Average Overall Expense for Office-Based Doctor’s Visit $228, With Range Across Specialty Types, AHRQ Brief Finds

The average overall expense for an office-based physician visit in 2013 was $228, a recently published AHRQ Statistical Brief found. Average expenses – a measure that combines payments made by all sources (primarily insurers and patients) – ranged from $143 to $310 across specialty types analyzed. Researchers used data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) to analyze variations across selected office-based physician specialty types. They found that out-of-pocket payments were made for slightly fewer than half of all office-based physician visits; however, the proportion of visits with some out-of-pocket payments varied across specialty types from 39 percent (for pediatricians) to 61 percent (for dermatologists). The overall average out-of-pocket payment for an office-based visit was $29, with a range across specialty types from $14 to $48. MEPS is unique in its depth of detailed information on the health care services used by Americans and their associated expenditures. Read the statistical brief.