Models for charging in practice: how should farm veterinary surgeons earn their living?

There are many different models that practices use for charging farm clients for their professional services (Table 1). Ideally, the model needs to be equitable for veterinary surgeon, client and animal. Different structures can influence how a practice's services are used. It can also influence which services are successful.

A recent Nuffield Farming Scholarship report (Remnant, 2020) highlighted how common it is for cattle practices worldwide to find it challenging to incorporate advisory or preventative work into a successful business model. As the report notes, it is not unusual for farm veterinary surgeons to make their living from the 5% of cows that get sick rather than the 95% that they prevent getting sick.

This article takes a look at fee charging in farm practice. It is an opinion piece. There is not a one-fit solution that will suit all practices and I certainly do not have all the answers. However, my own feeling is that the time is ripe for a more widespread progression towards a subscription-style charging model, at least for advisory work, and possibly for out-of-hours emergency work.