lower multiple, in a longer transition and restraint negotiated on a sale, and sometimes in a conclusion that little goodwill is separable from the practitioner.

The level of profit a business can reasonably be expected to sustain, on a normalised basis, from the valuation date forward. It is not last year's accounting profit. The valuer examines several years of results, removes one-off and non-commercial items, adjusts owner remuneration to a market rate for the work actually performed, and forms a view on which years and trends are representative. In healthcare that includes judging how to treat abnormal periods, changes to funding programs, and practitioner arrivals and departures.

Information about actual transactions and market conditions used to test a valuation conclusion. It can include sales of comparable businesses, listed company data adjusted for size and liquidity, and observed deal terms such as the use of deferred consideration or restraints. Healthcare evidence needs care: reported prices often bundle stock, plant and property, may include deferred amounts never paid, and reflect one buyer's circumstances. Evidence informs judgement about risk and value; it does not replace analysis of the particular business.

The value at which an asset would change hands between a willing but not anxious buyer and a willing but not anxious seller, dealing at arm's length. The ATO's market valuation guide explains each element: the buyer is informed and not compelled, the seller is not forced, the asset is properly marketed, both parties act knowledgeably and prudently, and value is measured at the valuation date. Market value reflects the highest and best use of the asset and disregards advantages available only to one particular buyer.

The listing of medical services subsidised by the Australian Government. It is managed by the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing and administered by Services Australia, and each item sets out the service and the benefit payable. Medical practices, and allied health practices billing under referred items, earn much of their revenue this way. A valuer examines the item mix rather than total billings alone, because items differ in fee level, in how often they can be claimed and in how exposed they are to policy change.

A shareholding or unit holding that does not carry control of the entity. A minority holder generally cannot compel a distribution, appoint management, change the constitution or force a sale, and depends on the majority. Valuing a minority interest in a healthcare practice starts with the value of the whole business, then considers what that particular parcel can actually deliver to its holder, taking account of the constitution, any shareholders agreement, the pattern of past distributions and the purpose of the valuation.

The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing classification of locations by remoteness and town size, running from MM 1 for a major city to MM 7 for a very remote community. It is used to target health workforce programs and payments, and it also feeds into aged care funding. In a valuation the classification of the practice address is a factual input with money attached: it can decide eligibility for rural loadings and workforce incentives, and it shapes how hard the practice will find it to recruit and hold practitioners, which in turn affects how sustainable the earnings are.

The number by which maintainable earnings are multiplied to reach a value. It is shorthand for everything the market thinks about the risk and growth of those earnings. A multiple only means something alongside the earnings measure it applies to and a clear definition of what is being bought, so quoting one without the other misleads. Sector multiples circulated in the market are averages of transactions with different terms, sizes and buyer motives, and they are not a substitute for assessing the practice in front of you.

A voluntary patient registration model that formalises the relationship between a patient, their general practice, their general practitioner and the practice's primary care team. Registration links a patient to a practice and to items and incentives tied to that relationship, and it now sits in the referral pathway for some Medicare-funded allied health mental health services. In a valuation, registered patient numbers and the practice's registration processes are evidence of continuity: patients formally attached to the practice rather than to one departing doctor support an argument that goodwill is transferable.

The quality standards registered NDIS providers must meet. They comprise a core module for higher-risk supports, supplementary modules for particular support types such as supported independent living, specialist disability accommodation and behaviour support, and a verification module for lower-risk supports. Each module sets outcomes and quality indicators that approved quality auditors use to assess compliance. Meeting the standards costs money in systems, staffing and audit fees, and that cost belongs in normalised earnings rather than being treated as occasional.

The NDIA document setting out what the Agency considers to be the appropriate and reasonable maximum prices for NDIS supports. It gives each support item a number, a name, a unit and national, remote and very remote recommended maximum prices. At the time of writing the NDIS pricing schedule applies from 1 July 2026 and takes the place of the document long published as the NDIS pricing arrangements and price limits; prices are reset through the annual pricing review. Because revenue per hour is effectively capped, margin in an NDIS business comes from utilisation and cost control rather than from raising prices.

Registration with the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission. A registered provider has applied, been audited against the relevant NDIS Practice Standards by an approved quality auditor, passed a suitability assessment covering the provider and its key personnel, and been issued a certificate of registration, generally for three years. Registration is required to deliver specialist disability accommodation, specialist behaviour support, plan management, supported independent living, digital platform services, supports to participants with NDIA-managed funding, and regulated restrictive practices. Registration status, audit history and renewal date all bear on value.

