20/06/2025
Years of training and hardwork equates expertise in the field. You are not only paying the time spent on you but also the expertise of doctors. Only trust your board-certified MDs in the field.
WHY SOME DOCTORS BILL MORE THAN OTHERS
Title: âJust Five Minutes?â
Mila stormed out of the clinic, clutching the white prescription paper in her hand and shaking her head in disbelief. âFive minutes. I paid â±800 for five minutes,â she muttered, eyes wide with exasperation.
She sat on the nearest bench and began venting to her husband over the phone.
âAlam mo, he just asked me three questions â âSaan masakit? Kailan nagsimula? May lagnat ka ba?â Then he listened to my back, looked at my throat, and wrote this! That was it. I didnât even get to finish explaining everything I googled!â
On the other end of the line, her husband tried to calm her down. âBaka naman magaling âyung doctor?â
âMagaling? E ni hindi ako tinanong tungkol sa diet ko o lifestyle,â Mila snapped. âI couldâve done that myself.â
What Mila didnât see â and what many never do â was the unseen work behind that âfive-minuteâ consult.
The doctor had reviewed her chart the night before, recognizing her name from previous visits. His years of internal medicine practice told him which symptoms pointed to something serious and which ones didnât. He noticed her breathing pattern as she walked in, the slight hoarseness in her voice, the subtle wince when she shifted in her seat.
He asked the right questions, examined the right places, and gave the right treatment â not because he was rushing, but because he had trained for decades to be that precise.
What took him five minutes took him twenty years to master.
And thatâs what many patients donât understand: you're not just paying for time â you're paying for expertise.
Thatâs also why some doctors bill more than others. Itâs not just the title "doctor" that sets the fee, but how much theyâve invested in their training, their subspecialty, their experience, and the accuracy and safety they can offer in return. A more experienced doctor can often make the right call faster, with fewer tests and fewer errors â and that kind of efficiency isnât cheap.
Milaâs â±800 paid for more than five minutes. It paid for the confidence that she didnât need an unnecessary lab, or a wrong medicine, or a week of worrying. It paid for a quick diagnosis made with precision â the kind only possible through long years of study, failures, learning, and patient care.
Sometimes, the best doctors make it look easy.
Thatâs the cost â and the value â of true medical expertise.