Compare the whole equipment cash-flow boundary, not one monthly payment
A purchase loan can leave the clinic with an asset, but it also brings owner cash, interest, maintenance, disposal responsibility, and an outstanding balance if the equipment leaves early.
A finance lease may reduce initial cash while adding a purchase option or exit settlement, and an operating lease can shift service or return obligations depending on the written contract.
A useful comparison therefore aligns equipment, installation, training, financing, maintenance, consumables, insurance, downtime, exit cost, and residual value over one common horizon.
Purchase with a loan
Initial cash equals acquisition and setup cost minus loan principal, plus entered origination and security fees.
If the horizon ends before maturity, the model settles outstanding principal and the entered early repayment fee in the terminal month.
Finance lease
Enter upfront cash, monthly payments, the actual purchase or return settlement, and only value the clinic can recover.
The calculator does not infer ownership, accounting classification, or tax treatment from the contract label.
Operating lease
Separate included service from excluded maintenance, consumables, insurance, and downtime exposure.
Do not assign residual value to returned equipment unless the clinic has a documented recoverable right.
Normalize all three written quotes before entering numbers
Different models, accessories, software, warranties, or installation scopes can dominate the financing difference.
Ask each supplier to quote the same equipment body, probes, workstation, options, software term, training, installation, inspection, removal, and warranty boundary.
Record whether Korean VAT is included, when every payment is due, and which party pays for repairs, mandatory consumables, software renewal, insurance, transport, and restoration.
Evidence checklist
- Equipment, accessory, software, freight, installation, training, and initial-inspection quotations
- Written loan rate, term, grace period, repayment method, guarantee or security fees, and payoff formula
- Lease deposit or advance payment, monthly payment, minimum term, purchase option, return standard, and termination formula
- Maintenance, calibration, repair, software renewal, insurance, and mandatory consumables by responsible party
- Expected downtime, replacement-equipment commitment, outsourced-service cost, and contribution lost while unavailable
- Conservative resale evidence for similar age, usage, options, and service history, net of disposal cost
- Realistic incremental monthly procedures and cash contribution after procedure-linked variable cost
How lifecycle cost and present value are calculated
The calculator builds monthly cash flows and converts the entered annual discount rate to an effective monthly rate.
Nominal TCO is the undiscounted KRW cash total, while present-value TCO converts later cash flows to the analysis start date.
Because every quote uses the same horizon, present-value TCO supports the main cost comparison and equivalent monthly cost shows the level monthly burden with the same present value.
Purchase-loan TCO
Add initial owner cash, fees, scheduled debt service, operating cost, and downtime loss.
Add terminal payoff and disposal cost, then subtract the entered residual value at the same terminal date.
Lease TCO
Add upfront payment, setup and contract fees, monthly lease payments, excluded operating cost, and downtime loss.
Add either normal-end cost or the entered early-termination formula, then subtract only documented recoverable value.
Confirmed tax-saving boundary
The model does not estimate depreciation, expense recognition, Korean VAT recovery, or income-tax effects.
It accepts only a professional-confirmed monthly cash saving and caps that saving at the same month’s financing, operating, and downtime cost.
Break-even procedures
Equivalent monthly cost divided by entered contribution per procedure gives the required monthly volume.
This is an internal planning measure, not a reimbursement schedule, patient forecast, clinical target, or lender threshold.
Read the illustrative default without treating it as a benchmark
The fictional default uses a KRW 200 million equipment price, KRW 160 million loan, 60-month comparison horizon, and month-24 early exit.
It assumes KRW 60,000 contribution per procedure and 120 monthly procedures solely to demonstrate the output.
Under those inputs the operating lease has the lowest present-value TCO, but the finance lease becomes lower when entered recoverable value rises by 20 percent, showing why one ranking is not enough.
Illustrative medical-equipment financing lifecycle-cost results| Plan | Initial cash | Present-value TCO | Equivalent monthly cost | Break-even volume |
|---|
| Purchase with loan | KRW 53,000,000 | KRW 325,849,866 | KRW 5,990,511 | 99.84 per month |
| Finance lease | KRW 27,000,000 | KRW 295,971,325 | KRW 5,441,216 | 90.69 per month |
| Operating lease | KRW 14,000,000 | KRW 291,789,724 | KRW 5,364,340 | 89.41 per month |
Low initial cash and low total cost answer different questions
The fictional operating lease needs KRW 14 million initially but includes KRW 270 million of payments over 60 months.
