Keeping up with the Joneses--comparison of fees.

D ollar for dollar, the provinces with the highest veterinary fees in Canada are the conspicuous ones — Alberta with its oil-fueled hyperinflation, and Ontario with its long history of economic research and fee guides. However, most provinces have similar fees after adjustments have been made for differences in cost of living. In 4 of the 7 provinces studied, the cost of living adjusted companion animal fees differed by only 1%. Information for this article is from the 2006 CVMA provincial economic surveys. Provincial surveys were undertaken through the joint partnerships of the CVMA Business Management Program, individual provinces, and the following corporate sponsors: Hill’s Pet Nutrition Canada, Petplan Insurance, Scotiabank, and Schering-Plough Animal Health. The comparison of fees includes all provinces, except Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland. Provincial economic surveys are currently underway in these provinces and future articles will include their data. There were 604 hospitals that responded to their provincial survey for an average provincial response rate of 35%. The figures in this report are generally accurate to 1/2 4.6%, 19 times out of 20. Hospital fee guides are comprised of hundreds of individual procedure fees. Consequently, it is impossible to gauge the level of fees for a hospital or group of hospitals by examining the fee guide in its entirety. However, to simplify fee comparison, a representative sample of 23 companion animal procedures and markups was used to gauge the overall level of companion animal fees. Collectively, these fees represent more than 75% of practice revenue in companion animal hospitals. To further simplify comparison, a single Companion Animal Fee Index was developed, using a weighted average of the 23 fees and their relative importance to practice revenue. Procedures that were done more often in practice contributed more to the index. Bovine and equine fee indices were constructed by using a weighted average of commonly used professional fees. Markups on medications were not included in the fee indices. D ollar pour dollar, les provinces avec les honoraires vétérinaires les plus élevés au Canada sont celles qui sautent aux yeux : l’Alberta avec son hyperinflation alimentée par le pétrole et l’Ontario avec sa longue tradition de recherche financière et de guides d’honoraires. Cependant, la plupart des provinces présentent des honoraires semblables une fois que des rajustements