Paying per graft

[Dr. William Lindsey]

There are lots of ways to charge patients fairly, and lots of ways to fleece sheep. Establish a rapport with your doctor, look at some of his/her results and make sure the doctor and you are on the same page about BOTH your expectations and your finances.

 

We price cases in terms of graft ranges as is posted on our website with the price for all to see. Our general philosophy is to recommend a treatment plan, then discuss what the options are. Sometimes a patient may need 3000 grafts but only have hair for 1500 due to donor region issues/previous plug harvests etc. It would be foolish for us to offer 3k then. A great example is a fellow we did mid April, who had lots of donor hair, but multiple scars and quite frankly we were concerned that we couldn't get more than 15-1800 grafts without undo tension on the wound and an increased risk of scar problems. I think he may have paid for 1500, but we got 100 or so more grafts and put them in free, and I would expect that in a year or more, that if his scalp laxity is acceptible that we will do another smaller case.

 

Conversely, I have seen folks who could only afford a smaller case and the patient and I discuss where they want to spend their finite resource(their donor hair-not their money--they will make more money at some point and if we treat them fairly, the we may have the opportunity to work with them in the future). So we focus on the hairline or crown or what makes sense to the patient in planning for their hair-future.

 

I think to simply say that we can cover a particular area of the scalp for x dollars would not work in our practice. One person's idea of coverage may not be another's same thought.

 

Lastly, we do occasionally offer "as much as possible cases" where we harvest the maximal strip that we can safely harvest with good closure; and we start where the patient was most concerned with placement and go until we run out of grafts. An example recently was profession nearby who I expected to get 2500 grafts based in his scalp properties, but when taking the strip I could see that he was favorable for a larger harvest. We had an established relationship and he wanted us to proceed with a larger case. We ended up at 3200 grafts and charged him for 3000. He got a great result, was glad to have the extra grafts and felt fairly treated.

 

So in conclusion, rather than how a doctor prices his surgeries; a better solution is to make sure you the patient, and the doctor, are on the same page with the plan, execution, and payment BEFORE the procedure.

 

Dr. Lindsey RESTON VA

[Dr. Ricardo Mejia]

Very well Put Dr. Lindsey. I couldn't agree more.

[lorenzo]

Most of the italian patients that I have assisted have had surgery where they are charged a flat rate. The price is usually 5000euros and the bad scar is free . Most of them do not have clue how many grafts they have recieved but they appear easy to count since you can see them from a great distance. My guess is it average out to about 400-500. I don't have to tell you these are the people that come to be repaired.

In my opinion the flat rate would benifit the doctor.