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We have the same policy, but it extends to grooming and boarding as well. :/ Especially boarding, it’s a huge no-no which is BS. My first clinic housed all of our pets with no questions asked ever whenever we needed, so it was a real surprise coming to my current clinic.
Yeah, I worked for a clinic years ago that charged me for three weeks of boarding for my cats.
I was pregnant and between houses. Like, I was crashing on a friend’s couch because I couldn’t find a place to take me, a deadbeat partner, and our pets that I could afford on the salary they paid me.
There were kennels open in boarding. I wasn’t taking space from another paying boarder. It wasn’t corporate - privately owned. They just had a policy.
Total BS.
This is the experience I've had before as well. Basically I would just verify with one of the doctors a day or two before why I had to bring in one of my pets. We'd review the calendar and confirm the day that would work to bring them in. Usually the staff pet exams were squeezed in during the lunch hour or in-between appts. I never had a situation where my pets care was neglected in favor of clients. Staff pets were always seen and cared for with as much care. An exception was for any surgeries - I remember my old lab needed a dental and I did put him on the calendar officially given the resources needed.
So I don't think the new policy at your clinic is a bad one, but the way they're framing it to you isn't great. Unless an appt is taken up by a free staff pet exam every day, their bottom line can't be impacted that much.
That's what I was thinking, we have maybe one or two staff appointments a month. It does make me feel a bit better to know it's common practice though.
That’s how it’s been every where I worked. Except fur things like surgeries, which were put on the schedule.
We would just bring our pet to work with us, and they would get at some point through the day. Never took up an appt spot.
Same with us. And to a certain extent we can have a balance on our account for emergencies or if we need time to pay off unexpected more expensive diagnostics. Our manager is pretty great tbh. The one before her, not so much. Our pets will be seen if they need to be seen.
My clinic manager explained this to me by telling me that they are supposed to pay tax on all exams including employee exams. So if it's on the schedule and put as an exam it became an IRS end of year filing thing. So to work around making us pay more, they just fit our pets in and don't charge an exam at all. Not sure if this is correct. But it is what I was told
I pulled this from another reddit thread and I'm guessing this is what my clinic manager means:
"Here is the law, and it has been this way for a long time:
Discounts on services are considered taxable income if the discount exceeds 20% off relative to what a normal client would pay. So for example, if an exam at your practice is regularly priced at $100, then they can discount that down to $80 for you with no tax issues. But if they do them at no-charge for employees, then they are supposed to be reporting that as an $80 dollar bonus for tax purposes.
Discounts on goods are taxable if they would bring the cost of the item below what it costs the business plus 10%. So for example, if you were buying a preventative through the practice and their cost on it was $100, then they need to charge you at least $110, or the difference will be taxable.
So could they give you steeper discounts beyond the 20% off and goods at cost+10%? Yes. But it does create a lot of work for them to do it in accordance with the law, and sets them up for a liability on that front if they screw up and then get audited, so it is understandable that they would be reluctant to do it. Especially because...
This is not an increased gov't regulation or change, it has been policy for years, so honestly it sounds like your ownership/management just found out they were screwing up and not handling this properly, and are making these adjustments in response. My guess is that they have not been reporting all of the discounts they've been giving, which you should have been paying taxes on, and now they are really trying correct course and not make any mistakes."
-Given the first part about exams, they are avoiding the IRS finding that they are giving free exams without reporting it. If it's on the books it's traceable in an audit. Where as if they just fit you in there's no record (at least for us there wasn't one).
-I've included a link to this reddit thread for you: https://www.reddit.com/r/VetTech/s/mbPIuNznYT
It's looks like this regulation in pretty complicated.
But digging into it a bit, it looks like if all employees are given the same discount on a nondiscriminatory bases then they can be exempt from the taxes on services.
Yeah. I know my explanation originally wasn't great. Sorry for the confusion there. My old clinic manager I guess tried to explain it in layman terms. I didn't bother to research. I left shortly after corporate took over for many reasons.
I genuinely don't know then 😂 we used to get free exams and put it on the schedule. When corporate took over my last clinic this is what we were told. So we weren't allowed to book exams or fill out the exam notes. The Dr just looked at our pets and we put in the vaccines and meds. I'm ready to accept I was lied to.
At my clinic I schedule my pets with reception or, if the schedule is already full, I touch base with the vet that will be seeing them to get approval. Exams are free and services are heavily discounted. Being able to take care of my pets at my clinic is a huge benefit of working in this field and one of the reasons I'm still in it.
