Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Interesting Pet Industry Article

An article from Smart
money
Magazine to the 10 things the pet industry won't tell you.

2 comments:

Jack Feerick said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

It's an interesting article, but the guy seems unnecessarily down on veterinarians. Do vets upsell? DO they push for optional tests and procedures to rule out conditions? Of course. But consider that most vets are independent operators, without the resources of a human physician working in an HMO; many don't have the wherewithal to do referrals, and have to function as a one-stop shop; and many owners skip routine checkups entirely and treat the vet as an emergency room.

And because virtually all of their business is cash-and-carry - since statistically few owners have health insurance for their pets - all the costs are out in the open. That's what makes people feel they're being overcharged, I think: $250 for an annual dog exam seems like a lot when you're used to thinking in terms of the $20 co-pay - but I guarantee that the real cost of your own annual is far higher. And most of the vets I know provide a better patient experience in terms of individualized attention and time than comparable "human doctors" - in part because they're not part of a large health-care consortium, and so not subject to as much pressure to maximize patient visits in a given day.
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