Total assets less total liabilities. A net assets valuation values a business by taking its assets at market value and deducting its liabilities, rather than by reference to earnings. It is used where a healthcare business has little or no goodwill, where the entity holds property or investments, where the business is loss making, or where it is being wound up. For a trading practice it usually sets a floor, because an owner can generally choose to realise the assets rather than keep trading, although that floor is the amount realisable in an orderly sale after selling costs and any tax on disposal.

Adjusting reported profit so it reflects the earnings the business would produce under normal, commercial, arm's length operation. Typical healthcare adjustments include bringing owner practitioner remuneration to a market rate for the clinical and management work performed, adjusting related party rent to market, removing private expenses, removing one-off items such as a grant, an insurance recovery or a legal dispute, and correcting for services provided between related entities at no charge. Most valuation disagreements begin here, so each adjustment should be documented and supported.

Net profit after tax: the bottom line after all expenses, interest and income tax. NPAT is affected by how an entity is funded and how it is structured for tax, which is why valuers usually work from EBITDA or EBIT when comparing businesses. It still matters: it is what a buyer of shares ultimately receives, it drives the capacity to pay distributions, and it is the starting point in some tax and family law contexts. Whichever measure is used must be stated explicitly.

The remedy in Part 2F.1 of the Corporations Act 2001. Under section 232 a court may make an order where the conduct of a company's affairs, an actual or proposed act or omission, or a resolution of members is contrary to the interests of members as a whole, or is oppressive to, unfairly prejudicial to, or unfairly discriminatory against a member. Section 233 lists the orders available, including winding the company up and ordering the purchase of a member's shares. A purchase order typically calls for an independent valuation.

A contract that state payroll tax law treats as an employment relationship even though the practitioner is not a common law employee. Revenue NSW ruling PTA 041 explains that where a medical centre business, including dental clinics, physiotherapy practices and radiology centres, contracts with practitioners or their entities, the principal may be deemed the employer, the contractor deemed an employee and the payments deemed wages. Each state and territory has its own legislation and rulings, and the treatment of the same arrangement can differ between them, so the position should be confirmed with your accountant or lawyer. A valuation considers the exposure, because an unprovided liability changes both maintainable earnings and net assets.

The approval under section 90 of the National Health Act 1953 that allows a pharmacist to supply PBS medicines from particular premises and claim reimbursement. A pharmacist must apply to the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing to establish a new pharmacy or to change the ownership of an approved pharmacy. The approval attaches to the approved premises, and the number cannot be shared or used to dispense from an unapproved location. In practice most of a community pharmacy's goodwill sits with the approval and its site rather than with the pharmacist.

The part of a practice's goodwill that belongs to a person rather than to the business: the patient loyalty, referrer relationships and reputation that would follow a practitioner if they moved down the road. Personal goodwill is worth little to a buyer because it cannot be delivered at settlement, although a structured transition, a restraint of trade and continued employment can convert part of it over time. Separating personal from transferable goodwill is often the decisive judgement in valuing a clinical practice.

The location-based criteria that must be met before the Australian Community Pharmacy Authority can recommend approval of a new or relocating pharmacy. The Rules are a legislative instrument, the National Health (Australian Community Pharmacy Authority Rules) Determination 2018, made under section 99L of the National Health Act 1953. The Authority is an independent statutory body established under section 99J and cannot override the Rules. For valuation the Rules matter because they constrain how easily a competitor can open nearby, which supports the goodwill attached to an existing approved location.

An NDIS support under which a plan manager pays a participant's providers, checks and submits claims, keeps the financial records and reports on the budget. Plan managers must be registered providers. As a business, plan management earns a fee per participant per period rather than an hourly rate, so revenue depends heavily on participant numbers and retention. A valuer examines participant churn, the cost to serve each participant and the degree of automation, because those three factors set the margin.

A program of payments to general practices, administered by Services Australia, with policy set by the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing. At the time of writing it comprises seven incentives across three payment streams. PIP payments are made at practice level rather than per service, so they are usually a steadier component of revenue than billings, but they depend on continued eligibility. A valuer confirms which incentives the practice receives, what triggers them, and whether a change of ownership affects entitlement.

