Cost Comparison

What Clinic Owners Charge GPs vs Running Your Own Home Visit Practice

Most GPs know what they take home, but fewer see the full picture of what each clinic model costs. Here are the main models, with sources, followed by an illustrative comparison with running your own home visit practice.

Model 1: Contractor paying a percentage service fee

This is the most common arrangement. The GP bills through the practice and keeps a share, with the practice retaining the rest as a service fee for premises, administration, nursing and systems. OnQ Recruitment describes the GP keeping commonly between 60 and 70 percent, and People Medical discusses why practices charge 30 to 40 percent. Cubiko's guide to service fees explains what the fee is meant to cover. William Buck notes that a service fee of 35 percent is a common example.

What a service fee looks like in dollars

William Buck's worked case study shows a doctor charging private fees of 597 dollars per hour taking home 389 dollars after a 35 percent service fee, with the practice retaining a profit of 98 dollars per hour. In the same analysis, bulk billing without incentives produces total billings of 253.10 dollars, with 164.51 dollars to the doctor after the 35 percent fee. Cubiko's data puts average GP billings at 308 dollars per hour.

Model 2: Flat room rental or sessional fees

Some practices and room providers charge a flat rate for a consulting room instead of a percentage. Advertised sessional rates vary widely by location and inclusions. Examples of listings include the NBMPHN healthcare room rentals page, Doctors Rooms and Wellshare. Advertised rates in listings of this kind run from about 65 dollars for a half day to 200 dollars for a full day, plus GST. Check current rates and what is included, because many listings are not GP-specific.

Model 3: Salaried or employed

A minority of GPs are employees on a fixed wage with leave entitlements and employer superannuation, which industry sources such as OnQ Recruitment and RSM describe as typically earning less than contractor arrangements.

Contractor classification and GST

RSM notes that the service fee a GP pays for rooms and administration is a facility and administration fee that is normally subject to GST. ClinicComply discusses classification risks where contractor arrangements do not reflect the real working relationship, so get advice on your own agreement.

Billing model changes what you keep

Whether a practice bulk bills, privately bills or uses a mixed model affects total billings. The RACGP's guide to mixed billing defines bulk billing, private billing and mixed billing and discusses how practices choose between them.

Illustrative comparison: annual cost to run the practice

The table below applies the models above to the same assumed billings of 250,000 dollars a year. The billings figure is an assumption for illustration only, not a forecast. Clinic service fees are percentages of billings; the C.A.L.L.S figures are the published monthly plans multiplied by 12 (pricing).

What the comparison leaves out

A clinic fee covers rooms, reception, nursing, IT and billing support. On C.A.L.L.S you do not pay for rooms, and the platform handles bookings, patient communication and weekly payment (how it works), but you carry your own costs such as vehicle, equipment, indemnity, accounting and tax. Your total billings will also differ between a clinic roster and a home visit practice, and C.A.L.L.S does not guarantee bookings.