The Reason For The Rising Cost Of Veterinary Care
By Dr.Betty Stephenson
Why is the cost of veterinary care so high? I've always heard this complaint, though much more
so in recent years. When I graduated from University of Tennessee's College of Veterinary
Medicine in 1981, in that school's third graduating class, veterinary medicine was very different
from what it is today. No one had a computer, or a cell phone, or ultrasound, or an in-house
laboratory, or easy access to a specialty practice. Hardly anyone even had a copier! Medicine was
as much art as science, even as recently as 30 years ago. Since we never had test results the day
we saw a patient, we had to make educated guesses, treat presumptively and hope the delayed
results would confirm our diagnoses.
Today, the most current medical thinking is a computer search away. Just about every animal
hospital can have access to same-day laboratory results, whether send-out or in-house,
and a specialty practice with veterinarians specializing in surgery, dermatology, oncology,
ophthalmology, behavior and internal medicine is rarely more than an hour's drive away. Here
in Bowling Green, we have access to specialty practices in Nashville and Louisville, so top-notch
care for your animal family member is easily available. Most urban practices and many rural ones
have their own ultrasound machines and laboratory facilities, so rapid diagnostics are at our
fingertips. All these amenities come at a cost, though, and the rapid advances in human medicine
are reflected in animal medicine's capabilities. The more we know about current medicine, the
less satisfied we become with substandard care, not just for ourselves, but for our pets. We tend
to believe medicine can cure anything, including cancer and old age. And while those two feats
still elude us (in many cases), the advances in animal medicine include treatment for conditions
that used to end life much sooner than they do now, like kidney failure and treatable cancers.
Details of diagnosis become important, and monitoring blood changes from treatment are both
"Good veterinary is not cheap, and cheap
veterinary care is not good."
necessary and expensive. And as we demand more sophisticated diagnostics and treatments
for our pets, practitioners are more and more likely to offer them in your home town.
Every day we confront the specter of euthanasia because of financial concerns. Since most
people who work in veterinary medicine are NOT in it for the money (traditionally, it hasn't
been one of the higher paying medical fields) but for the love of the animals, we struggle with
how to treat these pets in less than optimal ways to save money. No one is happy when these
methods fail. The alternatives to poor quality of care include Care Credit, which extends credit to
many people who don't qualify for loans or credit otherwise, and can be used for many medical
purposes, including dental care (for humans) and eye exams. And there are websites that have
been developed to assist animals who have serious disorders but whose owners can't afford to
treat them. It might take some hunting on the owner's part, but we did find a site that paid for
a trip to the University of Tennessee vet school for surgery to correct a congenital liver defect
for one of our patients. And sometimes cases like Malachai's (the pit bull that was tied to a car
bumper and dragged, treated at Greystone earlier this year) bring donations that help other
animals, too.
Small veterinary hospitals are usually operating on tigTitbudgets—we aren't banks and can't
afford very many charity cases a year. Drug and laboratory costs have skyrocketed. Salaries and
benefits for excellent staff are staggering. We daily walk a tightrope between quality medical
care and cutting corners to help clients make ends meet, a balancing act that's fraught with
dangers. One saying that is true, true, true, is "Good veterinary is not cheap, and cheap veterinary
care is not good". It should be becoming clear why.
I do believe, however, that there are two reasons why veterinary medicine has made such gains
on human medicine in terms of cost. One is the availability of health insurance for pets. This is a
mixed blessing, but the balance, I believe, is on the positive side. We have many patients whose
care we have been able to make top notch when otherwise corner-cutting might have resulted
in poor medical response and possibly death, or we would have had to choose euthanasia. One
such example is Joey, who had autoimmune thrombocytopenia, a condition in which his body
turned on his own platelets and wiped them out, causing bleeding everywhere. It would have
resulted in death within days without treatment, and treatment was expensive. His insurance
helped pay the bills, and though the recovery was months long, today he's healthy and happy.
The other reason prices have risen is the invasion of corporate America into veterinary medicine.
There are giant corporations buying up veterinary practices and commercial laboratories,
consolidating buying power and homogenizing medicine, demanding big profits and offering
stock options. The largest looks for practices to buy if they gross over several million dollars--
wow. When I first started practicing, the high-volume, high-profit practice strove for a goal of
$500,000! And the other end of the spectrum is the small-town, low-overhead model where
art still plays a major role in diagnostics. You may not know that in Kentucky there is no quality
control body to monitor veterinary medicine, examine facilities or equipment. The only
veterinary hospitals which are regularly inspected are those of us who voluntarily undergo AAHA
(American Animal Hospital Association) inspection in order to obtain certification to prove we
adhere to high medical standards.
Times have changed. You have an undeniable array of choices where your animal family
members' health is concerned. Small, privately owned veterinary practices are still the norm,
and quality care for your pet is actually still a bargain, no matter how high it may seem to you.
Yes, there are low cost options out there. There's insurance, charity aid and the Humane Society.
But remember, good veterinary care is not cheap, and cheap veterinary care is not good.
