Veterinary Prices Climbed More Than 60% After the Roll-Ups

A decade ago, fewer than 10% of American veterinary practices were corporate-owned. Then the buyers showed up. Mars, private equity, the same MSO paperwork human medicine already perfected. Today the consolidators own roughly a quarter of primary-care clinics and about three-quarters of specialty and emergency hospitals. Together they take about half of all veterinary revenue. Your dog's bill climbed with them. Veterinary service prices rose more than 60% over the past decade.

I am not shocked. The structure was borrowed from us. A management company owns the building, the staff, the schedule, and the bank account. A clinician owns the practice on paper. The fee routes the profit upstairs. The name on the door stays warm and local. The invoice does not.

Production pay. More tests. More wellness plans. One emergency vet described prices rising 20% in a single year after a sale. That is not better medicine arriving overnight. That is a spreadsheet discovering a leash.

I am not anti-insurance. Keep a policy for the wreck. I am anti a clinic that got worse on purpose while pretending nothing changed. Human medicine already ran this play on doctors. Direct care is the other door. Flat monthly fee. Your doctor's name on the door. The number on the door is the number you pay.

60% is not inflation. It is what happens when care becomes a flippable house.