--- title: It Costs You $43 to Sit Around the Doctor's Waiting Room description: A new study estimates that the average medical visit takes 121 minutes and costs $43 in lost opportunities for the patient. authors: - name: Brad Tuttle role: Senior Editor url: https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/ bio: Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals. education: Columbia University School of Journalism, MS at_money_since: 2014 articles: 366 covers: - Personal Finance - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle - https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225 former_staff: true published: '2015-10-06T16:51:00.000Z' modified: '2024-02-23T09:48:42.000Z' section: Personal Finance tags: - doctors - health - Health Care - opportunity cost word_count: 342 canonical: https://money.com/time-money-doctor-visit-healthcare/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![woman in waiting room chairs](https://img.money.com/2015/10/151006_em_waitingroomchairs.jpg) New research published in the [*American Journal of Managed Care*](http://www.ajmc.com/journals/issue/2015/2015-vol21-n8/Opportunity-Costs-of-Ambulatory-Medical-Care-in-the-United-States) estimates that, on average, it takes 121 minutes each time a person seeks medical care. The total includes 37 minutes of travel time, as well as 87 minutes at the doctor's office or clinic. And how much of that time does the patient actually spend in the presence of physicians? Only 20 minutes. The other hour or so tends to be spent doing paperwork, communicating with non-medical office staff, and just plain sitting around waiting. While the average out-of-pocket cost per medical visit is $32, researchers found that patients encountered an even larger penalty due to what's known as "opportunity cost"—the value of work and productivity that the individual might have otherwise been engaged in had he not been spending roughly two hours trying to see a doctor. Researchers estimate that the average opportunity cost of a medical visit comes to $43. In other words, the average trip to the doctor's costs $75 ($32 out of pocket + $43 in lost opportunity), and that doesn't count insurance premiums, which are supposed to help cover one's medical expenses. “Typically, when we talk about how much we spend on health care, we focus on what is paid to doctors and hospitals through co-pays and insurance payments,” said Ateev Mehrotra, an associate professor at [Harvard Medical School](http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2015/10/paying-for-health-care-with-time/) and one of the study's lead authors. “This work helps us put a dollar amount on the significant time it costs people to seek health care.” Researchers were quick to point out that the costs—in terms of time and money—are especially hard for low-income families and workers paid strictly by the hours they clock in. “It’s heartbreaking to know how much time people are spending just trying to get into our doors,” Dr. Adrienne Boissy, chief experience officer at the Cleveland Clinic, said to the [*Boston Globe*](http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/10/05/study-puts-dollar-value-time-spent-waiting-for-doctor/If7KB4aU9mkY5qK8CqDYUO/story.html) after reviewing the study's findings. “Your care can be terrific. If the patient can’t access it, it doesn’t matter.” ***Read Next: How to Talk to Your Doctor About Health Care Costs*** ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/time-money-doctor-visit-healthcare/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Personal Finance", "item": "https://money.com/personal-finance/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Expenses", "item": "https://money.com/expenses/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "It Costs You $43 to Sit Around the Doctor's Waiting Room" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/time-money-doctor-visit-healthcare/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/time-money-doctor-visit-healthcare/", "name": "It Costs You $43 to Sit Around the Doctor's Waiting Room", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2015-10-06T16:51:00.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/time-money-doctor-visit-healthcare/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/time-money-doctor-visit-healthcare/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-02-23T09:48:42.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "It Costs You $43 to Sit Around the Doctor's Waiting Room", "articleSection": "Personal Finance", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2015/10/151006_em_waitingroomchairs.jpg", "width": 2100, "height": 1395, "caption": "151006_EM_WaitingRoomChairs" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Brad Tuttle", "url": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/#author", "description": "Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals.\r\n\r\n", "image": "https://img.money.com/2014/01/Brad-Tuttle.png?w=226&h=247&crop=1", "alumniOf": "Columbia University School of Journalism, MS", "sameAs": [ "https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle", "https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2015-10-06T16:51:00.000Z", "description": "A new study estimates that the average medical visit takes 121 minutes and costs $43 in lost opportunities for the patient.", "abstract": "A new study estimates that the average medical visit takes 121 minutes and costs $43 in lost opportunities for the patient.", "@id": "https://money.com/time-money-doctor-visit-healthcare/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-02-23T09:48:42.000Z", "wordCount": 342, "keywords": [ "doctors", "health", "Health Care", "opportunity cost" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Personal finance", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_finance" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Expense", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expense" ] } ] } ] } ```