Both can, comfortably, provided you can fill them. The equipment is never the constraint. Case acceptance is.
A $45,000 decompression table financed over 60 months costs about $934 a month. Two cases a month at a $2,800 package is $5,600, or six times the payment. A $28,000 Class IV laser costs about $581 a month; twenty sessions at $90 is $1,800, roughly three times the payment.
Those multiples look easy on paper, and they are, right up until the month you book zero decompression cases. This guide is the honest version of that arithmetic.
Five West programs at a glance
Revenue equipment should be financed rather than bought with cash, because the cash is what fills it. Our payment on a $45,000 decompression table is roughly $934 a month, which is small enough that the marketing budget survives the purchase.
- Rates
- Priced to your credit profile, term, and equipment; competitive with a bank on rate, not on speed
- Terms
- 24 to 72 months
- Amounts
- $20,000 to $5 million+
- Application only
- Up to $150,000 established, $50,000 under two years, with no tax returns or financial statements
- Credit
- Established businesses from 600+, startups from 700+
- Equipment
- New, used, refurbished, dealer, and private-party purchases
- Speed
- Same-day options on qualified files, with approvals in as little as a few hours
- Coverage
- Nationwide, U.S. territories, and cross-border
Tell us what you are looking at and your realistic case volume, and we will run the payment against it before you commit.
Free consultation, no obligation. All financing is subject to credit approval and underwriting; rates and terms depend on the complete business and credit profile.
Why these two purchases are different
An adjusting table is infrastructure. You need it, it earns through every service you deliver, and the ROI question barely arises.
Decompression and Class IV laser are something else entirely: cash-pay revenue lines you are choosing to add, which only produce if you build demand for them. Most major insurers, Medicare included, treat non-surgical spinal decompression as investigational and do not cover it. Laser is similarly self-pay in most practices. You set the price, you keep the collection, and you own the marketing.
That makes the financing decision a business-plan decision rather than an equipment decision. The payment is small and predictable; the revenue is entirely up to you.
The decompression math
A mid-range decompression table at $45,000, financed over 60 months at 9%, is $934 a month. Typical patient protocols run 20 to 30 sessions over six to eight weeks, with packages priced from $2,000 to $8,000 per case.
Illustrative. Assumes a $45,000 system financed at 9% over 60 months. Your equipment cost, package pricing, and case volume will differ.
One case a month covers the payment three times over. That is the number worth holding onto, because it reframes the question: can you convert one qualified patient a month?
The costs that do not appear above: chair time, staff time to run sessions, and the marketing spend to generate cases. Decompression is not passive income. A session occupies a room and usually a staff member for 20 to 30 minutes, 20 to 30 times per case.
The laser math
A $28,000 Class IV laser over 60 months at 9% is $581 a month. Practices commonly charge $75 to $125 per session; courses run four to eight sessions for acute presentations and 12 to 20 for chronic.
Illustrative. Assumes a $28,000 system financed at 9% over 60 months.
Twenty sessions a month is roughly one session a working day, or two to three active patients on a course at any time. For most practices with existing volume, that is a low bar, which is why laser generally reaches breakeven faster than decompression and why it is often the better first purchase of the two.
The assumption that actually decides it
Every ROI model above turns on one input: how many patients will say yes. Everything else is arithmetic.
Be honest with yourself about three things before you sign anything:
- Do you already see these patients? Chronic low back, disc, and radiculopathy presentations for decompression; soft tissue, extremity, and post-injury for laser. If those cases are already walking in and you are referring them out or managing them without the tool, demand exists. If they are not, you are buying equipment and a marketing project.
- Can you or your team present a $3,500 cash-pay plan? Decompression case acceptance is a report-of-findings skill, not a clinical one. Practices that struggle with it usually have not built the conversation, not the demand.
- Do you have the room and the hours? A decompression case consumes 20 to 30 room-slots. If your treatment rooms are already at capacity, decompression displaces revenue rather than adding it.
A practice that answers yes to all three will beat these numbers. Answer no to the second one and you will own a table that costs $934 a month and produces sporadically.
How financing changes the risk
The instinct is often to pay cash for a $28,000 laser and avoid the debt. Worth thinking about before you do.
- The payment is small relative to the revenue. At three to six times coverage, financing does not create meaningful risk, and it leaves your cash available for the marketing that actually generates the cases.
- Section 179 does not care that you financed it. The deduction follows the purchase price and the placed-in-service date, not your down payment. A $45,000 table financed in October with three payments made can still be fully deducted that year.
- Matching the term to the earning period spreads the cost across the years the equipment produces, rather than taking the full hit in the month you buy.
- Cash paid is cash gone. A practice that pays $73,000 cash for a laser and a decompression table has no cushion left if the first quarter runs slow. The same practice financing both keeps that money and pays roughly $1,515 a month.
Five West finances chiropractic equipment from $20,000 to $5 million+ at 7% to 9% for A credit, on terms of 24 to 72 months. For an established practice, application-only runs to $150,000, which covers a decompression table and a laser together.
