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Vet History Transfer Fee


Jemmy
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I've recently heard of vets charging a fee to supply you with your pets history. I know of this with doctors charging to transfer a person's files, but hadn't thought about it with vets. I think a nominal fee is appropriate for the time, but I'm hearing amounts of over $40.

Just thought it would be an interesting thing to get DOL opinions on :)

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Entirely reasonable to charge.

The files belong to them, there is time taken for staff to respond to the request, review the files etc and provide them.

That's time they need to find away from caring for patients so why should they not be reimbursed.

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Never heard of anyone charging a fee. I know my vet doesn't.

Much more time consuming to scan a faxed history on to a new patient's file than to print and fax one of ours to a new clinic or specialist.

I'd be quite shocked to be charged a fee really.

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NOT a reasonable fee. It's essentially a fee for seeking an alternative diagnosis, or for changing practices. Highly anti-competitive. If it isn't banned by law, it should be! If the charge were $5 for the five to 10 minutes it takes the staff to pull files and email copies, it would be reasonable. But $40 is far above actual costs.

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My clinic doesn't charge and I've never heard of a clinic that does charge, but I can see why a clinic might when you're transferring a lengthy history. We have a vet check over the history before sending (we usually try to send by email now), this could end up taking 15 minutes of a vets time - that is the length of a consult.

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My clinic doesn't charge and I've never heard of a clinic that does charge, but I can see why a clinic might when you're transferring a lengthy history. We have a vet check over the history before sending (we usually try to send by email now), this could end up taking 15 minutes of a vets time - that is the length of a consult.

I'd agree with this.

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In Lonnie,Jemmy? I know I bailed from one vet to another one because of issues that led to my cats dying that could have been prevented... :( But both vets never charged to transfer history..

One of the small towns that's not far at all from Lonnie.

I'd never even thought about it before, and agree with those saying a fee is understandable, but $45 per pet regardless of the method of transfer seems quite steep.

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My vet back home faxed Stan and Maddie's history through last week before Maddie had her surgery and didn't charge me anything.

My GP charged me $35 to send my own history to my new doctor down here though.

Edited by HazyWal
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