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Niner HealthHealthcare Facilities Advisory
A stethoscope and medicine bottles on a pale desk, potted plants blurred against a bright window

The owner is the only one paying for our opinion.

A healthcare project is full of parties with something to sell. Our advice is only useful if we are not one of them. This page sets out how that works.

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The policy

No money from the other side of the table.

Niner Health takes no commissions, referral fees, rebates, markups, or payments of any other kind from builders, trade contractors, designers, medical equipment manufacturers or distributors, technology vendors, or brokers.

We do not sell or resell equipment. We do not hold construction or trade contracts. We do not take an ownership stake in the projects we advise on.

Why it matters

Healthcare projects run on recommendations.

Which imaging vendor. Which builder. Whether to phase or relocate a department. Every one of those choices moves money toward someone.

If the advisor making the recommendation is paid by one of those someones, the owner is no longer getting advice. It is getting a sales channel with a consultant's title.

How we are paid

Scoped before the work. Paid by the client.

Engagements are priced as a fixed fee, a retainer, or by phase. The arrangement is agreed before work starts, and the client is the only one who pays it.

Any incentive element is tied to defined milestones that are within the firm's own control — never to a vendor selection, a purchase, or a contract award.

Conflicts

Declared up front, or the engagement does not start.

Before an engagement begins, we tell the client about any relationship that could reasonably look like a conflict. If a conflict cannot be managed, we decline the work.

Our role

Niner Health is an owner-side advisor.

Niner Health is an owner-side advisor. We do not provide licensed architecture or engineering services, clinical advice, or code, licensure, or accreditation determinations. We review, analyze, and advise; we do not certify design, and we do not direct construction means, methods, sequences, or site safety.

Common questions about independence

What does independence mean at Niner Health?

That the client is the firm's only source of income on a project. Niner Health takes no commissions, referral fees, rebates, markups, or other payments from builders, trade contractors, designers, medical equipment manufacturers or distributors, technology vendors, or brokers. It does not sell equipment, hold construction contracts, or invest in the projects it advises on.

Why does it matter who pays a healthcare advisor?

Because so much of a healthcare project is a choice between vendors, products, and approaches, and each choice sends money somewhere. An advisor paid by one of the recipients has a reason to prefer them. The owner cannot tell from the outside when that reason is doing the talking.

How is Niner Health compensated?

By a fixed fee, a retainer, or a phase-based arrangement, agreed before work begins and paid only by the client. Any incentive element is tied to milestones within the firm's control. No fee figures are published; each engagement is scoped individually.

Can Niner Health recommend a medical equipment vendor or a builder?

It can help the owner run a fair selection — define the requirements, structure the comparison, and test the proposals — and it can say what the evidence shows. It has no commercial relationship with any vendor or builder, so it gains nothing from which one is chosen.

Does independence mean the firm keeps its distance from the project team?

No. Niner Health works closely with the designers, builders, equipment planners, and vendors on a project; coordinating them for the owner is the work. Independence describes who pays the firm, not how closely it works with everyone else.

Test it before you hire us.

Ask how we are paid, and by whom, in the first conversation. We would rather answer it then than later.

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