Something to ponder, especially with the recent publicity surrounding Dr. Susan Lim.
A few choice quotes ( no copyright infringement intended ):
"...I’ve met many, many physicians who under price their services. The primary reason that's given is that they have to have low prices to remain competitive..."
"This can be true — especially around mass consumer treatments like Botox and laser hair removal — but whatever the reason, charging too little for your services is self-sabotage for two primary reasons:
1. When you don’t charge enough you end up resenting your clinic. You do too much work for too little money. It’s not worth it. (Try to tell me this isn't the primary reason that so many physicians would like to leave clinical medicine.)
2. A low price tells patients that you’re not worth it. It may be all smoke and mirrors in the beginning, but if you want to be perceived as the best, you’d better price your services accordingly. Low prices are THE primary indicator of low quality."
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13 comments:
The media and the people in Singapore have worked very hard to make doctors feel bad for charging high fees and making "a lot" of money.
So doctors are "shy" to charge high because they will be called "greedy" and that sort of thing.
It is pathetic because doctors should be paid well to do good work. That is what capitalism is all about isn't it? Maybe not for the vocations I guess. Teaching, doctors, clergy.....
It is all about perceived 'value' to the individual.
Some services are just perceived/been conditioned through experience to be 'cheap'.
Most ladies I know would have no qualms about getting a haircut and paying $30-$40 for it.
Some would pay hundreds (and a few even >$1000 for a hair cut plus whatever treatment the hairstylist recommend).
Amongst the ladies I know, most would agree that paying $30-$40 for CONSULTATION by a GP is too 'expensive'.
I would like to think that all the GPs have had more consistent and stringent training compared to a hairstylist who charges $40.
But perhaps hair is really more 'valuable' to these group of ladies when compared to their health.
The reality is for GPs, it’s a dog’s world. They are intended to bear the thrust of the removal of fee guidelines as part of public policy to keep down cost of general healthcare (read: GPs) by increasing supply. So work both shifts and either cut your price or shut down. The “smarter” med students have this already figured out – DON’T EVER END UP A GP. Unless it’s a calling. You’ll never get rich, only old - fast.
The second comment is facetious. A few may be top-class technically but even then, the practice of medicine is only a means to a monetary end to feed a lifestyle. It’s a choice. Many aspire to this pot of gold - just look at some of the students getting into and coming out of med school. And there will always be a clientele for this group. It’s also a choice. They deserve each other. No more-right or more-wrong in the larger scheme of things.
I think it's a pity if doctors are not taught marketing in med school - a very important element for success in private practice.
Charging low and engaging in price wars lead one nowhere, it's a lose-lose for everyone engaged in the transaction. Patients may think that they can benefit from picking up bargains during such wars - but somewhere somethings' got to give. It's not a sustainable model as costs have to be met and doctors have to make a living! They can't go on working endlessly to churn enough volumes to make ends meet! Where does that leave the patient when the doctor can't survive or becomes so overloaded that patient care is affected? For the doctors involved, they run the risk of tarnishing their reputation by creating the perception in the market that they are not as good and that perception can be difficult to reverse.
Doctors can probably learn from the legal and accounting profession - good lawyers or accountants do not bat an eyelid to quote hefty prices for their services and they are not afraid of complaints or losing customers.
3 prerequisites. (a) High perceived value, which means either aesthetics or life-threatening illnesses. Of course, the pricing premium and its collectability disappear once the patient kicks the b, unless you're a hospital. Forget the normal run-of-the-mill commoditized services that’s the lot of most doctors. (b) Limited supply, i.e. top 5% of the branding pyramid (best if you can boast a few big name patients). Some names pooped up in todays’ Sunday Times. No doubt the public mention will enhance their scarcity value. (c) High demand, i.e. able and willing to pay for perceived value. Voila! You have a marketplace and a business model.
$1 chicken-rice.
Greed is good. Are we really expecting Dr Lim to charge $1 for her services? That's ridiculous! How can a doctor survive on $1? Singaporeans are cheap and unreasonable.
The recent blown-up coverage boils down to the perception that doctors (and heads of NGOs, voluntary organisations, etc.) should ideally be altruistic and no more. Singaporeans assume that doctors and like do not need to survive in the economy as the act of 'helping others is their reward'. In a free market, if a buyer exists, so would a seller.
Patients may want cheap and good but if doctors don't underprice or undercut each other, there won't be supply to feed the demand!
$1 chicken rice - slog from 8 am to 7:30 pm, must sell >= 30 chickens, each chicken must make 17 plates => must chop chicken for minimum 510 plates/day to make $100. Sure or not - doctors, after all the investment in time and money in extensive training can use this business model???
Anyway, one of the two already cannot tahan - increased price liao!
Smart JC students who WANT to make money be aware; become a investment banker and not a doctor.
As a banker, you can make millions per year making a difference in no one else's life but your own (unless you sell minibonds), and pay yourself huge bonuses while you get bailed out by the government if need be.
But the best part is NO ONE will begrudge you your ridiculous earnings.
to the last anon : Well said
I once had a patient who was a banker.
During the recession, during small talk I just mentioned that bankers are having it difficult right now.
And he laughed it off.
He told me that recessions are usually at most 2 years or shorter.
During the normal years most bank staff are paid 6-12 months of bonus at the end of the year.
During good times they are paid 18 months and above of year end bonus.
Prior to 2007-2008, they were paid bonuses close to 3-4 years of salary.
So even if the banker lost his job for 2 years, he still has enough from the bonuses to cover him.
And it gets better. Because they know the lending climate, they know when to buy and sell assets eg property. They buy when the prices have dropped and lending activity is coming up again and they sell when prices have peaked and are declining with a drop in lending activity. Those 3 years of bonus easily becomes 5 years of salary in cash.
He told me that banking was the best job in the world.
I replied that I thought medicine was good because it was recession proof. Income is steady.
He replied "Well I guess it is good if you plan on working till you die. But most bankers want to retire by age 45 or earlier"
Here the public is crying foul over 24M charged to the Brunei Royal Family. Not some average middle class HDB dweller mind you.
What was the value of losses all those Lehmann mini bonds cost average investors living in HDB flats?
It's a joke frankly. I am sure the bankers and lawyers must be shaking their heads with complete sympathy for doctors. I know my ex-classmate who is a lawyer told me it is so ridiculous that we have to be subject to abuse of being greedy over a few hundred or a few thousand dollars from our patients. You should see the multiples of millions that companies and businesses throw around everyday in the world of corporate law.
I am pretty sure that last anon was being sarcastic in referring to "students who WANT to make money", since he later refer to "making a difference" which I presume he meant to be the ideal motivation. Don't think theres too many med students/doctors that possess only truly financial motivations :)
No one profession is more honourable than others - they are all important and make an impact on the people, and/or the economy, etc. At the end of the day, as the saying goes, if one chooses a profession, vocation, career that he loves, he'll never have to work a day in his life. No point being a lawyer or banker if there is no passion. Money is not everything there is in life.
And there is really no need for those in the medical profession to fear being labelled as greedy and/or be at the mercy of the patients' every whim and fancy if they have something of value to offer, which, in my opinion, they certainly do! What they really need is better pricing of their services to reflect the true value and worth, especially in times like now where there is a big shortage of doctors to meet the demand that foreign talents have to be recruited.
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