On Wednesday this week, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published the long-awaited provisional decision around veterinary businesses and pricing. And actually, it’s much less radical than many had been expecting.
The background
The CMA started this investigation two years ago, and received a record number of submissions from vets, the public, and companies. Major areas of concern were around transparency of pricing, the costs of medicines, and stratification within the veterinary industry (basically, where a corporate owns vets, referral centres, physios, crematoria etc. and refers within its own business).
The provisional remedies
The CMA is suggesting a range of changes. However, it’s worth bearing in mind that some of these are already actually a requirement, and these have not yet come into force. Major changes include:
Requiring practices to publish price lists
This was widely expected, and actually we’re seeing more and more practices have been doing this anyway. Our VetHelpDirect Price Comparison started out in January 2024 with a fairly small list of practices onboard, now, nearly half of all U.K. small animal practices share their prices with us which are published on our website this year.
The current proposal is to include 48 fees (ranging from consultation to TPLO via cremation and dentistry), as well as “preferred parasiticides”, for cats, small dogs, medium dogs, and large dogs. So the question is whether this is really viable
At the same time, they are proposing that the RCVS include pricing on their online Find A Vet service. They suggest that a simple form for veterinary practices to upload their prices and change them every time a price update is made would be sufficient, although other approaches are possible – although our experience is that this is likely to impose a severe burden on the veterinary teams.
Transparency of Ownership
One remedy which has been very strongly supported from a range of interests was in forcing corporates to make it clear when they own a practice. At VetHelpDirect we have been publishing this information since 2024.
Making getting written prescriptions for medicines easier
This again is not a surprise. The CMA has suggested a number of options here, including putting a £16 price cap on a written prescription (current average is £23.63), and adding extra transparency provisions.
Further regulations around cost estimates and price breakdowns
Vets already have a duty under our statutory Code of Conduct to provide estimates before any treatment is started. The CMA restates this (apparently not realising it already exists), but suggests some additional measures, including a requirement for written estimates for bills over £500. Other suggestions include making it mandatory to provide a cost breakdown of pet healthcare plans – although in our experience, almost every practice that offers them already does this.
New Veterinary Surgeons Act
The CMA propose recommending that government urgently update the VSA so that veterinary businesses can be regulated – at the moment, only individual vets and vet nurses are under professional regulation, not their employers (unless they happen to be vets or nurses themselves).
This is a big win, as this asymmetry of regulation is a huge problem.
Does this mean that vets have been ripping people off?
Probably not.
The CMA do say that some businesses have profit levels that are higher than they would expect, and that prices at some corporates have been raised significantly more than at equivalent independent practices.
However, they do not publish any detailed data that would support this, or state which companies they deem to be acting uncompetitively.
In addition, the CMA is careful to point out that
“The CMA is concerned to hear that some vets and vet nurses face abuse from frustrated clients – they deserve respect, not hostility. The proposed remedies would be good for vets, further enhancing trust in the profession and protecting clinical judgment from undue commercial pressure.”
So, what does this mean right now?
At the end of the day, no final decisions have been made, so we must wait and see. I suspect that this probably means that there will be much more paperwork which will push prices up a little! However, you will be able to see who owns what and what the prices are, using a range of price comparison services (us and the RCVS, if this goes through), and may have a price cap on certain limited professional fees.
However, it’s worth considering that this might also lead to increases in other fees; and the continued lack of transparency over the ownership of online pharmacies or dispensaries (many of which are owned by the Big Six corporates) may also be a sticking point for some.
Further reading
CMA Report into Veterinary Services for Household Pets: Summary
CMA Report into Veterinary Services for Household Pets: Provisional Remedies
Discussion