Trend 4: The Skyrocketing Cost of Pet Pharmaceuticals

It seems as though every six months, a notice comes from a drug
company telling me that they're raising prices on their more popular
medications. Lately, veterinary distributors seem to be bumping
their own fees with disturbing regularity as well.

Consequently, veterinarians are forced to grapple with the age-old
decision: Do they raise fees to stay up with the price hikes, or do
they "eat" the increases and watch their bottom lines shrink?
Unfortunately, those bottom lines can only shrink so much before
the practice starts gasping for air.

Like death and taxes, rising prices are inevitable. But the steady
increases over the last five years have pressed hard on the
pocketbooks of pet owning consumers. The internet has certainly
eased the burden somewhat on the cost of pet medications, but those
online pet pharmacies will be forced to eventually raise their
prices as well.

Here's some good news though: Several popular pet medications (such
as Frontline) are scheduled to go generic within the next several
years. When this happens, prices on these products (including the
brand name products) should drop as competition increases. Let's
hope.

Trend 5: The Rise Of Pet Insurance

I've written about this previously, but it's worth mentioning
again. As pet insurance takes hold, veterinarians may start to
believe that they can charge more for their services; after all,
its not money out of the client's pocket, right? Wrong.

Check out the blog "Lessons From The Nation's Health Care Crisis: Part 5"
at http://www.veterinaryinsider.com/public/department32.cfm?StartRow=34&;id=2 to see why.

The third major trend we're seeing that is responsible for increasing veterinary fees is the increase in specialization.

This trend is really tied to the first one we mentioned several weeks back regarding the high cost of getting a veterinary education. The veterinary student graduating today has enormous
student loan debt to repay once he/she walks across that stage. As a result, more of them are pursuing further education to increase their potential earning power in the veterinary field.

In fact, a recent study revealed that over 40% of new graduates last year did
just that. In other words, the days of the general veterinary practitioner "doing it all" are just about over.

As you can imagine, board-certified specialists command much higher fees than do general veterinary practitioners, allowing them to pay off those debts much sooner.  While there is certainly nothing wrong with charging for such specialization, I fear that the higher
fees will financially exclude a significant portion of the pet owning population from important veterinary services.

For example, a decade ago, a torn knee ligament in a dog cost several hundreds of dollars to repair. Today, that same surgery can cost in the thousands. Ouch! But can't general practitioners still perform knee surgeries on dogs? Sure they can, but more are inclined to refer
to specialists these days.

Fear of malpractice may be one reason. But probably the biggest reason is that younger practitioners often leave veterinary school lacking the skills and experience needed to perform advanced diagnostic, medical, and surgical procedures (like cruciate repairs). As a result, it's easier (and much less stressful) to refer to a specialist who already possesses such skills and experience.

And that's precisely the trend we're seeing.