There are different ways to approach revisions and different policies are used:
- My current policy is as follows: prices for primary surgery are reasonable and if revision surgery comes into question, I approach every case individually and try to offer reasonable prices for my patients. Patients have to cover expenses what include salaries of other personnel but not me, house expenses, anaesthesia, materials, medicines etc. In most cases, I personally carry some of the expenses and make any profit. This is a policy that many of my colleagues also practice. Disadvantage of this policy is that if a patient needs revision, she/he feels frustrated. There is always a question “Why me?”
- Some surgeons offer free revisions. However, it’s clear that somewhere money for revisions has to come. It means their prices for primary surgery should be significantly higher. You have to add some of the revision expenses to every price offer. Disadvantage for this policy is that if there is something you can get for “free” then people tend to overuse this option. It leads to too many unnecessary surgeries. These surgeons risk to spend their days correcting millimetres, some tiny change here another there.
- Some surgeons use a modification of variant 2. and they offer a guarantee package. Patient can take primary surgery with or without guarantee. If you take primary surgery without guarantee, then for revision applies variant 1. If you take with guarantee, then variant 2. Disadvantage of this policy is that you can never guarantee the result neither for primary nor revision surgery and there is always a question how many revisions this guarantee includes and how long is the guarantee period.