The veterinary industry is at a pivotal point as it grapples with making medical care affordable and accessible to all pet families. As veterinary health care team members, we feel the tension and stress in cost-of-care conversations and value the importance of the human-animal bond.
Increasing access to care requires a collective effort to understand the barriers to affordability and find innovative solutions. It’s a complex task that calls for collaboration, creativity and a willingness to explore new approaches.
So how can veterinary health care teams and the industry overall work together to create sustainable pathways forward for our clients and colleagues?
The Drivers of Higher Costs
First, let’s look at how we got here. Over the past two decades, cost inflation in veterinary services has consistently outpaced inflation rates for all goods in the consumer price index by 61%. This trend significantly impacts clients’ purchasing power, making it harder to budget for pet care.
Additionally, practice-expense factors have contributed to increased costs across the industry. While none of these should be perceived as “bad” in and of themselves, they result in pet families carrying a greater financial burden in many cases. These factors include:
- Staffing costs: The competitive labor market has led to long-awaited increased compensation for veterinarians and non-doctor staff.
- Changing economics: Practices are adjusting their pricing strategies, in part to offset shifts to online pharmacy vendors and accommodate rising payroll costs. This may include revising examination and surgery fees and incorporating telemedicine services.
- Consumables and drugs: Supply chain disruptions, baseline inflation and price hikes for essential items further contribute to the rising costs passed on to consumers.
The advancement of care options is exciting, but we should recognize that it continues to be a key driver of higher costs for pet families. For example:
- New diagnostics and treatments: Technological advancements have led to more sophisticated diagnostics and treatments, which inherently come with higher price tags.
- More advanced care options: The proliferation of specialty and referral facilities expands access to advanced care but raises the costs due to the specialized staff, equipment and facilities.
- Fewer intermediate care options: A shift toward prioritizing advanced-level care and referrals diminishes the availability of intermediate care options. This can leave pet families with limited choices between specialty care and basic or no care.
While the most advanced care is likely to provide the best possible medical outcome, veterinary teams must remember that referral care is not always accessible, affordable or desired by some pet families.
How to Make Care More Accessible
In the face of increasing costs, what can veterinary teams do to improve accessibility and affordability for pet families without compromising the need to charge appropriately for goods and services? Here are three answers:
1. Provide guidance on financial solutions.
Pet families have more options than ever when planning financially for veterinary care, but the choices require some initiative. Clients look to you, their pets’ care team, for direction and recommendations, especially when personalizing treatment plans. Pet insurance, in-practice credit solutions and wellness plan programs can help manage the financial burden. Suggesting one or two solutions can go a long way in helping clients say yes to the care you recommend. Consider leveling up your team’s knowledge by learning about other options through the nonprofit Open Door Veterinary Collective.
2. Adopt a spectrum-of-care approach.
Offering pet families a range of evidence-based options — from basic to advanced — and practicing judgment-free communication gives more people a chance to choose the care they are comfortable with. Many clients who reject the most advanced care (whether for financial or other reasons) would be more comfortable with basic or intermediate options that result in a good outcome for their pets.
3. Consider different practice models.
Decide what levels of care you’ll offer in your veterinary practice, and work within your community to navigate pet families to another provider when necessary. Whether that means keeping a list of low-cost or no-cost practices, diverting pets with minor injuries to urgent care or leveraging teletriage for simple questions, communities can improve access to veterinary care. There is mounting evidence that such models invite pet families who wouldn’t otherwise engage with veterinary care to do so. Newer practice models, such as vaccine clinics, and niche businesses (dental only or general practice surgery only) will take time to scale. However, they are likely to help improve efficiency and decrease the cost of care while maintaining a higher level of care.
Change, including incremental change, is often uncomfortable, but it begins with small steps and collective hope. Talking to clients about financial planning, practicing a spectrum of care and keeping an open mind about new care models are ways to increase access to care for pet families.
LEARN MORE
- Open Door Veterinary Collective: opendoorconsults.org
- Nationwide’s “Embracing a Spectrum of Care”: spectrum-of-care.com