VHMA Insiders’ Insights Commentary
January 2026
Brittany Yost, CVPM, CVBL, CCFP
Director, Customer Implementation and Engagement, Vetsource
As 2025 came to a close, the VHMA’s Insiders’ Insights KPI Dashboard again highlighted a growing imbalance across the veterinary industry. Overall revenue rose 2.4% year-over-year, supported by increases in revenue per patient (+3.9% for VHMA members and +4.3% for non-members), even as patient visits declined modestly (-1.3% to -1.4%) and new client growth fell 5.1%. In practical terms, practices are doing more within each visit to maintain performance, but are doing so with fewer total visits. This reflects a shift in how growth is being sustained and raises important questions about what that means for the year ahead.
Revenue Is Holding Steady, but Visits Tell a Different Story
Looking at broader industry performance in 2025, the pattern becomes clearer. Revenue has remained slightly positive year-over-year, but patient visits have now declined for the third consecutive year, falling in 2023, again in 2024, and reaching a 3.1% decrease in 2025. While incremental revenue gains can help absorb short-term pressure, continued declines in visit volume point to a deeper challenge. Simply put, maintaining growth becomes increasingly difficult when fewer clients are coming through the door, regardless of how much value is generated per visit.
What's Behind the Disconnect Between Revenue and Visits?
New data suggests that affordability is playing a growing role in client decision-making. Many pet owners appear to be stretching the time between visits, delaying routine care, or making more deliberate choices about when and where they seek veterinary services.
Practices have already begun to adjust. Average price increases were lower this year than in the prior two years, rising 6.57% year-over-year. Even so, revenue growth came in lower, at 5.4%, largely because the number of unique patients declined.
In every recent period, price increases have outpaced revenue growth, signaling that declining visit volume is limiting the impact of pricing strategies. Over time, relying on price adjustments alone becomes increasingly difficult, especially as clients become more cost-conscious.
Wellness and Product Visits Are Feeling the Pressure
When we look more closely at visit types, a clearer pattern emerges. Non-wellness visits have remained relatively stable and, in some parts of the second half of 2025, even grew faster than wellness visits. Meanwhile, wellness and product-only visits continue to decline.
This suggests that pet owners aren’t avoiding care altogether, but they are prioritizing. Urgent or necessary visits still happen, while preventive services and recurring purchases are more likely to be delayed or skipped.
A 3.8% decline in wellness visits points to clients extending the time between annual exams or opting out of preventive care when budgets are tight. At the same time, fewer product-only visits may indicate that medications are being purchased elsewhere, or in some cases, not purchased at all due to cost.
Pricing plays an important role here. Practices with stronger visit growth tend to maintain lower overall costs for basic wellness care, while those with the weakest growth often have higher prices. When prices rise year after year, it can start to affect whether clients stick with routine care, not just how they feel about a single increase.
Why Retention Matters More Than Ever
As attracting new clients becomes more challenging, retaining existing clients is increasingly important. One of the most telling indicators is bonding rates (whether a client returns for a second visit within 18 months of their first).
Practices that successfully bond patients early are better positioned to maintain visit volume, even as affordability pressures rise. Data also shows that hospitals using tools designed to support operations, client engagement, and performance visibility tend to see higher bonding rates and lower lapsing rates, particularly when multiple tools are used together.
Demographics further highlight how economic realities shape behavior. Lapsing patients are more common in lower-income areas, and rates decrease as household income rises. That said, middle-income communities still represent a large portion of veterinary practices, reinforcing that affordability challenges are widespread and not limited to a single segment.
Practice size also seems to matter. Medium-sized practices often perform better when it comes to retention, balancing a broad range of services with a more personal client experience.
Access and Experience Still Drive Loyalty
Staffing trends offer additional insight into what keeps clients coming back. Practices with strong visit growth tend to increase the number of DVMs and expand appointment availability for both doctors and technicians. In contrast, practices with declining visits often experience reductions in DVM capacity, which can make scheduling more difficult for clients.
When it comes to lapsing patients, experience appears to matter as much as access. Practices with the lowest lapsing rates often average fewer appointments per DVM, suggesting longer visits and more individualized care. On the other hand, losing DVM availability while increasing technician appointments may unintentionally weaken the personal connection that many pet owners value.
In an environment where clients are already weighing the cost of care more carefully, convenience, continuity, and relationship all play a role in whether they return.
Moving Forward with Intention
The data points to a clear takeaway: long-term growth will depend less on pricing strategies alone and more on a thoughtful balance of affordability, access, and retention. Practices that focus on keeping care approachable, building strong early relationships, and making it easy for clients to be seen are better positioned to stabilize visits and support sustainable growth.
For those interested in a deeper look at these trends, a full white paper expanding on this data, Turning Trends into Opportunities: Insights to Meet Client Expectations and Increase Loyalty, is available to download for free HERE. The findings reinforce a simple but important idea: aligning care delivery with pet owner expectations supports better decision-making, stronger relationships, and more consistent care over time.
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