Setting Rational Fees for Veterinary Care

This article originally appeared in the Winter 2025 issue of EquiManagement. Sign up here for a FREE subscription to EquiManagement’s quarterly digital or print magazine and any special issues.

How do you decide what prices to charge for your services? Let’s look at three common methods of price-setting: competition-based, value-based, and activity-based. Competition-based pricing allows you to be “in the ballpark” but makes you vulnerable to damaging price wars between practices, which can seriously damage your financial security. This could involve phoning neighboring practices as a “mystery shopper” to gauge what your colleagues are charging, using benchmarks when they become available, or randomly deciding what you are worth on an hourly basis by comparing yourself to an attorney’s or a plumber’s hourly fees. Maybe you simply decide to copy what you remember from the last practice where you worked. Unfortunately, this method can leave you underprepared for the costs your practice incurs.