As readers may know the BCVMA (British Columbia Veterinary Medical Association) has a booklet with fee guidelines. I recently purchased the 2005 edition. Veterinary customers like me are charged $50 to buy a copy of this 19 page list of fees, with an additional nine sample invoice pages included. Fees have gone up considerably since the 2002 guide. Because of the Competition Act, veterinarians are reminded that they cannot collude with each other to fix prices. The matter of using the prices suggested is a matter of individual choice. However, many vets do choose to use the suggested fees.

The Asian-Canadian veterinarians charge considerably less than the fee guide suggests. This has been a real blessing to the forever impecunious rescue groups. It appears that these reduced rates may not have endeared them to the BCVMA. Some of the Asian veterinarians had their names and the alleged offences prominently featured on the BCVMA's web pages until they were removed from the public part of the website recently.

I do wonder about the purpose of the fee guide when I read Dr.Ashburner's statement below from the Canadian Veterinary Journal. It seems more to pertain to money than regulating competence.

"Dr. Rob Ashburner, chair, and members of the BCVMA Economic Committee (Drs. Roger Kocheff, Grant Nixon, Brigitte Sonnendrucker, Dan Thompson, John Twidale, Deborah Kalyn), in consultation with Darren Osborne, are putting the finishing touches to the Association's 2003 fee guides. It is the goal of this important member service initiative to improve the long-term economic well being of veterinary practitioners throughout British Columbia."

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=385439 (paragraph 9)