Do Most Surgeons Charge a Consultation Fee for Breast Augmentation?

Prior to the 2008 economic downturn, most board certified plastic surgeons charged for cosmetic consultations. After 2008, Plastic Surgeons became one of the few specialites where some of its members did not to charge for their time at the initial consultation or else simply applied it  to the surgeon's fee. The reason is that during the economic downturn a tremendous amount of non-board certified plastic surgeons doing cosmetic surgery did not charge so that the public was directed towards less trained individuals. This circumstance continues to day. Our office presently does not charge for  the first cosmetic consultation but we still charge for reconstruction consultations.

Many surgeon's charge a consultation fee. The consultation fee for a breast augmentation at my office is $75.  That fee is applied toward the cost of surgery when you sign up for a procedure. So, you don't lose the money. If you don't sign up for surgery, then you paid for the surgeon's time.

The rationale for this is twofold. One, if you are serious about having the surgery, then you won' t mind paying the consultation fee to have all of your question answered, knowing that the surgeon is spending time with you answering all of your questions and preparing a plan that is right for you. You and your surgeon together are individualizing the plan that it is right for you.

The second reason is that it greatly decreases the number of short visits and eliminates visits from people who aren't really serious about their consultation. In this way, the surgeon now has more time to spend with his or her patients who want their surgeon to spend a lot of individual time with them and who are serious about having surgery.

The price of the consultation should not be the number one reason for picking a surgeon. Make sure that your plastic surgeon is board-certifed by the American Board of Plastic Surgery.

You may also want to check with your state medical board to see if your doctor is in good standing. I hope this helps.

At our office, we don't charge consultation fees, except when a legal opinion is being rendered.

Each office has their own policy.  Many offices will apply your consultation fee to the cost of surgery, but, of course, that makes it more difficult to "shop around" and compare.

We try to avoid putting any "roadblocks" in the way of our patients - so our consultation is complementary.

In general, most of the surgeons who are in demand charge consultation fees.  Often these fees are applied toward the cost of surgery.  The surgeons who do charge for a consultation tend to spend a lot of time with their patients giving them detailed information on the surgery and answering all their questions and carefully planning their surgery with the patient.  Often, surgeons who do not charge consultation fees may not be seeing the patient during the consult, rather an assistant see a high volume of patients for the consult, and patients that elect to have surgery are then only seen by the surgeon in their pre-op appointment.Best wishes,Pablo Prichard, MD

Each office has a different policy on consultation.  We offer a free, private consultation for our cosmetic surgery patients.