Pricing an online dermatology consultation is where many practices either undercharge or scare patients off. The instinct is to treat the online fee as a discounted version of the in-person visit, which anchors the price to the wrong thing. An online consultation is a distinct service, with its own cost structure and its own value to the patient, and it should be priced on its own terms.
Start from your cost to serve, not your in-person fee
Before choosing a number, work out what a single online case actually costs you to handle: clinician minutes per case, the share of platform and software costs, and the administrative time around intake and follow-up. Everything above that line is contribution toward overhead and profit, and knowing where the line sits stops you from underpricing by reflex. As an illustration only: if a routine photo-review case takes roughly ten to fifteen clinician minutes plus a few minutes of admin, it is that time — not your in-person fee — that the price should be built on. A well-structured asynchronous case can take less clinician time than a room visit, though not always, since a thorough written response and image review carry their own cost.
Match the model to how you work
There is no single right structure. The common ones each suit a different practice:
- Pay per consultation — simple and transparent; the patient pays for one case. Easiest to communicate and the natural starting point.
- Bundles — an initial consultation plus a defined follow-up window, priced together. Fits ongoing concerns that need review over time, such as a chronic-condition follow-up plan.
- Subscription or care plans — recurring access for ongoing skin concerns. This gives predictable income, but it is only honest where there is genuine continuing value.
Many practices run more than one: pay-per-case as the default, with a bundle or plan for concerns that clearly benefit from continuity.
Price asynchronous and live differently
A store-and-forward case, where the clinician reviews submitted information on their own schedule, has a different time cost than a scheduled live video consultation. Pricing them separately is usually both fairer and clearer for the patient than forcing one number to cover both. Scheduled live time ties up a fixed slot, so it often carries a premium over asynchronous review.
Anchor to value, and say what is included
What the patient actually judges is the outcome and how clearly the offer was set out. Define precisely what a consultation covers — the assessment, the written response, any included follow-up questions and the window for them — and price against that value. A clearly bounded service at a fair price is easier to sell and to defend than a vague one at a low price, and it heads off disputes about what was promised.
Turn follow-ups into recurring value
The follow-up is often the most underpriced part of online care, given away to seem generous and then resented when it consumes time. Define follow-up as a bounded, priced part of the offer — whether bundled into the initial fee or sold separately — so that ongoing concerns become a paid part of the service instead of uncompensated work.
Check the local rules before you publish a price
Payment and pricing for healthcare services are regulated differently across markets: rules on charging, on tax such as VAT, and on how private fees interact with public or insurance-funded care all vary. Confirm what applies where you operate before advertising a price, and revisit it when you enter a new market.
Treat the price as a hypothesis
A launch price is a starting point, not a final answer. Watch how conversion, case mix and follow-up uptake respond, then adjust deliberately instead of leaving the first number untouched because changing it feels awkward. Small, well-communicated adjustments tend to work better than a price set once and never revisited.
Common mistakes worth avoiding
- Reflexively pricing online below in-person, regardless of the actual time each takes
- One flat price for every case type, from a quick check to a complex ongoing concern
- Giving away follow-ups until they quietly erode margin
- Leaving the launch price untouched for years out of inertia
Getting the structure right depends on the systems behind it — scheduling, payments and communication in one place. Our guide to choosing teledermatology software covers that, and the operational side of missed appointments is in reducing no-shows.