The purchase loan requires more owner cash and pays interest, while the default also credits KRW 40 million of disposal value.
Review present-value TCO together with peak monthly outflow, collateral and covenants, repair responsibility, service quality, and exit flexibility.
Early exit reveals the price of flexibility
Technology replacement, service-line changes, relocation, closure, or weak utilization can end a planned five-year use period early.
For a purchase loan, combine scheduled payments with the payoff balance, early repayment fee, disposal cost, and net sale proceeds at the same date.
For each lease, the model adds the fixed fee, remaining minimum-term months multiplied by payment and entered charge rate, plus early return cost.
Illustrative month-24 early-exit comparison| Plan | Early-exit PV TCO | Settlement cost | Recoverable value |
|---|
| Purchase with loan | KRW 184,072,860 | KRW 104,211,945 | KRW 100,000,000 |
| Finance lease | KRW 221,680,873 | KRW 77,000,000 | KRW 0 |
| Operating lease | KRW 210,130,123 | KRW 86,000,000 | KRW 0 |
The purchase settlement contains about KRW 101.2 million of remaining principal plus the entered repayment and disposal costs, while KRW 100 million of sale value is credited separately.
Actual payoff and termination amounts can also depend on exact dates, VAT, arrears, damage inspection, notice periods, specified carriers, restoration, and discounting of remaining payments.
Stress rate, residual value, and utilization separately
Loan rate plus or minus one percentage point
Moving the default loan rate from 5.5 percent to 4.5 and 6.5 percent changes fictional purchase PV TCO to KRW 321,862,598 and KRW 329,896,696.
For a floating-rate offer, separately verify the reference rate, spread, reset date, floor, and conversion terms rather than treating this simple shock as a forecast.
Residual value at 80, 100, and 120 percent
Lower recoverable value increases the purchase and finance-lease cost, while an operating lease with no recoverable value does not move.
At 120 percent of the fictional residual assumption, finance-lease PV TCO falls to KRW 289,395,908 and becomes lower than the operating lease.
Utilization at 80, 100, and 120 percent
If the default 120 monthly procedures falls to 96, fictional purchase-loan contribution headroom becomes negative KRW 230,511 per month.
Utilization does not alter financing cost in this model, but it changes the contribution available to carry that cost, so save a downside case rather than relying on one forecast.
Four practical ways to use the model
Compare replacement cycles
Run 36-month and 60-month horizons for technology with a short replacement cycle.
The shorter case exposes outstanding debt or lease termination cost that a full-term comparison can hide.
Value included service
If a supplier includes maintenance and a replacement machine, align operating cost and downtime loss with that written service level.
This shows whether a higher payment replaces cost and risk that the purchase quote leaves outside its headline price.
Decompose an equipment bundle
Split bundled devices by price, service, residual value, and required software wherever evidence allows.
Calculate each major device before reconciling the package total so high utilization on one device does not hide low utilization on another.
Test patient-volume downside
Reduce monthly procedures to 80 percent or lower and update contribution for materials, outsourced tests, and payment fees.
If internal coverage becomes thin, reconsider timing, capacity, appointment demand, and cash reserves instead of inferring credit approval from this output.
Korean medical-device and special-equipment boundaries
This calculator compares financing cash flow and does not decide whether a product is a medical device, whether a particular facility may install it, or whether reporting, registration, and quality testing are complete.
Before paying a deposit, verify product class and authorization, supplier or lessor reporting status when applicable, facility eligibility, installation standards, and testing obligations with the responsible Korean authority.
Medical Devices Act, Articles 2 and 17
The current act checked has law ID 009514, master-history ID 281933, Act No. 21263, and an effective date of July 1, 2026.
Its definition and sales or rental business reporting boundary are cited without deciding a specific product or supplier’s legal status.
Medical Service Act, Article 38
The current act checked has law ID 001788, master-history ID 285327, Act No. 21524, and an effective date of April 7, 2026.
Article 38 connects special medical equipment with registration, installation standards, periodic quality testing, and restrictions on noncompliant use.
Special Medical Equipment Rule, Articles 2 and 5
The current rule checked has law ID 009476, master-history ID 287043, Ministry of Health and Welfare Ordinance No. 1179, and an effective date of June 17, 2026.
Registration and documentation or precision quality-test procedures are a reminder to verify equipment-specific timing and cost outside the financing model.