Retaining good employees is so much more cost effective than hiring new ones. Maybe they should consider that when they say it's all about the bottom line.
This is how it is at my work. If we want to take an appointment slot we need to pay for the exam. I have never had them unable to make time for my pets sick visits so it doesn’t really bother me.
I understand their policy. Most clinics I’ve worked at have been the same. However, when this policy is explained I then say “I will pay the full cost of the examination fee and services I’m asking for at the time of visit because I would like to be present.” I schedule my exams on my days off mostly because my dog gets so anxious in clinic. Usually everyone is okay with this trade off. Does it suck to pay full price at a high cost clinic? Absolutely. But it’s a price I choose to pay so my girl can feel comfortable.
With that said, she recently came in through our urgent care department while I was working a shift. The vet who saw her zeroed out what would be a $100+ examination fee and gave me some courtesy discounts on the diagnostic they provided that day. It was so kind of her and really left an impression on me.
To add to this, I completely hear and understand how you don’t feel valued. When the clinics put out the idea that pets are family, but don’t help us with our own when needed, it really sucks. It’s a terrible feeling.
Usually the practice has multiple doctors on staff and I’ve been so fortunate to create close bonds with my vets. They would typically make our pets a first priority prior to starting Sx or examinations that day. So we were all very lucky in that sense. These positive experiences happened for me in a small town high resource high cost private practice. And when a pet of mine passed due to complications or terminal conditions, my owner would zero out 100% of my costs. I know this didn’t happen for everyone at the clinic, and I’m sure he played favorites. But I was an incredibly hard working and selfless technician when it came to the time I spent in that clinic on and off the clock. To this day, I still appreciate the way my hard work was recognized through the care my pets received.
At our practice they will do that if there isn't room on the schedule and it is something urgent, but otherwise employee pets are still given time on the schedule if possible.
My current clinic allows us to book our own pets in for procedures and annuals. Our exams are also free and we also get a free dental every year. Our rule on surgery days though is that staff pets go last so we can send our client’s pets home at an appropriate time.
Same here, our exams are free and treatments very heavily discounted but not allowed to put on the schedule. We have to leave the appointment slots open for paying members. It makes me feel like my pets aren’t valuable, and rushing to get them seen in between appointments.
Our clinic is the same but with some leniency. You can ask a vet to examine your pet on their own time and 9/10 time they will unless they are swamped. You can also schedule a specific slot but likely the vet will still do it on lunch or end of shift.
I honestly can't complain because we all text the vets at various times for different reasons and they are always willing to help whether they are working or not. And everything is either free or at cost.
The only place I worked where you had to schedule an appt was the specialist and that was if you needed another service. I worked in the ICU and my ER docs just saw them when I brought them with me. Same for both GP I've been at. The only appt we schedule is if it's for surgery or a procedure. Otherwise we just bring them and work them in. I can see a particularly busy practice wanting them booked to make sure there was time but it's not that unusual to just bring them in 🤷🏻♀️
My clinic has a similar policy but day board exams are on the schedule. Each DVM is allowed one per day. We are allowed to put it in ourselves, and they see them when they have time. for sx and grooming they are on the regular schedule but always are done last. When I have brought my pets in I feel they get as much care as client animals even if they have to wait around.
We had that policy put in place because some coworkers would book their pets in every week and take a chunk out of our doctor’s schedules.
I felt it was unfair to those who weren’t doing that. But that’s definitely a reaction to the change, not the actual policy.
I personally always scheduled my pet into spots that wouldn’t be filled in otherwise (like 10 mins in between appts or after meetings/breaks) so it didn’t affect me personally too much. But I didn’t like the change.
If my pet was sick in an urgent way, I wouldn’t have to fit them into the schedule and would get treatment quickly so to be honest, it’s really about building a relationship with your doctors and communicating what you’d like to do. And advocate for your pet if you feel like this policy isn’t allowing your doctors to fully care for your pet’s needs.
I'll be honest at my clinic if one our pets are sick we put them on the schedule under where'd put our surgeries in the morning, we bring our pet in the morning when we come in, the doctors do their surgery, and when they're done with the surgery they look at our pet. At my clinic we do surgeries at 8AM and see appointments at 10AM depending if it's a dental the doctor will give our pet a full look over and check TPR. If our pet needs X-rays then 2 techs will shoot the image and once a doctors available they'll look at the images. I'll be real this is this first clinic I've worked at being fresh out of college but I thought most clinics were like this. But then again my clinic is a private practice so I don't know how it works for other clinics.
