price of herbs for your patients

[Guest guest]

I am stocking a granulated pharmacy so that I can make custom

prescriptions in-house. (I formerly used Mayway's prescription

service).

 

I'd like an idea about what many of you charge your patients for

custom granulated / concentrated powder formulas.

 

I realize different brands have slightly different costs, but they

are close enough that it should not matter too much for purposes of

this discussion.

 

There are different costs associated with many of the different

single herbs, and ready made formulas tend to cost more than the

single herbs. I will be making 3 types of formulas: 1) all single

herbs 2) base formula(s) with single herb additions, and 3) multiple

base formulas

 

I don't want to keep track of the individual costs of each ingredient

and then charge a consistent percentage markup on each ingredient.

 

I would rather just charge by the gram. For instance 100 g to the

patient would cost $x.xx regardless of the ingredients.

 

I know some of you want to keep costs as low as possible for your

patients, and some of you are probably money making machines. I want

to keep costs reasonable, but I also want to make a decent profit.

 

Also, besides the costs of the raw materials, there is my time

involved with the actual mixing, bottling, sealing, labeling, and the

cost of the bottles, lids, and labels.

 

Any input would help. Thanks.

 

Brian C. Allen, MSTOM

Oriental Medicine and Health Services

http://omhs.biz

[Guest guest]

On Fri, Oct 17, 2008 at 1:19 PM, bcataiji <bcataiji wrote:

 

> I am stocking a granulated pharmacy so that I can make custom

> prescriptions in-house. (I formerly used Mayway's prescription

> service).

>

> I'd like an idea about what many of you charge your patients for

> custom granulated / concentrated powder formulas.

 

[post trimmed]

>

 

Hi Brian,

 

Personally, I charge $0.143 per gram for granule formulas made from single

ingredients (kpc). I use the ziplock bags and make a very professional color

label to put on it. My primary concern is to keep my patient's out-of-pocket

expenses minimized so I don't mark-up anything at full-retail and using

fancy packaging, while it may present better just seems an unnecessary

expense (imho).

 

I also get concerned about the ethics of marking things up at full-retail

when, as the patient's doctor we have, among other things, a fiduciary

responsibility to our patients. Making product recommendations as a doctor

knowing that our patients have placed their trust in our recommendations,

and then turning around and making a huge profit off of that

recommendation...I just feel there is a conflict of interest. I know I am in

the minority on that issue, so moving on...

 

When it comes to payment for my time, experience, knowledge, etc.,

personally I feel that expense should be covered by my " service " fee (i.e.,

office fee) therefore I don't additionally pad the cost of the herbs. If a

patient is on long-term herbal therapy, as long as I don't have to make a

significant change to their formula & the cc remains the same, I don't

require an office visit (or in some cases a phone consult) unless they are

still receiving acupuncture.

 

Having said that, come January, I know I will probably implement a slight

increase to the price-per-gram given that there have been increases in

associated costs (materials have gone up as have shipping, etc). I won't

know what the increase is until after I finish doing my year-end

cost-of-goods-sold analysis but I'm estimating that it will be somewhere

around $0.172 per gram.

 

J

________

Joy Keller, LAc, Dipl.OM

Board Certified in Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine

Ramona Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine Clinic

Phone: (760) 654-1040 Fax: (760) 654-4019

www.RamonaAcupuncture.com

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

I use KPC single granules and charge $0.20/gram. Only exceptions are

for very expensive herbs like Ren Shen which I will price based on the

cost (somewhere between 50-100% mark-up over cost). I haven't looked

at my costs in a few years - probably time to do that. At my school

(NESA) 5 years ago they were charging $.24/g - not sure what it is

now, but probably higher.

 

I re-use the KPC bottles to package the herbs - clean out the bottle

and slap on a new label. It took a little while but now I have more

empty bottles than I know what to do with.

 

Have fun with your new pharmacy!

 

Adam

 

, " bcataiji " <bcataiji

wrote:

>

> I am stocking a granulated pharmacy so that I can make custom

> prescriptions in-house. (I formerly used Mayway's prescription

> service).

>

> I'd like an idea about what many of you charge your patients for

> custom granulated / concentrated powder formulas.

>

> I realize different brands have slightly different costs, but they

> are close enough that it should not matter too much for purposes of

> this discussion.

>

> There are different costs associated with many of the different

> single herbs, and ready made formulas tend to cost more than the

> single herbs. I will be making 3 types of formulas: 1) all single

> herbs 2) base formula(s) with single herb additions, and 3) multiple

> base formulas

>

> I don't want to keep track of the individual costs of each ingredient

> and then charge a consistent percentage markup on each ingredient.

>

> I would rather just charge by the gram. For instance 100 g to the

> patient would cost $x.xx regardless of the ingredients.

>

> I know some of you want to keep costs as low as possible for your

> patients, and some of you are probably money making machines. I want

> to keep costs reasonable, but I also want to make a decent profit.

>

> Also, besides the costs of the raw materials, there is my time

> involved with the actual mixing, bottling, sealing, labeling, and the

> cost of the bottles, lids, and labels.

>

> Any input would help. Thanks.

>

> Brian C. Allen, MSTOM

> Oriental Medicine and Health Services

> http://omhs.biz

>