Allied health
How much is my allied health practice worth?
Your allied health practice is worth the earnings it can sustain once every clinician, you included, is paid a market wage for their clinical work, capitalised at a rate that reflects the risk of those earnings continuing under a new owner. The largest adjustment here is almost always the owner's own billings, because a principal who takes drawings rather than a wage shows a profit no buyer could reproduce.
No multiples published. The reasoning is, in full.
What the answer depends on
The three things that move the number most
Allied health earns from more funding sources than any other healthcare sector, and each behaves differently when the practice changes hands.
The funding mix, and how durable each stream is
Private fees and health fund extras are the least regulated stream and generally the most transferable, provided patients return. Medicare chronic condition management is a referral channel more than a fee level: a patient may receive up to five individual allied health services in a calendar year across all modes of service, at a fee that is set rather than negotiated, so a practice leaning on it carries referrer concentration rather than pricing power. NDIS work sits under price limits the National Disability Insurance Agency sets, which cap physiotherapy at $183.99 an hour. Workers compensation and compulsory third party schemes require approvals that attach to the practitioner, so in New South Wales a SIRA approval leaves with the clinician who holds it.
How the clinicians are engaged
Practices engage clinicians as employees on a salary, sometimes with a productivity bonus, or as contractors paid a share of their billings. The split model looks cheaper on the profit and loss statement and moves risk into the valuation. Under the harmonised relevant contract provisions administered by the state revenue offices, payments to a contractor practitioner may be deemed wages for payroll tax: Queensland's public ruling on medical centres, PTAQ000.6.5 issued 3 March 2025, applies to medical centre businesses including physiotherapy practices unless an exemption applies, and the relief Revenue NSW introduced is confined to contractor general practitioner wages and expressly does not extend to allied health. Whether an arrangement is compliant is a question for your accountant or lawyer.
How much of the diary the owner fills, and whether the rest can be replaced
Earnings here are capped by rooms and hours, so the analysis looks at room utilisation across the week, billable hours against paid hours, average fee per consultation, and cancellation and rebooking rates. Where the owner fills most of the diary, most of the earning capacity is personal goodwill and cannot be sold. Replacing it is not a given: the 2025 Occupation Shortage List published by Jobs and Skills Australia rates physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech pathologists and psychologists in shortage in every state and territory, so a growth plan that assumes hiring carries little weight.
Higher or lower
What would move your number up, and what would move it down
Pushes the number up
- Billings spread across clinicians who intend to stay, with the owner largely off the tools.
- A private and extras weighted fee base, at fees the practice sets itself.
- New patients arriving through the practice's own channels rather than one clinician's referrers.
- Room utilisation with headroom, and a lease that lets the buyer use it.
- Employment arrangements documented, with superannuation and payroll tax provided for.
Pushes the number down
- The owner filling most of the diary, with no clinician able to take the caseload.
- A fee base weighted to schemes where the approval follows the practitioner, not the practice.
- Referrals concentrated on one general practice, one insurer or one support coordinator.
- Contractor arrangements with no view taken on payroll tax or superannuation.
- High cancellation and non-attendance rates, or rooms sitting empty across the week.
The evidence
What sets the number, in practice
The analysis runs on revenue by stream and by clinician, room and diary utilisation, average fee, cancellation and rebooking rates, the referral source mix, the clinician agreements, the lease, scheme approvals and normalised financial statements.
Transferability is tested with evidence rather than assumed: billings by practitioner, the share of new patients arriving through the practice's own channels, and whether approvals and contracts are held by the entity or the individual. Two definitions then do a lot of work. The valuation date fixes the facts, because a conclusion reached on one date does not carry forward. And market value is what a willing but not anxious buyer and seller would agree at arm's length, which is not the same as a deal price.
Where the line is
Why there is no multiple on this page
A capitalisation multiple is the inverse of the return a buyer requires from a particular practice, so it is a conclusion drawn from the analysis rather than an input to it, and in allied health the spread between practices is wide enough that one figure would mislead most readers who used it.
The reason is the funding mix. A practice earning private and extras fees it sets itself, delivered by employed clinicians who are staying, does not carry the same risk as a practice of identical size earning under scheme approvals that walk out with the practitioner who holds them. Those are different businesses with different buyers, and a published multiple flattens exactly the distinction that matters most.
What it costs to find out
A fixed fee, published before you ask for it
An indicative assessment is a flat $950 plus GST, credited against a valuation report if you proceed within 3 months. A full valuation report is a fixed fee set by the annual revenue of the business being valued, $1,500 plus GST at the smallest band and $9,450 plus GST at the largest, and an expert report for a family law matter or a dispute is priced separately on the same bands. Every fee is agreed in writing before work starts and never depends on the conclusion reached.
Indicative assessment
$950
One fee whatever the size of the business, credited against a valuation report if you proceed within 3 months.
Valuation report
- Up to $1 million
- $1,500
- $1 million to $3 million
- $2,200
- $3 million to $10 million
- $4,950
- Above $10 million
- $9,450
Expert report
- Up to $1 million
- $2,700
- $1 million to $3 million
- $3,950
- $3 million to $10 million
- $8,900
- Above $10 million
- $16,950
Every fee above is fixed and quoted plus GST, and is agreed in writing before any work starts. Bands are set on annual revenue. A business sitting exactly on a boundary pays the lower fee. See the full fee schedule
Go deeper
Read the full analysis
- Sector pageAllied health business valuationsThe complete treatment: methods, earnings adjustments, sector risks, value drivers, the information required and detailed FAQs.Read
- MethodologyHealthcare business valuation methodsHow maintainable earnings, capitalisation, discounted cash flow, net assets and market evidence each work, and when each applies.Read
FAQs
Allied health practice valuation questions
How much is my allied health practice worth?
It is worth the maintainable earnings the practice can sustain once every clinician, including you, is paid a market wage for their clinical work, capitalised at a rate reflecting the risk of those earnings continuing without you. The earnings work removes one-off items, resets related-party rent and wages to market and charges your own clinical hours at replacement cost.
How much is my physiotherapy practice worth?
The same framework applies, with the funding mix doing most of the differentiating. A practice weighted to private fees and health fund extras carries different risk from one weighted to NDIS work priced under the Agency's limits, or to workers compensation work requiring a scheme approval held by the individual practitioner. The detail sits on the physiotherapy practice page.
Can I sell my practice if the patients only see me?
You can, but what is being sold is smaller than the practice you run. Where patients ask for you by name and the referrers are yours, most of the earning capacity is personal goodwill and cannot be transferred. What remains saleable is the location and lease, the brand, the patient records and recall systems, the team and any clinician who stays.
Do contractor clinicians reduce what my practice is worth?
Not automatically, but they change what has to be assessed. Contractor splits are tested against what an employed clinician would cost, including superannuation, leave and payroll tax where the wages threshold is likely to be exceeded. Where they have run without a payroll tax provision, the possible historical liability is disclosed as a matter affecting equity value.
How much does it cost to find out what my practice is worth?
An indicative assessment is a flat $950 plus GST, credited against a valuation report if you proceed within 3 months. A full valuation report is a fixed fee set by the annual revenue of the business being valued, $1,500 plus GST at the smallest band and $9,450 plus GST at the largest, and an expert report for a family law matter or a dispute is priced separately on the same bands. Every fee is agreed in writing before work starts and never depends on the conclusion reached. The full schedule, including the additional entity fee for groups that trade through more than one entity, is published on the pricing page.
Make your next decision with a clear understanding of value.
Tell us about your healthcare business and the purpose of the valuation. We will confirm the appropriate scope, information requirements, timeframe and the fee band that applies.