When you list your medical equipment on Phase Medical, you’re making your item available to a wide variety of healthcare organizations. Buyers of used medical equipment have become more varied as the price of new equipment has increased.

A few years back, ProPublica published a report that looked at the exorbitant number of items wasted every year due to hospitals and health systems simply not knowing what to do with their old equipment. Since then, many owners have turned to equipment marketplaces to sell, rather than simply throw away, their products. More and more buyers recognize that they can lean on lightly used or surplus medical equipment to provide the same level of care as newer equipment.

As a result, there are more buyers of used medical equipment than ever. But one of the questions we typically field at Phase Medical is: who are the people interested in my stuff?

Who are the most common medical equipment buyers, and what makes them uniquely suited to a marketplace where they can bid against people from around the world with a similar interest?

Let’s take a look.


Rural Healthcare Providers


Large healthcare systems typically aren’t the target audience for used medical equipment. Research hospitals and large healthcare organizations usually have funding that allows them to procure basically any piece of medical equipment they want.

But that’s not the case for all healthcare providers. As rural healthcare organizations face tighter and tighter budgets, they often turn to the used medical equipment marketplace for surplus items and systems that are lightly used or refurbished but still capable of providing exceptional patient care.

In doing so, these facilities can save money while meeting the needs of their communities.


Nonprofits

A number of nonprofits, including public health entities, make it their mission to connect organizations around the country and the world with medical care that would otherwise remain out of reach.

One of the ways they do that is by leaning on the used medical equipment market for items that would go overlooked by other organizations. By purchasing from the used medical market, nonprofits can make their budgets go further than if they were reliant solely on brand new medical equipment, and they can meet their goal of addressing health disparities around the world.


Home Health Providers


The overall heightened costs of healthcare, combined with increased demand for an overburdened healthcare field from an aging Boomer population, has led to growth in the home healthcare market.

This growth shows no signs of slowing down. McKinsey estimates that, by 2025, a whopping $265 billion in care services will be moved to home healthcare from hospitals, health systems and other traditional facilities.

That dramatic shift in where care provision takes place means there will be a correlated increase in the number of medical supplies and equipment needed for the home. As home health providers look to keep their budgets in check while providing care within patients’ own residences, they’re increasingly turning to used equipment and supplies to provide care. In fact, this might be the fastest-growing audience in the used equipment market in the coming years.


Overseas Providers

Countries all over the world, particularly developing nations, often have a need for medical equipment but simply don’t have the budget or the access to the newest, most state-of-the-art systems that other countries take for granted.

The used medical equipment marketplace can be used to fill that gap. Whether via brokers in the country where the piece is being sold or through a direct purchase, global providers can turn to used items to meet their needs. These systems enable them to provide the level of care their patients require.


Resellers

A number of companies have the wherewithal to take equipment that is past its prime and fix it up or break it down so that it can be sold to another hospital or healthcare providers.

This can take a number of forms. It might be a service provider who will sell the equipment with the intent to sign a third-party service contract with the hospital purchaser. It might also be a refurbishment specialist who wants to fix up and then quickly offload the equipment to an interested buyer.

Still other companies are highly skilled at appraising each and every part within the system, recognizing that the parts sold individually are worth far more than the sum of the equipment. An old X-ray system that might sell for $500 could fetch as much as $18,000 when the parts are sold individually to in-house or third-party service providers in need of highly specific parts.


Financing Companies

Finally, there’s a large contingent of financial institutions willing to buy medical equipment if they know they can lease it back to hospitals in need. In these instances, the amount of money they make on interest and financing is often higher than the purchase price of the item at auction.


A Growing Audience

More and more items are hitting the medical equipment market because more and more buyers have realized the potential in securing high-quality, affordable items from these outlets.

These are the major used medical equipment buyers today, and even more segments will become apparent in the future.

If you have an item you’d like to get in front of this market, don’t hesitate to rely on Phase Medical for your listing. Benefit from a streamlined selling experience that gets you in front of those most in need of your used or refurbished product!