Fact: It costs $43 of your time to visit the doctor’s office

…before the co-pay

That’s according to a new study in the American Journal of Managed Care that looked at the opportunity cost of getting to an appointment, sitting around waiting, and spending time with the nurse, front office staff, and doctor.

All of that adds up to 121 minutes: 37 minutes of travel time and 84 total minutes in the clinic, only 20 of which are spent with the doctor. The $43 figure comes from the time lost that might be spent working. A few notes:

The average co-payment is $32, according to the study. That means it ‘costs’ more to go to the doctor than it does to pay for seeing the doctor, and the average overall cost is $75 of spent and lost earnings.

Of course, these sorts of studies tend to raise eyebrows because they’re approximations — in this case, based on self-reported data, economic models, and a bunch of public survey data. But it’s still an important statistic — because it comes down to access:

• While many employed folks get paid time off for their medical appointments, there are many who don’t — those who are unemployed, working to make ends meet, receiving public assistance with insurance, and so on. The key takeaway is that paying for people’s insurance doesn’t mean they will automatically be able to afford to see the doctor.
• Transportation: 37 minutes of travel on average does not describe challenges of using public transportation, or paying for gas, or scheduling rides in between commitments to family or work.
• Location: Where doctors offices are located matters a lot for patients. Location impacts overall costs, directly and indirectly. Compared to urban areas, rural areas have fewer doctors that are spread out further. And even in cities, access fluctuates based on gentrification and suburban development, wacky network coverage of which insurers will pay for which facilities, and more.
• Scheduling: On-demand self-scheduling is becoming more common (one in five visits, according to Accenture) but the wait times for visits remain high across the country, and they vary even more by specialty.

All of this adds up to one simple takeaway: As the forces of consumerism collide with healthcare, it remains critical for innovators, policymakers, and yes, even (especially) doctors and system administrators, to take into account all of the dimensions of peoples’ lives that go into planning a visit, regardless of (and based on) their age, race, gender, location, insurance status, transportation preferences, medical needs, and more.