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Rising Costs in Vet Care Need Payment Pain Relief

Posted by Brandon Weaver | Fri, Oct 19, 2012 @ 10:00 AM

We love our pets. Be it cat, dog, horse or other, pet owners will tell you that their pet is a member of the family. We care for them every day: feeding, cleaning, playing and making sure they are healthy. All of these expenses add up and total costs keep rising according to a recent study. The state of the economy seems to have little effect, too. Time Business states that dog owners will spend the same amount, no matter what is currently happening in the economy.

Pets can offer a sense of security, the feeling of comfort and an outlet for people to forget about some of life's hardships, such as high unemployment. It should come as no surprise that dogs and cats are the most popular pets, as the graph here from American Pet Products indicates:

U.S, Household Pet Owners

Families can acquire pets in many ways including purchasing from a breeder or pet store, adopting them from shelters and adopting strays that wander our neighborhoods in search of food and a warm place to sleep. Any way you look at it, they eventually become one of us.

With that being said, it's time to face facts: things just don't cost the same as they used to. Raw materials for goods and services have increased, meaning everything else increases in the final product. This includes pet food, prescribed and over-the-counter medicines and, of course, veterinarian care. More advanced and expensive technology contributes to higher expenses and immunization costs.

Time Business states that pet care inflation has demonstrated a comparable rise to humans' inflation over the past 12 years. In fact, since 2001, the bar graph below shows total U.S. pet expenditures have steadily increased from $28.5 billion to an estimated $52.7 billion present day. Likewise, Embrace Pet Insurance points out in the bottom-right graph that veterinary fees have been consistently higher than the consumer price level since the year 2000.

Veterinary Expenditures   Consumer Price Level

The pie chart below provides a breakdown of pet costs. Of note, veterinarian care, supplies and OTC medicine account for about 50% of total sales. Supplies and OTC medicine is included here because often times these are recommended items from veterinarians even if they are not purchased from the practice itself.

Estimated 2012 U.S. Pet Expenditures

With costs rising all around us and unemployment running rampant, has your veterinarian practice suffered a business slowdown? How do you combat rising costs while maintaining your repeat customer base? Even if consumers still spend the same amount on their pets during economic recessions, why not offer additional payment options to better meet your patient's needs? To help you get started, we encourage you to learn about veterinarian check processing services that offer flexible payment terms for customers, and guaranteed payments for your practice.

remote deposit capture, veterinarians, RDC

Topics: Veterinarians

Written by Brandon Weaver