Page 179 - Veterinary Laser Therapy in Small Animal Practice

Considering laser therapy for your practice 165

off the laser if the therapy room door is opened), if Postsurgical incisions: £10, $8–15, and €5–10
required. Unless you are using very low-cost business models,
this is an almost invisible extra charge on a surgery
10.3 How to charge for therapy bill in case you decide to make it non-elective, but
and when with enough surgeries per week this is a very solid
revenue stream. Yes, non-elective LT is an option:
Part of your implementation plan should be how is bipolar coagulation elective to the owner because
much and when to charge for LT. Without a pricing you just purchased it? The same applies here to a
structure, you risk performing treatments as freebies, certain extent. Again, as a good surgeon, most of your
and this will be setting very low expectations if you incisions don’t have trouble healing, but if you could
want to increase the price later on. Do not devalue improve it even more, isn’t that valuable? Not con-
your clinical services, and consider that sometimes vinced? Next time you have a long wound/incision,
several visits are necessary to get an improvement; laser just the cranial (or caudal) half. You’ll almost
you may regret not charging anything for that time certainly notice a difference in healing in as little as
and effort. a few days.
The answer to the question about whether it is OK
to do any free laser treatments is very personal. These Oral treatments: £10, $8–15, and €5–15
are examples of particular situations in which you may A post-extraction or gingivectomy treatment takes
want to consider it. less than 2 minutes and makes a difference in terms
of swelling and pain. Some of these will be a one-time
• During the first week or 2 weeks that you are trying treatment, and others can benefit from a second treat-
LT. Some manufacturers will allow you to have this ment at the recheck. A full mouth gingivitis treatment
trial period, during which you may want to call in may take up to 5 minutes.
some friends, treat your staff’s pets, or invite some
clients to try this new modality you are considering. Wounds: £10–30, $15–35, and €12–30
• You want to try treating a condition for which you Not all wounds are the same size and severity/extension,
have not found any literature, and you are kind of so the range of charges varies. Laser wound treatment
thinking, “I know it will not hurt, but can LT really can be as short as 1 minute or as long as 15 minutes. If
help here?” Most cases will need a few sessions to you are managing the wound with bandages, or if it is
respond. Again, remember the time you will spend a wound that requires surgical or extensive treatment
on this case. in this phase, consider the costs of it. You can charge a
package price, including bandage changes and laser as
Here are some of the factors you will want to con- part of routine wound management – this way you will
sider when setting your prices. not overwhelm the client.

• Will LT be an adjunct treatment in the visit or will Orthopedic procedures: £20–30, $25–35, and
the patient come just for the laser session? €15–20
• How much time will the session take? Note that it You can consider starting to treat these patients even
can range from 90 seconds to 20–30 minutes. before surgery; in some cases this has been shown to
• Will the treatments be performed by the vets or the decrease recovery time and improve quality of repair.
nurses? This prep treatment would be the night before or the
• How many treatments do I expect the patient will morning of the surgery, and then often the charging
need? structure mirrors the number of interactions with the
patient in his surgical journey: one treatment postsur-
The following is a guide to help you formulate a plan; gically (day of surgery, before you put on any bandage
it includes average pricing for the US, UK, and Spain, if that is the case), one or two follow-up treatments (on
but you may change it according to your business already scheduled follow-up visits) and ideally even-
model and demographics. tually blending into a rehabilitation plan that would
include laser therapy.

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