A more conservative model
If you want to stress-test the decision, run it at half your expected volume and see whether you still like it.
One decompression case a month at $2,800 is $2,800 against a $934 payment. Subtract staff time at, say, 25 sessions of 25 minutes, and a marketing allocation of $500 a month, and you are still ahead on the worst realistic month. That is the test worth applying: whether the bad month works, not just the good one.
Apply the same to laser. Ten sessions a month at $90 is $900 against a $581 payment. Thin, but not underwater.
What to do before you buy
- Count your candidates. Go through the last 90 days of new patients and mark how many would have been decompression or laser cases. That number, not a vendor's projection, is your model input.
- Price the protocol before you buy the machine. Decide what a case costs in your market and whether your patients will pay it.
- Ask the vendor what marketing support comes with it, and treat any answer involving guaranteed case volume with suspicion.
- Check the training requirement. Certification and staff training are real time costs and sometimes real dollar costs.
- Get the financing settled first so the purchase decision is not made under time pressure at a seminar.
The bottom line
The payback math on both purchases is genuinely favorable: one decompression case a month covers the payment three times over, and twenty laser sessions does the same. Neither is a stretch for a practice with existing volume and a working report-of-findings conversation.
The risk is operational rather than financial: equipment that nobody is being offered does not earn. Count your actual candidates first, model the bad month rather than the good one, and finance rather than paying cash so the money stays available for the marketing that fills the table.
When you are ready, send us the quote. A-credit pricing starts at 7%, terms run out to 72 months, and a decision can land the same day.
On rates: Any range on this page is illustrative rather than a quote. Your actual rate can come in higher or lower, and it depends on personal and business credit, time in business, the equipment itself, the term you choose, and the size of the transaction. Two files for the same machine can price differently. It is also worth checking the date on anything you read elsewhere. A good deal of the equipment-finance content still circulating was written when prime was 3.25%, and prime is 6.75% today, so if you happen to come across rates like 5% or 6%, it is worth confirming whether the page is current before you plan around it. The surest way to know your number is to let us price your file.
Decompression and laser payback questions
Will a spinal decompression table pay for itself?
For most practices with existing chronic low back and disc volume, comfortably. A $45,000 table financed over 60 months at 9% costs about $934 a month. One case a month at a $2,800 package produces $2,800, or three times the payment. Two cases produce six times. The constraint is case acceptance and room capacity, not the equipment cost.
How much does a spinal decompression table cost per month to finance?
A $45,000 decompression table financed over 60 months at 9% runs approximately $934 per month. At Five West's A-credit pricing of 7% to 9%, that range is roughly $891 to $934. Extending the term lowers the payment further at the cost of more total interest.
Is a Class IV laser a good investment for a chiropractic practice?
Generally it reaches breakeven faster than decompression. A $28,000 laser financed over 60 months at 9% costs about $581 monthly. Twenty sessions at $90 produces $1,800, roughly three times the payment, and twenty sessions is about one per working day. The lower per-session price point of $75 to $125 makes case acceptance easier than a $3,500 decompression package.
How many decompression cases do I need to break even?
Less than one per month on the equipment payment alone. A $45,000 table at $934 monthly is covered three times over by a single $2,800 case. A case also consumes staff time: 20 to 30 sessions of 20 to 30 minutes. Once you count that and a marketing allocation, one case a month still leaves the purchase comfortably profitable in a conservative model.
Should I pay cash or finance chiropractic revenue equipment?
Financing usually makes more sense on these purchases. The payment is small relative to the revenue, so it creates little risk, and it leaves your cash available for the marketing that actually generates cases. Section 179 does not care that you financed: the deduction follows the purchase price and placed-in-service date, not your down payment.
Does insurance cover spinal decompression?
Generally no. Most major insurers, including Medicare, Blue Cross, Aetna, and Cigna, classify non-surgical spinal decompression as experimental or investigational and do not cover the treatment itself. Related services such as consultations, physical therapy, or diagnostic imaging may be reimbursable. This makes decompression predominantly a cash-pay service, which is why case acceptance drives the return.
What is the biggest risk in buying decompression or laser equipment?
Not filling it. The equipment payment is modest and predictable; the revenue depends entirely on how many patients accept the plan. Before buying, review the last 90 days of new patients and count how many would genuinely have been candidates. That number, rather than a vendor projection, is the input your model should run on.
Related chiropractic financing guides
More on financing equipment for a chiropractic practice.
Modeling a decompression or laser purchase?
Tell us the equipment and your expected case volume and we will show you the payment against it.
This article is general information about commercial equipment financing and is not a commitment to finance. All financing is subject to credit approval and underwriting. Rates, terms, and approval depend on the complete business and credit profile. Figures shown are illustrative market ranges gathered from published sources as of August 2026 and are not an offer. Five West Financial is not a tax advisor or an accounting firm; confirm any tax treatment with your CPA before relying on it.