How to Price Integrative Consultations in Australia

One of the most common questions from practitioners starting or growing an integrative clinic. There's no PBS safety net — so how do you set fees that are sustainable for the practice and fair for the patient?

Pricing is one of the most uncomfortable conversations in integrative medicine. Most practitioners went into this field because they believe in the model — longer consults, root-cause focus, personalised treatment plans. The economics of that model don't work with bulk billing, which means every private practice has to find its own answer to: what do I charge?

There's no single right answer, but there are frameworks that work. Here's how I think about it.

Start with your cost floor, not the market

The instinct is usually to look at what other integrative practitioners charge and anchor there. That's a reasonable starting point for a sanity check, but it's not where the number should come from.

The number needs to start with your cost floor — the minimum you need to charge per consult to run a viable practice.

To calculate this, you need:

• Fixed costs per month: Rent, practice management software, insurance, utilities, admin staff, phone, accounting, CPD. Add everything that runs regardless of how many patients you see.
• Variable costs per consult: Any consumables, pathology ordering costs passed through, printing, etc.
• Your target income: What you need to pay yourself. Be honest — not what you'd settle for, but what makes the model worth running long-term.
• Your capacity: How many consults per day are you willing to do? Multiply by working days per year, subtract holidays, CPD, sick days, admin days. This is your realistic annual consult capacity.

Divide (fixed costs + target income) by realistic consult capacity. That's your floor. Every fee below that number means you're subsidising the business from savings or burning out.

Most integrative practitioners doing this calculation for the first time are surprised by how high the floor is. A practice with $12,000/month in fixed costs, a $200,000 target income, and 800 billable consults per year has a floor of around $380 per consult before tax — before any margin for growth, unexpected costs, or slower months.

Structure matters as much as price

The fee isn't just a single number — it's a structure. A well-designed fee structure:

Differentiates new and returning patient consults. A new patient appointment typically takes 60–90 minutes, involves a comprehensive history, and requires significant preparation and note-writing time. A follow-up appointment is a different product. Pricing them the same disadvantages new patients or undervalues follow-up efficiency — neither of which is good.

Includes a separate item for extended results review. If you routinely review DUTCH panels, comprehensive blood panels, or genetic reports in a dedicated results appointment, that's a distinct service from a consult. Pricing it as a separate item makes the value clear to the patient and protects your time.

Separates script fees from consult fees where appropriate. Some clinics charge a script preparation fee, particularly for compounded medications that require additional documentation. This is common in the US integrative model and increasingly appears in Australian practices. Whether this works depends on your patient mix and positioning.

Has a clear cancellation policy built in. Integrative practitioners have higher cancellation risk than bulk-billing GPs — longer consults mean more disruption when a patient doesn't show. A 24–48 hour cancellation policy with a fee applied is standard. The fee doesn't need to be punitive — it just needs to exist.

The Medicare rebate question

Patients often ask about Medicare rebates. The short answer is that integrative medicine consults typically attract a standard GP rebate if the practitioner is a vocationally registered GP — usually around $42 for a standard consult and up to $79 for a Level C or D consult (36 minutes+).

That rebate doesn't meaningfully offset the out-of-pocket cost of an integrative consult. A practitioner charging $350 for a 60-minute new patient appointment who bulk-bills the Level D item gets back $79. The patient pays $271 out of pocket.

Whether you apply for and issue rebates is a separate question from what you charge. Many integrative practitioners issue Medicare receipts as a courtesy. Others don't, either because they don't hold a provider number or because the administration overhead isn't worth the marginal patient goodwill.

What the market actually looks like

For context: the current range I observe for integrative and longevity medicine practitioners in Melbourne and Sydney is roughly:

• New patient comprehensive consult (60–90 min): $280–$500
• Follow-up consult (30–45 min): $150–$280
• Extended results review (45–60 min): $200–$380
• Brief follow-up or script review (15–20 min): $80–$150

These are broad ranges. Practitioners in capital city CBD locations with strong reputations and waiting lists are at the top end or above it. Practitioners in suburban locations or earlier in their integrative medicine career tend to be in the lower half.

The single biggest predictor of where a practitioner sits in this range isn't their experience or location — it's their confidence in the value they deliver. Practitioners who believe in the model and communicate it clearly tend to price at the top of the market and have strong retention. Practitioners who are uncertain about private billing tend to undercharge and attract price-sensitive patients who churn.

Increasing fees without losing patients

If you've been undercharging and need to move your fees up, the approach that works:

1. Announce a fee increase with reasonable notice. 60–90 days for existing patients is standard. Frame it clearly in a letter or email — "from [date], our consultation fees will be updated as follows."

2. Don't apologise for the increase. A straightforward, confident announcement reads better than an apologetic one. Patients who value what you do will stay. Patients who leave over a $30 fee increase were likely not a good long-term fit.

3. Introduce new patients at the new rate immediately. There's no reason to delay for new patients who haven't established a fee expectation.

4. Do it in one move, not incrementally. Small annual increases of $10–$15 create more friction than a single meaningful adjustment every two to three years. Patients notice the frequency of changes more than the quantum.

The practices that have the most fee anxiety tend to be the ones that haven't tested the market. The reality, almost universally, is that fewer patients leave than expected — and the ones who stay are the ones you most want to see.

Pricing is a business decision, but it's also a clinical one. A practice that's financially sustainable can invest in better tools, more time per patient, and ongoing professional development. Getting the economics right is part of the model — not a compromise of it.

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