Pricing
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Hi Dr. Woeller,
Thank you for agreeing to talk about the fees that you charge for your consult. I am curious if you charge hourly or if you charge a lump some for initial consult, review of records, program development and review of labs. How do you manage charges for emails, forms, telephone calls. Is there a difference in charges that you have for online consultation vs in person consultation.Another question, do you have malpractice insurance covering your consultant role online. If so which one covers it. Mine does not.
Thank you so much.
QaziQazi,
Sorry for my delayed response. System didn’t notify me of postings. Getting caught up.My fees are the same whether its in-person or on the phone. Everything comes down to time and sometimes phone consults take more time than a in-person consult.
My fee schedule is as follows:
–Initial consult – $495. This is scheduled for an hour face-to-face. I am not charging for lab review prior or program development afterwards. However, people are told that the actual visit time is anywhere between 45 minutes to an hour face-to-face, but 90 minutes of time is block for prior paperwork review or program development afterwards.
-45 minute follow-up is $295
-30 minute follow-up is $195
-15 minute quick visit is $150I typically don’t charge for emails because I have a support website we created called Autism Recovery System – https://autismrecoverysystem.com where people can join and pay $37 per month for ongoing access. Some people don’t join and try to get ongoing information via email.
I will reply to an email as a point of clarification for something just discussed in a recent consult. However, if people are seeking additional information or the “what’s next” question we get them scheduled for a follow-up consult.
The liability insurance is always a challenge. It is something we are re-evaluating. We do also have an arbitration agreement that people sign coming into the practice.
Dr. Woeller
Dr Woeller,
This is extremely helpful. I mean, REALLY helpful.
When I first started 15 or 16 years ago, it was very easy to define how to regulate charges. It was simple. I was working mostly at a family care practice as the staff nutritionist and health counselor and we had a simple cash based fee structure because I was really only doing one thing.
The past few years it has been harder and harder for me to figure out how to charge. I recently found out that I was dramatically under charging for my credential and work level, and one of the things I wanted to gain from this course is how to rectify that.
I would say 99% of my practice now is virtual. I use a special service for teleconferences, but most of my work is via phone and email. I have one patient who pays me a flat fee for two 90 min consults per week and daily email support. I use drop shipping services for supplements or I stock and send or do special orders, and I will either have GPL send kits on my behalf or I will send test kits.
I think my only questions left are, since I don’t have a website as you do, what would you suggest I would charge for email consultations? I don’t mean a question or two here and there; I mean the people who send emails with multiple questions that require a dialog, like an “email chat”.
If I was to just interpret a test report, such as standard blood work, OAT, IgG, Hair Metals, hormones, etc…what would you suggest a fair charge would be?
Lastly, I tend to get calls for corporate consulting as well. Do you have any suggestions? I was recently working for a retail supplement store but I think I asked for too little, and I am not sure what I should charge for lectures, events, seminars, etc…I used to have a fee structure for those things but I am not sure at this point what to charge.
Michael,
Great!We work off the drop ship model too for supplements and test kits. We use to carry all of this in our office and the overhead and logistics of it all got to be too much.
I have often thought about doing an email charge, but with the website this tends to offset it. I kind of like the flat fee approach like the person who is paying you now. What you could do is start at a $19.99 per month for certain types of emails. Then re-evaluate after 6 months to see if you need to raise the price or do a different price structure. My website has other educational material, e.g. videos, articles, protocols so we charge a little more ($37 per month). One thing I would make sure you do is emphasize that email correspondence is not in place of a consult. Therefore, no lab reviews or redo’s on programs through email.
For lab reviews I would charge something like this:
-Food IgG – $15
-Blood Chemistry, Hair Analysis, etc. – $20
-Adrenal profile, hormone profile – $30
-OAT, GPL-TOX or something similar in complexity – $50I do this type of thing for a group in China and this is similar to what I charge. The nice thing as time goes on you end up accumulating enough of these reviews that they often are fairly similar. At times, I can do a written review on an OAT in 10 minutes because I have created so many OAT templates that I can do a copy and paste fairly quickly.
