Medicine: Price List

Medical Economics, “business magazine of the medical profession,” last week tried to answer the doctor’s perpetual question: How much shall I charge? In different communities, surgeons charge from $100 to $5,000 to remove a tumor from the bladder, $50 to $2,000 to repair a fractured skull. Removal of an appendix costs $150 to $250 in some Western communities, from $250 to $1,000 in Eastern cities. Office call charges average $2. But some doctors take as little as 50¢. some as high as $15. Doctors, to avoid competition, look to their county medical societies to set fee schedules. But Publisher Lansing Chapman of Medical Economics found through a survey of 1,000 societies that “by far the majority of medical societies have no fee schedule at all.”

Herewith are average, minimum fees of the 100 societies which reported:

Medical Attention Advice by mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 3 by telephone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Call by patient at office . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 By physician at house, day . . . . . . . . . . . 3 night . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 For each additional member of same family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 At hospital . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Consultation, first . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 subsequent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Detention, per hour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Examination, general physical . . . . . . . . 5 Post-mortem examination . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Antitoxin, administration of . . . . . . . . . . . 4 High-frequency and heat treatment . . . . 2 Immunization against scarlet fever . . . . . 4 Vaccination for smallpox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Operations Transfusions of blood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 60 Abscess, boil or carbuncle . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Amputation of breast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 Fracture of skull . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Ribs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Upper Arm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 finger or toe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Thigh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Dislocation of shoulder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Of finger joint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Adenoids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Tonsils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Gall bladder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 Circumcision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Cervix, laceration of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Uterus, removal of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 Tumor, uterine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250 Tube & ovary, removal of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Curettage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Abortion, surgical treatment of . . . . . . . . . 27 Induction of. therapeutic . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Delivery, uncomplicated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Instrumental . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Goitre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 Cataract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 Mastoid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145