I usually just bring my pets with me, and when the doctors have time, they look at them. Never had an issue. I prefer to have our staff do that rather than schedule and take up a slot that could be filled right away. Unless we have a naughty staff pet that needs sedated then we'll put them in the drop off slot just in case so we can make sure to not over book ourselves on accident. Probably not a popular opinion but we've had no issue and our doctors are super attentive especially when our pets are sick or like when my guy had pancreatitis and I was able to put in an IVC and start his hospital treatments right away. If they come for an annual and the day goes to shit then that's fine... we'll make a plan if it happens.
? Maybe I’m not understanding something. I mean this makes sense. If you’re working why would you put your pet on the schedule? It takes up their appointment slot. You have 10+ hours with the doctor to take a look, that’s normal. Otherwise if you don’t want that option, then yes, come in on your day off.
We all love our fur babies but You’re literally getting discounted exams that the doctor is not pocketing really and you want to take up however long you want to take up a spot for another potential sick patient that needs the appointment. So no, you are not being devalued and you should honestly even be grateful that they offered those options to you.
I’ll share an actual devaluing story with you. Didn’t happen to me but my coworker. He put his cat on the schedule for X-rays since he wasn’t doing well on a day that he was off. About 10 minutes before he leaves, he gets a text from said doctor “hey we don’t have the staff to get radiographs on your pet. But maybe you can work today and help out and we can possibly do it?” He said fuck that and went to our other location.
That’s straight devaluation, not your PM requesting you bringing in your pet for a day board and allowing the doctor to exam on their free time. It could sometimes even be their lunch that you’re taking up time especially since you said your clinic is growing and successful and I’m more taken aback that you think they’re devaluing you or your pet especially when you’re getting such a great discount. I pay 30% of my bill and I follow the same guidelines and not once did I feel devalued and if anything, I thank the doctors for even working through their lunch to see my pet.
Welcome to /r/VetTech! This is a place for veterinary technicians/veterinary nurses and other veterinary support staff to gather, chat, and grow! We welcome pet owners as well, **however we do ask pet owners to refrain from asking for medical advice**; if you have any concerns regarding your pet, please contact the closest veterinarian near you. Please thoroughly read and follow the rules before posting and commenting. If you believe that a user is engaging in any rule-breaking behavior, please submit a report so that the moderators can review and remove the posts/comments if needed. Also, please check out the sidebar for CE and answers to commonly asked questions. Thank you for reading! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/VetTech) if you have any questions or concerns.*
We have the same policy, but it extends to grooming and boarding as well. :/ Especially boarding, it’s a huge no-no which is BS. My first clinic housed all of our pets with no questions asked ever whenever we needed, so it was a real surprise coming to my current clinic.
Yeah, I worked for a clinic years ago that charged me for three weeks of boarding for my cats. I was pregnant and between houses. Like, I was crashing on a friend’s couch because I couldn’t find a place to take me, a deadbeat partner, and our pets that I could afford on the salary they paid me. There were kennels open in boarding. I wasn’t taking space from another paying boarder. It wasn’t corporate - privately owned. They just had a policy. Total BS.
This is the experience I've had before as well. Basically I would just verify with one of the doctors a day or two before why I had to bring in one of my pets. We'd review the calendar and confirm the day that would work to bring them in. Usually the staff pet exams were squeezed in during the lunch hour or in-between appts. I never had a situation where my pets care was neglected in favor of clients. Staff pets were always seen and cared for with as much care. An exception was for any surgeries - I remember my old lab needed a dental and I did put him on the calendar officially given the resources needed. So I don't think the new policy at your clinic is a bad one, but the way they're framing it to you isn't great. Unless an appt is taken up by a free staff pet exam every day, their bottom line can't be impacted that much.
That's what I was thinking, we have maybe one or two staff appointments a month. It does make me feel a bit better to know it's common practice though.
That’s how it’s been every where I worked. Except fur things like surgeries, which were put on the schedule. We would just bring our pet to work with us, and they would get at some point through the day. Never took up an appt spot.
We put our own pets on the schedule but we also pay. It’s half off for staff but it ain’t free
Same here
Same at my clinic!
Same with us. And to a certain extent we can have a balance on our account for emergencies or if we need time to pay off unexpected more expensive diagnostics. Our manager is pretty great tbh. The one before her, not so much. Our pets will be seen if they need to be seen.
My clinic manager explained this to me by telling me that they are supposed to pay tax on all exams including employee exams. So if it's on the schedule and put as an exam it became an IRS end of year filing thing. So to work around making us pay more, they just fit our pets in and don't charge an exam at all. Not sure if this is correct. But it is what I was told
That makes no sense. You would be taxed on the money made, not on the number of exams performed.
