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After a recent checkup, it looks like both of my cats require some dental work. One just needs a cleaning, but the other one needs a tooth extraction. I am trying to handle this the same way I would handle a similar situation for a person: call around to various providers and find out how much they would charge for the procedure.
Much to my surprise, all the vet offices I have called in the area (a suburb of Boston, MA) refuse to provide any sort of pricing without "an established doctor/patient relationship", which requires a complete cat physical.
The people-healthcare world has been moving towards greater price transparency (e.g. the recent laws concerning hospital price transparency, Hospital Price Transparency | CMS), primarily because bad actors were using opaque pricing to bilk both insurers and individual payers.
Are vets doing the same thing? Is it common for vets to be unwilling to provide any estimates without performing an exam themselves, rather than accepting medical records from the cat's "primary care" veterinarian? I'm frustrated and feel like I'm over the barrel here, particularly since one of the cats may be in some discomfort. That means I'm probably just going to end up having the (expensive) procedure done by our regular provider, but it galls me that there's no way to ascertain the relative pricing at various local providers. Are there regulations or other legitimate reasons behind the unwillingness of vets to share procedure pricing?
Thanks for your input.
Much to my surprise, all the vet offices I have called in the area (a suburb of Boston, MA) refuse to provide any sort of pricing without "an established doctor/patient relationship", which requires a complete cat physical.
The people-healthcare world has been moving towards greater price transparency (e.g. the recent laws concerning hospital price transparency, Hospital Price Transparency | CMS), primarily because bad actors were using opaque pricing to bilk both insurers and individual payers.
Are vets doing the same thing? Is it common for vets to be unwilling to provide any estimates without performing an exam themselves, rather than accepting medical records from the cat's "primary care" veterinarian? I'm frustrated and feel like I'm over the barrel here, particularly since one of the cats may be in some discomfort. That means I'm probably just going to end up having the (expensive) procedure done by our regular provider, but it galls me that there's no way to ascertain the relative pricing at various local providers. Are there regulations or other legitimate reasons behind the unwillingness of vets to share procedure pricing?
Thanks for your input.