Are these corporate lectures in person? You price I guess depends on what reputation you bring. If you haven’t paid your dues in public speaking you may have to charge less. I feel a minimum of $1000 for an hour lecture is warranted for a public lecture or online webinar, particularly if its for a corporation, lab or supplement company. In reality, I probably don’t charge enough either, but the exposure is good and it benefits things in other areas.
I hope this helps.
Dr. Woeller
That was incredibly helpful.
I have a much better understanding of the fee structure now.
I am actually very good at doing powerpoint presentations and public speaking is really a strong point for me. I would like to do more of it, but to be honest, outside of my creativity and personality, there isn’t anything in functional medicine that I bring to the table that is going to be any better than more established doctors and PhD’s.
The lectures I have done were all in person and required me to use power point. I agree with you regarding the amount of exposure is a good trade off for fees depending on the amount of exposure, but $1000 seems like a good, proper value for a dynamic lecturer. I am going to try that approach, and I am working on a couple of books at the moment that could help with the lecture circuit.
What I do with the one patient who pays a flat fee is on one day we do mental health counseling and “life coaching”, and on another day we go over her food journal, look at her protocol, test reports, biochemistry, etc…so, kinda like a “mind-body” program. This was hugely successful but she is paying a premium price, and it is a lot of work for her and for me, but there is a mutual commitment.
The OAT is still a challenge for me. I must have seen you explain the OAT on 7 different occasions and I still feel like I am in the dark. The IgG test is far easier for me but that is because I have a lot more experience in it. I think with the OAT it really feels like a confidence thing because I know what everything means, but how to apply it is where I feel weak.
I like the idea of a $19.99 flat fee for emails. I have had situations in the past where I have had patients email me every day, all day, and to the extent where I had to have a conversation with them about it. How do you regulate and control that interaction?
I also use a teleconferencing service that allows for almost real-time chatting, so some of my patients contact me there. I include that as part of a program.
Everything you posted in this thread has been hugely helpful. I am anxious to learn more about how I can be more effective with what my charges are. I feel like having more of structure will make things much easier.
Dr. Woeller:
I might have posted my question in the wrong area of the forum. I was wondering if you would be willing to share one of your templates in order to learn how you’re doing this as well? I like this idea and have one for my hair analysis but would like one for the GPL or even the SIBO tests and consults.
Thank you, ValerieMichael,
Books are essential too. I am in the process of doing a 2nd edition on my autism book and plan to write a book on SIBO as well. The problem is time. There never seems to be enough of it.The OAT is a complicated test. It took me quite a while too to start seeing the connections. Once I was able to run enough of them and start to see patterns the information and connecting the dots really started to click. However, there are still a lot of layers to the OAT, so I am still learning too. I plan on doing an Advanced OAT course in the fall of 2019.
The email situation is tough. I don’t have a perfect solution either. I believe as health practitioners we need to be more flexible with our time and not everything is going to carry a charge, or at least shouldn’t. Much of the regulation has to come from a good office staff person who can act as a gatekeeper. Most people are respectful, but then there are those who just keep pushing for more. You will need to have some parameters up front stating what the purpose of the email service is and is not. With that, there will still be a few individuals who don’t follow the rules. However, if you at least have their credit card of file you know some of your time will be compensated.
I am glad this is helpful.
Dr. WoellerValerie,
I can do this. What I will do is grab an example of an OAT, Hair Analysis and SIBO Test. These templates will come from a service I provide just for lab reviews. The information is fairly generic, but it will give you a start on things and you can adapt it from there. I will have Brian place them in the ‘Resource’section of this website once they are completed. I will work on this today.Sincerely,
Dr. WoellerDr. Woeller,
So VERY helpful. Thank you for the generous advice. I am learning a lot in this course.
Warm regardsHi Dr Woeller,
Thanks for the replies. It gives me a LOT of hope!
I am very interested in Valerie’s inquiry as well. This seems like a very interesting and useful resource to check out.
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