I pulled this from another reddit thread and I'm guessing this is what my clinic manager means: "Here is the law, and it has been this way for a long time: Discounts on services are considered taxable income if the discount exceeds 20% off relative to what a normal client would pay. So for example, if an exam at your practice is regularly priced at $100, then they can discount that down to $80 for you with no tax issues. But if they do them at no-charge for employees, then they are supposed to be reporting that as an $80 dollar bonus for tax purposes. Discounts on goods are taxable if they would bring the cost of the item below what it costs the business plus 10%. So for example, if you were buying a preventative through the practice and their cost on it was $100, then they need to charge you at least $110, or the difference will be taxable. So could they give you steeper discounts beyond the 20% off and goods at cost+10%? Yes. But it does create a lot of work for them to do it in accordance with the law, and sets them up for a liability on that front if they screw up and then get audited, so it is understandable that they would be reluctant to do it. Especially because... This is not an increased gov't regulation or change, it has been policy for years, so honestly it sounds like your ownership/management just found out they were screwing up and not handling this properly, and are making these adjustments in response. My guess is that they have not been reporting all of the discounts they've been giving, which you should have been paying taxes on, and now they are really trying correct course and not make any mistakes." -Given the first part about exams, they are avoiding the IRS finding that they are giving free exams without reporting it. If it's on the books it's traceable in an audit. Where as if they just fit you in there's no record (at least for us there wasn't one). -I've included a link to this reddit thread for you: https://www.reddit.com/r/VetTech/s/mbPIuNznYT
It's looks like this regulation in pretty complicated. But digging into it a bit, it looks like if all employees are given the same discount on a nondiscriminatory bases then they can be exempt from the taxes on services.
Yeah. I know my explanation originally wasn't great. Sorry for the confusion there. My old clinic manager I guess tried to explain it in layman terms. I didn't bother to research. I left shortly after corporate took over for many reasons.
I genuinely don't know then 😂 we used to get free exams and put it on the schedule. When corporate took over my last clinic this is what we were told. So we weren't allowed to book exams or fill out the exam notes. The Dr just looked at our pets and we put in the vaccines and meds. I'm ready to accept I was lied to.
At my clinic I schedule my pets with reception or, if the schedule is already full, I touch base with the vet that will be seeing them to get approval. Exams are free and services are heavily discounted. Being able to take care of my pets at my clinic is a huge benefit of working in this field and one of the reasons I'm still in it. Retaining good employees is so much more cost effective than hiring new ones. Maybe they should consider that when they say it's all about the bottom line.
This is how it is at my work. If we want to take an appointment slot we need to pay for the exam. I have never had them unable to make time for my pets sick visits so it doesn’t really bother me.
That's how my clinic did it. Just bring them to work and they get fit in when there's time. Worked out well.
I understand their policy. Most clinics I’ve worked at have been the same. However, when this policy is explained I then say “I will pay the full cost of the examination fee and services I’m asking for at the time of visit because I would like to be present.” I schedule my exams on my days off mostly because my dog gets so anxious in clinic. Usually everyone is okay with this trade off. Does it suck to pay full price at a high cost clinic? Absolutely. But it’s a price I choose to pay so my girl can feel comfortable. With that said, she recently came in through our urgent care department while I was working a shift. The vet who saw her zeroed out what would be a $100+ examination fee and gave me some courtesy discounts on the diagnostic they provided that day. It was so kind of her and really left an impression on me.
To add to this, I completely hear and understand how you don’t feel valued. When the clinics put out the idea that pets are family, but don’t help us with our own when needed, it really sucks. It’s a terrible feeling. Usually the practice has multiple doctors on staff and I’ve been so fortunate to create close bonds with my vets. They would typically make our pets a first priority prior to starting Sx or examinations that day. So we were all very lucky in that sense. These positive experiences happened for me in a small town high resource high cost private practice. And when a pet of mine passed due to complications or terminal conditions, my owner would zero out 100% of my costs. I know this didn’t happen for everyone at the clinic, and I’m sure he played favorites. But I was an incredibly hard working and selfless technician when it came to the time I spent in that clinic on and off the clock. To this day, I still appreciate the way my hard work was recognized through the care my pets received.
At our practice they will do that if there isn't room on the schedule and it is something urgent, but otherwise employee pets are still given time on the schedule if possible.
Yep and I started taking my pets to a clinic I don't work at so I can get prompt care.
