True-Doctor
How to set clinic prices that cover your costs
Most small clinics set prices by asking what the clinic down the road charges. That tells you what patients will pay, not whether you will still be open in a year. Start from your own costs.
Step 1: what a month costs you
Add up everything you pay in a normal month whether you see one patient or a hundred: rent, salaries, power, water, internet, security, licences and fees spread over the year, loan repayments, and the system you use.
Step 2: what each visit carries
Divide the month's costs by the visits you see in a month. That is what every visit has to bring in before it pays for anything it uses.
An example, with made-up figures: a clinic spending UGX 9,000,000 a month and seeing 600 visits carries UGX 15,000 a visit.
Step 3: add what each service uses
For each service, add the things it uses up: gloves, reagents, a test kit, dressing, a syringe. A test that uses UGX 2,500 of reagent and kit costs more than UGX 2,500, because the room, the person and the machine are paid for too.
Step 4: add a margin, then look at the market
Add a margin for the slow months, repairs and growth. Then compare with clinics near you. If you are well above them, look for a cost you can cut. If you are well below them, you are probably losing money on that service.
Where the work varies, such as a simple or difficult extraction, set a range rather than one price, and charge where each patient falls inside it.
Step 5: one list, reviewed every quarter
Keep one price list that everybody uses, and do not let anyone type a price by hand. Review it every three months: suppliers raise prices, and a list that was right in January can be losing money by July.
- Ask your accountant or URA whether VAT applies to any of your services.
- Insurers pay from their own agreed tariff, so price those services against the tariff too.
Sources
- Uganda Revenue Authority: VAT
- Uganda Bureau of Statistics: consumer price index, for how fast costs are rising