Specialized Credit Finance Business Act, Article 2
The current act checked has law ID 000536, master-history ID 277267, Act No. 21065, and an effective date of October 1, 2025.
Its facility-leasing definitions provide a legal boundary only; this calculator does not classify an individual agreement as a finance or operating lease.
A disciplined pre-contract workflow
- Obtain written purchase-loan, finance-lease, and operating-lease quotes for the same equipment and service boundary
- Mark deposits, advances, VAT treatment, payment dates, minimum term, renewal, purchase option, and return conditions
- Assign maintenance, consumables, insurance, software, downtime, removal, and restoration to the responsible party
- Calculate both the intended horizon and a realistic early-exit month, then reconcile every terminal amount to contract language
- Stress residual value, utilization, and the purchase-loan rate to see whether the ranking is stable
- Verify medical-device registration or testing, lender approval, accounting, tax, and contract obligations separately
- Save the aligned cash-flow evidence and rerun the calculator when final written terms change
Costs and conditions that are easy to omit
- Electrical capacity, shielding, water, cooling, network, floor load, HVAC, fire-safety, and restoration work
- Authorization, registration, inspection, calibration, radiation safety, insurance, and specialist training schedules
- Probes, tubes, sensors, filters, reagents, cartridges, and software licenses that vary with usage or year
- Outsourced tests, cancellation or refund cost, replacement-equipment logistics, and contribution lost during failure
- Deposit deductions, damage standards, notice periods, required carriers, and treatment of remaining lease payments
- Brokerage, data removal, packing, transport, restoration, sale delay, and noncollection risk in residual value
- Existing equipment debt or lease obligations, duplicate collateral, overlapping insurance, and parallel-use periods
Frequently asked questions
Is a lease better whenever its payment is lower than loan debt service?
Not necessarily.
Compare upfront cash, included service, minimum term, purchase or return settlement, termination cost, and purchase residual value over the same horizon.
Can I enter the full lease payment as a tax saving?
No automatic tax conclusion follows from a lease label.
Entity type, contractual substance, asset and liability recognition, depreciation, and Korean VAT can change the cash effect, so enter only a professionally confirmed monthly saving.
How should I estimate residual value?
Collect multiple resale indications for the same model, age, usage, options, and service history, then subtract disposal cost and use a conservative amount.
Prefer a written repurchase commitment over a verbal estimate and review all three residual-value sensitivity rows.
Is contribution per procedure the same as a medical fee?
No.
It is an internal cash assumption equal to collectible revenue minus procedure-linked materials, outsourced services, consumables, and other variable cash cost.
Should I select the plan with the lowest present-value TCO?
The output compares only entered cash-flow assumptions.
Clinical suitability, performance, supplier support, lender approval, security, registration and testing, accounting, tax, and contract risk remain separate decisions.
Model limits
This is a user-entered KRW planning tool for aligning purchase-loan, finance-lease, and operating-lease cash flows.
It does not recommend equipment, determine clinical suitability or regulatory completion, broker or approve credit, assign legal or accounting lease classification, or provide tax or legal advice.
- The nominal loan rate remains fixed and does not model reset dates, day-count interest, arrears, or an exact payoff date
- Lease payments continue unchanged beyond the entered minimum term, so renewal or extension terms require a revised input
- Operating and downtime cost grow only at the entered annual rate and do not forecast failure probability or extreme loss
- Residual value is not a guaranteed sale and can change with condition, demand, timing, brokerage, data removal, and transport
- Monthly procedures and contribution do not predict patients, reimbursement, claims approval, revenue, or clinical outcomes
- The tax-saving default is zero and should remain zero until a qualified professional confirms a cash effect
Official sources and verification date
Current-status codes, identifiers, effective dates, and cited provisions were checked through Korea’s official law-information API on August 31, 2026.
The Financial Services Commission’s business-loan comparison notice provides a path for checking actual rates and repayment terms, while HIRA’s healthcare-resource guide supports the separate registration and quality-management workflow boundary.
Present-value lifecycle-cost structure follows the common-horizon and discounted-cash-flow principles in NIST Handbook 135e2025 without importing a Korean market price or prescribed discount rate.
Run all three written quotes on the same evidence boundary
Enter installation, operation, downtime, exit, and recoverable value instead of copying only the monthly payment.
Save the intended-horizon and early-exit results so suppliers, lenders, accountants, tax advisers, and legal counsel can identify which written term changes the decision.