Extras cover: the part of a private health policy that pays benefits for services delivered outside hospital, including dental, physiotherapy, chiropractic, psychology, optical and podiatry. Benefits are set by each insurer rather than by government, and preferred provider or no-gap arrangements can direct patients towards particular practices. Which therapies insurers may cover at all is a government decision that changes: 16 natural therapies were excluded from 1 April 2019, and a review completed in 2024 reconsidered the evidence for them. Insurer settings sit outside an owner's control and can move a whole class of revenue, so a valuer identifies what depends on them.

A number issued by Services Australia that a health professional needs to claim under the Medicare Benefits Schedule, with a related prescriber number used for the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. Provider numbers are issued to an individual practitioner for a specific practice location, so a practitioner working across several sites holds several numbers. They belong to the practitioner and not to the practice, and cannot be transferred with a business. That is one reason a departing doctor can take billings with them.

An upfront lump sum a residential aged care resident may pay for their accommodation, refundable when they leave care. A deposit cannot exceed the agreed room price and is treated as a realisable asset in the resident's means assessment. Under the Aged Care Act 2024 a retention amount is deducted from the deposits of eligible residents, generally those who entered care on or after 1 November 2025. It is calculated daily at 2 per cent a year for up to five years, is not refunded on exit, and reduces the deposit balance a provider ultimately repays. For a valuer the pool of deposits held is a liability funded by residents, and its movement drives a home's cash position.

A contractual clause restricting a seller or a departing practitioner from competing, soliciting patients or staff, or practising within a defined area for a defined period. In healthcare, restraints are one of the few practical mechanisms for converting personal goodwill into something a buyer can rely on. Enforceability depends on the drafting and on state law and is a question for a lawyer. A valuer considers what restraints exist, whom they bind and whether they are realistic, because a business whose earners are free to leave and compete carries more risk.

A shorthand pricing formula that circulates in a sector, such as a share of annual fees for a dental practice or an amount per script for a pharmacy. Rules of thumb are averages stripped of their context. They ignore the earnings the practice actually produces, the practitioner mix, the lease, the state of the equipment and the terms of the deals they were drawn from. They can be a rough sanity check for someone who already knows the sector, but they are not a valuation, and a conclusion supported only by one is unlikely to withstand scrutiny in a tax, family law or dispute context.

A separate trust or company, controlled by the practice owners, that provides staff, premises, plant, equipment or administrative services to the practice for a fee. The ATO's guidance describes the usual features, including service fees calculated as a mark-up on the service entity's costs. Service entities are common in medical, dental and pharmacy groups. A valuer must establish which entity is the subject, consolidate or unwind the arrangement so the true earnings of the operating business are visible, and test whether the service fee is on commercial terms.

An expert appointed jointly by the parties, or by order of the court, to give evidence or prepare a report on an issue in dispute. The Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Family Law) Rules 2021 deal with single expert witnesses in Division 7.1.2, covering appointment by the parties jointly and appointment by court order, and separately set out an expert witness's duty to the court. The Court notes that property valuers and financial consultants may act in this role. The expert's duty runs to the court, not to whoever pays the fee.

Four concessions that can reduce, defer or disregard a capital gain on an active asset: the small business 15-year exemption, the 50 per cent active asset reduction, the retirement exemption and the roll-over. Basic conditions must be met first, including being a CGT small business entity with aggregated turnover of less than $2 million, or satisfying the maximum net asset value test, which the ATO sets at $6 million and does not index for inflation. Both tests turn on market values, which is why a defensible valuation is often required. Confirm your position with your accountant.

An amount a particular buyer might pay above market value because of an advantage available only to them, such as an adjoining practice they could merge, a lease they already hold, or a theatre or dispensary they could fill. Market value disregards it: the ATO's market valuation guidance states that market value does not reflect attributes of an asset that are of value to a specific owner or purchaser and are not available to other buyers. Special value can still matter in a negotiation, but it is identified separately.

NDIS funded housing for participants with extreme functional impairment or very high support needs. SDA is the dwelling itself, categorised by design as improved liveability, fully accessible, robust or high physical support, and it does not include the personal supports delivered inside it. Providers must be registered to deliver SDA. Valuing an SDA business sits closer to a property-backed enterprise than a service business: enrolment status, design category, location, vacancy and the SDA pricing arrangements drive income, and the underlying real property is dealt with separately.

