HEALTH CARE

Billings Bonanza: Irvine-based DVI Health Services Corp., thinks it may have hit upon a gold mine.

The medical financing company, which specializes in leasing expensive medical equipment, such as magnetic resonance imaging machines, has begun to operate in the factoring business, which is making loans on unpaid bills--in this case requests submitted to insurance companies by private physicians.

Under a new subsidiary called A/R Advantage, the company said it could double its yearly profits of $4.2 million when the business takes off.

Doctors can cut the time it takes to get paid on patient billings by nearly 50%, said DVI Chief Executive David Higgins. A/R Advantage negotiates to buy the receivables for between 50% and 90% of their face value, depending on the expected difficulty in collecting the bill.

“The physician usually doesn’t have the staff or expertise to go to battle with the insurance companies,” Higgins said.