12. Setting a cash price
Cash-pay founders Planned episode, the cash-pay practice. Method, from what the practice costs to a visit price or a membership fee. Never what anyone should charge.
Listener title: Setting a cash price: a method, not a number
Listener description: A practice owner and an accountant who works with independent practices walk through one method for setting a cash price, from what the practice costs to run to a visit price or a membership fee. They talk about how often to revisit a price and how to explain it to patients. The episode covers method only; no one says what anyone should charge.
Run of show (about 40 minutes)
| Time | Segment | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| 0:00 to 2:00 | Opening | Host introduces the topic and both guests. The guests disclose any industry relationships. Host restates the ground rule: prices are discussed as method, never as agreement, and no one on the episode names a fee or says what others should charge. |
| 2:00 to 12:00 | From costs to a price | How did the owner set their price? The owner describes the steps, not the figures. The accountant walks through the method on the network's pricing page: annual cost, clinical hours, cost per clinical hour, a visit price with a margin, and the check on a membership fee. If a number helps, they use only the page's hypothetical example and say that it is hypothetical. |
| 12:00 to 20:00 | Revisiting the price | How often does the owner revisit the price, and what prompts a review? What does the accountant look at when a practice asks whether its price still covers its costs? |
| 20:00 to 29:00 | Explaining the price to patients | How does the owner explain the price to patients, in writing and in the room? How do they tell patients before the visit, and where does a good faith estimate fit? The detail of estimates is left to its own episode. |
| 29:00 to 36:00 | What they would do differently | What would each guest do differently? Which costs does the accountant most often see left out of a first calculation? Which questions belong with the listener's own accountant? |
| 36:00 to 40:00 | Closing | One practical takeaway: write down your annual cost and clinical hours before choosing any number; the network's pricing page shows the arithmetic with invented figures. To reach the network, email hello@coloradocarenetwork.com with a topic in two sentences; physicians and APPs can express interest on the Join page, coloradocarenetwork.com/join/; members can post in #podcast on Slack. |
Guest prep questions (sent to the guest a week ahead)
- For the practice owner: walk us through the steps you took to set your price, in the order you took them. The episode covers method, not figures, so please plan not to name your fees.
- For the practice owner: how often do you revisit your price, and what has prompted a change?
- For the practice owner: how do you explain your price to a patient who asks what it covers or how it was set?
- For the accountant: when an independent practice asks you to check a price, what do you look at first, and which costs are most often missing from the first calculation?
- For both: what would you do differently, and which questions should a founder bring to their own accountant rather than take from a podcast?
Show notes
A practice owner and an accountant who works with independent practices walk through a method for setting a cash price: annual cost, clinical hours, cost per clinical hour, a visit price with a margin, and a check on a membership fee. They discuss when to revisit a price and how to explain it to patients before the visit. No fees are named, and nothing on the episode suggests what anyone should charge. Financial and tax questions belong with each listener's own accountant.
- Sources and tools:
- Setting a cash price, https://coloradocarenetwork.com/practice/pricing/ : "A method, from what the practice costs to run to a price per visit or per member. The numbers below are hypothetical and only show the arithmetic. Members don't share or agree on what to charge: prices are discussed as method, never as agreement."
- Good faith estimate, https://coloradocarenetwork.com/practice/good-faith-estimate/ : "What the No Surprises Act requires for uninsured and self-pay patients, and where to get the CMS model form"
- No patient information is discussed on this episode.
All planned episodes. To be the guest for this episode, email hello@coloradocarenetwork.com with the episode number.