About the Author:
Dr. Betty Stephenson has practiced small animal medicine in Bowling Green for 29 years. In her
spare time, she enjoys trail riding, reading, writing, and hiking with her ten Scottish Deerhounds,
which she also trains and shows in conformation, obedience and lure coursing. She writes a
column for the bimonthly news magazine of the Scottish Deerhound Club of America.
so in recent years. When I graduated from University of Tennessee's College of Veterinary
Medicine in 1981, in that school's third graduating class, veterinary medicine was very different
from what it is today. No one had a computer, or a cell phone, or ultrasound, or an in-house
laboratory, or easy access to a specialty practice. Hardly anyone even had a copier! Medicine was
as much art as science, even as recently as 30 years ago. Since we never had test results the day
we saw a patient, we had to make educated guesses, treat presumptively and hope the delayed
results would confirm our diagnoses.
Today, the most current medical thinking is a computer search away. Just about every animal
hospital can have access to same-day laboratory results, whether send-out or in-house,
and a specialty practice with veterinarians specializing in surgery, dermatology, oncology,
ophthalmology, behavior and internal medicine is rarely more than an hour's drive away. Here
in Bowling Green, we have access to specialty practices in Nashville and Louisville, so top-notch
care for your animal family member is easily available. Most urban practices and many rural ones
have their own ultrasound machines and laboratory facilities, so rapid diagnostics are at our
fingertips. All these amenities come at a cost, though, and the rapid advances in human medicine
are reflected in animal medicine's capabilities. The more we know about current medicine, the
less satisfied we become with substandard care, not just for ourselves, but for our pets. We tend
to believe medicine can cure anything, including cancer and old age. And while those two feats
still elude us (in many cases), the advances in animal medicine include treatment for conditions
that used to end life much sooner than they do now, like kidney failure and treatable cancers.
Details of diagnosis become important, and monitoring blood changes from treatment are both
"Good veterinary is not cheap, and cheap
veterinary care is not good."
necessary and expensive. And as we demand more sophisticated diagnostics and treatments
for our pets, practitioners are more and more likely to offer them in your home town.
Every day we confront the specter of euthanasia because of financial concerns. Since most
people who work in veterinary medicine are NOT in it for the money (traditionally, it hasn't
been one of the higher paying medical fields) but for the love of the animals, we struggle with
how to treat these pets in less than optimal ways to save money. No one is happy when these
methods fail. The alternatives to poor quality of care include Care Credit, which extends credit to
many people who don't qualify for loans or credit otherwise, and can be used for many medical
purposes, including dental care (for humans) and eye exams. And there are websites that have
been developed to assist animals who have serious disorders but whose owners can't afford to
treat them. It might take some hunting on the owner's part, but we did find a site that paid for
a trip to the University of Tennessee vet school for surgery to correct a congenital liver defect
for one of our patients. And sometimes cases like Malachai's (the pit bull that was tied to a car
bumper and dragged, treated at Greystone earlier this year) bring donations that help other
animals, too.
Small veterinary hospitals are usually operating on tigTitbudgets—we aren't banks and can't
afford very many charity cases a year. Drug and laboratory costs have skyrocketed. Salaries and
benefits for excellent staff are staggering. We daily walk a tightrope between quality medical
care and cutting corners to help clients make ends meet, a balancing act that's fraught with
dangers. One saying that is true, true, true, is "Good veterinary is not cheap, and cheap veterinary
care is not good". It should be becoming clear why.
I do believe, however, that there are two reasons why veterinary medicine has made such gains
on human medicine in terms of cost. One is the availability of health insurance for pets. This is a
mixed blessing, but the balance, I believe, is on the positive side. We have many patients whose
care we have been able to make top notch when otherwise corner-cutting might have resulted
in poor medical response and possibly death, or we would have had to choose euthanasia. One
such example is Joey, who had autoimmune thrombocytopenia, a condition in which his body
turned on his own platelets and wiped them out, causing bleeding everywhere. It would have
resulted in death within days without treatment, and treatment was expensive. His insurance
helped pay the bills, and though the recovery was months long, today he's healthy and happy.
The other reason prices have risen is the invasion of corporate America into veterinary medicine.
There are giant corporations buying up veterinary practices and commercial laboratories,
consolidating buying power and homogenizing medicine, demanding big profits and offering
stock options. The largest looks for practices to buy if they gross over several million dollars--
wow. When I first started practicing, the high-volume, high-profit practice strove for a goal of
$500,000! And the other end of the spectrum is the small-town, low-overhead model where
art still plays a major role in diagnostics. You may not know that in Kentucky there is no quality
control body to monitor veterinary medicine, examine facilities or equipment. The only
veterinary hospitals which are regularly inspected are those of us who voluntarily undergo AAHA
(American Animal Hospital Association) inspection in order to obtain certification to prove we
adhere to high medical standards.
Times have changed. You have an undeniable array of choices where your animal family
members' health is concerned. Small, privately owned veterinary practices are still the norm,
and quality care for your pet is actually still a bargain, no matter how high it may seem to you.
Yes, there are low cost options out there. There's insurance, charity aid and the Humane Society.
But remember, good veterinary care is not cheap, and cheap veterinary care is not good.
About the Author:
Dr. Betty Stephenson has practiced small animal medicine in Bowling Green for 29 years. In her
spare time, she enjoys trail riding, reading, writing, and hiking with her ten Scottish Deerhounds,
which she also trains and shows in conformation, obedience and lure coursing. She writes a
column for the bimonthly news magazine of the Scottish Deerhound Club of America.