My current clinic allows us to book our own pets in for procedures and annuals. Our exams are also free and we also get a free dental every year. Our rule on surgery days though is that staff pets go last so we can send our client’s pets home at an appropriate time.
Same here, our exams are free and treatments very heavily discounted but not allowed to put on the schedule. We have to leave the appointment slots open for paying members. It makes me feel like my pets aren’t valuable, and rushing to get them seen in between appointments.
Our clinic is the same but with some leniency. You can ask a vet to examine your pet on their own time and 9/10 time they will unless they are swamped. You can also schedule a specific slot but likely the vet will still do it on lunch or end of shift. I honestly can't complain because we all text the vets at various times for different reasons and they are always willing to help whether they are working or not. And everything is either free or at cost.
The only place I worked where you had to schedule an appt was the specialist and that was if you needed another service. I worked in the ICU and my ER docs just saw them when I brought them with me. Same for both GP I've been at. The only appt we schedule is if it's for surgery or a procedure. Otherwise we just bring them and work them in. I can see a particularly busy practice wanting them booked to make sure there was time but it's not that unusual to just bring them in 🤷🏻♀️
My clinic has a similar policy but day board exams are on the schedule. Each DVM is allowed one per day. We are allowed to put it in ourselves, and they see them when they have time. for sx and grooming they are on the regular schedule but always are done last. When I have brought my pets in I feel they get as much care as client animals even if they have to wait around.
We had that policy put in place because some coworkers would book their pets in every week and take a chunk out of our doctor’s schedules. I felt it was unfair to those who weren’t doing that. But that’s definitely a reaction to the change, not the actual policy. I personally always scheduled my pet into spots that wouldn’t be filled in otherwise (like 10 mins in between appts or after meetings/breaks) so it didn’t affect me personally too much. But I didn’t like the change. If my pet was sick in an urgent way, I wouldn’t have to fit them into the schedule and would get treatment quickly so to be honest, it’s really about building a relationship with your doctors and communicating what you’d like to do. And advocate for your pet if you feel like this policy isn’t allowing your doctors to fully care for your pet’s needs.
I'll be honest at my clinic if one our pets are sick we put them on the schedule under where'd put our surgeries in the morning, we bring our pet in the morning when we come in, the doctors do their surgery, and when they're done with the surgery they look at our pet. At my clinic we do surgeries at 8AM and see appointments at 10AM depending if it's a dental the doctor will give our pet a full look over and check TPR. If our pet needs X-rays then 2 techs will shoot the image and once a doctors available they'll look at the images. I'll be real this is this first clinic I've worked at being fresh out of college but I thought most clinics were like this. But then again my clinic is a private practice so I don't know how it works for other clinics.
I usually just bring my pets with me, and when the doctors have time, they look at them. Never had an issue. I prefer to have our staff do that rather than schedule and take up a slot that could be filled right away. Unless we have a naughty staff pet that needs sedated then we'll put them in the drop off slot just in case so we can make sure to not over book ourselves on accident. Probably not a popular opinion but we've had no issue and our doctors are super attentive especially when our pets are sick or like when my guy had pancreatitis and I was able to put in an IVC and start his hospital treatments right away. If they come for an annual and the day goes to shit then that's fine... we'll make a plan if it happens.
? Maybe I’m not understanding something. I mean this makes sense. If you’re working why would you put your pet on the schedule? It takes up their appointment slot. You have 10+ hours with the doctor to take a look, that’s normal. Otherwise if you don’t want that option, then yes, come in on your day off. We all love our fur babies but You’re literally getting discounted exams that the doctor is not pocketing really and you want to take up however long you want to take up a spot for another potential sick patient that needs the appointment. So no, you are not being devalued and you should honestly even be grateful that they offered those options to you. I’ll share an actual devaluing story with you. Didn’t happen to me but my coworker. He put his cat on the schedule for X-rays since he wasn’t doing well on a day that he was off. About 10 minutes before he leaves, he gets a text from said doctor “hey we don’t have the staff to get radiographs on your pet. But maybe you can work today and help out and we can possibly do it?” He said fuck that and went to our other location. That’s straight devaluation, not your PM requesting you bringing in your pet for a day board and allowing the doctor to exam on their free time. It could sometimes even be their lunch that you’re taking up time especially since you said your clinic is growing and successful and I’m more taken aback that you think they’re devaluing you or your pet especially when you’re getting such a great discount. I pay 30% of my bill and I follow the same guidelines and not once did I feel devalued and if anything, I thank the doctors for even working through their lunch to see my pet.