The Australian Government's in-home aged care program. It replaced the Home Care Packages Program and the Short-Term Restorative Care Programme on 1 November 2025, alongside commencement of the Aged Care Act 2024, and it changed how in-home providers are funded, how care management is paid and how participant contributions are charged. For valuation this means results from before the transition may not be a reliable guide to future earnings, so a valuer examines post-transition trading and the provider's ability to operate within the new arrangements.

An NDIS support that helps a participant understand and use their plan, choose providers, and connect with community and mainstream services. Support coordinators may be registered or unregistered providers, which keeps the barrier to entry low. As a business it is billed in hourly units capped by the NDIS pricing arrangements and is staff intensive, so value depends on billable utilisation, coordinator retention and referral relationships. Reliance on a small number of referral sources is a common risk in these businesses.

NDIS funding for support workers to help or supervise a participant in their home, described by the NDIA as support across 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and most often used in shared living. It funds the people, not the housing. At the time of writing all providers delivering SIL, as the NDIS Commission defines it, must be registered from 1 July 2026, with applications due by 1 October 2026. SIL businesses are rostered labour businesses: value turns on roster efficiency, award compliance, participant stability within each house, and the gap between the funded price and the true cost of the shift.

Assets held by the entity that are not required to produce its maintainable earnings: cash beyond working capital needs, an investment portfolio, a property the practice does not occupy, or a vehicle used privately. They are excluded from the earnings analysis and added separately at market value when moving from enterprise value to equity value. Identifying them properly matters, because counting an asset in earnings and again in the asset schedule double counts value, and omitting a genuine surplus asset understates it.

A practitioner who runs their own practice from premises and services supplied by a medical centre or practice entity, paying a service fee rather than receiving a wage. The model is used to keep the practitioner's patient relationship and billings separate from the centre's business. It affects valuation twice: the earnings being valued are the centre's service fee income and not the practitioners' billings, and the arrangement may be a relevant contract for payroll tax depending on its actual terms, so agreements and money flows both need examining.

The part of goodwill a buyer can actually acquire: the location and premises, the brand and phone number, the patient or participant database and recall systems, the employed and contracted clinical team, documented systems and processes, referral relationships held by the business rather than by one person, and, in pharmacy, the approval attached to the site. Transferable goodwill is what supports value. A practice with a strong location, several practitioners and documented systems has more of it than one built on a single reputation.

The specific date at which value is assessed. Everything in a valuation, the earnings, the risks, the assets and the market conditions, is measured as at that date, and information that only became known afterwards is generally excluded, although later information that confirms a condition already existing at that date may be considered. The correct date is set by the purpose: the date of a CGT event, the relevant date in a family law matter, the date fixed by a buy-sell clause, or a chosen date for a sale or for planning. A value at one date is not a value at another.

Registration of veterinarians is administered by the veterinary board of each state and territory rather than by a single national regulator, so the requirements a practice must meet, including any registration of the premises themselves, depend on where it operates and should be confirmed with the relevant board. Unlike pharmacy there is no national location rule limiting where a competitor may open, and unlike a Medicare provider number there is no billing entitlement attached to a site. Value in a veterinary practice therefore rests on reputation, the ability to hold veterinarians and nurses, the equipment and the location rather than on a protected approval.

Services performed but not yet billed, or billed but not yet paid, at the valuation date. In healthcare it arises with unclaimed Medicare or NDIS items, part-completed treatment plans in dentistry and orthodontics, uninvoiced reports in psychology and occupational therapy, and completed but unclaimed workers compensation or insurer work. Work in progress is usually treated separately from the business value and settled between buyer and seller at completion. Note that the same abbreviation is used for the Workforce Incentive Program, which is unrelated.

A Services Australia administered program supporting health professionals in regional, rural and remote areas and general practices providing multidisciplinary care. At the time of writing it has three streams: the Practice Stream, the Doctor Stream and the Rural Advanced Skills Stream. The Practice Stream is applied for by the practice, while the Doctor Stream and Rural Advanced Skills Stream are managed by individual practitioners through Health Professional Online Services. Because the abbreviation is also used for work in progress, a valuation should say which is meant.

The funds tied up in day-to-day operations: debtors and unclaimed billings, stock and prepayments, less trade creditors and accruals. An earnings-based value assumes a normal level of working capital transfers with the business, so a surplus or shortfall against that normal level is adjusted for, and the level at settlement is often negotiated. Requirements differ sharply across healthcare: a pharmacy carries substantial stock, a bulk billing practice collects quickly and carries almost none, and an NDIS provider pays staff fortnightly while waiting on claim payments, which can make growth consume cash.