It's happened. My costs have gone up enough that I have to put up my prices. More accurately, I have to roll back part of the discount that I've been applying since I started my subscription model at the beginning of last year. Skip the reading if you want, see the new Plans and Pricing on www.timclearyclinic.com from the 15th of November
I decided on the current pricing by taking my old treatment fee of $100, removing 20% because I don't have to pay clinic rent (treatment fee comes down to $80, and clinic rent is at least $22/hour or $100-$160/day), removing another 10% to make one treatment per month cost just over $2 per day ($70); and then removing a further 10% ($60) to make having regular acupuncture treatments extremely affordable (and to average just about $2 per day).
I have come to realise that charging $60 for a one-hour Japanese-style acupuncture treatment is unrealistic. I can't afford to keep my rates this low, in large part because even without paying out for clinic rent, it costs me $10-$15 in supplies and expenses to provide each hour of treatment. The price of clinic supplies and nearly every other cost goes up every year, and I haven't increased my prices in over 10 years.
My new rates from the 15th of November will be:
$75 per month for Monthly Treatment
$150 per month for the Twice per Month treatment plan
$300 per month for Weekly Treatment
$120 for a single consultation
(For those playing along at home, that's just under $2.50 per day per treatment for all subscriptions.) There will be no effect on current subscriptions, any subscriptions purchased before the 15th of November will retain their original pricing.
I've also added a new appointment type, the COVID-19-necessitated Online Consultation. This is a 30-minute telehealth appointment ($40), which I've been using to refine herbal prescriptions, teach breathing and rehabilitation exercises and to do my best to keep your progress going in the case that we can't actually get into the same room together.
Lastly, I've started to apply a flat 40% mark-up to all herbal prescriptions when I source them for you. The industry standard as far as I can tell is at least 45%. My previous pricing 'lack-of-system' meant that sometimes selling each package of herbs made me $6; sometimes it cost me $2. Changing to a flat mark-up covers my time and effort in research, prescribing and sourcing the best-quality herbs available. It does mean that there are very few nice round numbers in the herb pricing and that some of you will see the prices go up, but the few extra dollars I'll make will help me out a lot on days when I feel like both drinking coffee and eating food.
Thank you very much for choosing me to provide part of your healthcare, and I look forward to continuing to do so.