Introduction: The rising cost of healthcare in Singapore has resulted in calls for greater price transparency. Similar to the GP (General Practitioner's) Fee Surveys done in 1996 and 2006, we undertook another one in 2013 to investigate the change in GP fees and GP operating costs over the years.

Methods: The 2013 GP Fee Survey involved 992 GPs and solo clinic practitioners. Results from the 2013 GP Fee Survey were compared against the 1996 and 2006 GP Fee Surveys. The Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) was used to reflect the change in price data over the years and compared against the CAGR of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and CPI-Health over the same periods.

Results: 113 participants (11.5%) responded. Between 1996 and 2013, the CAGR for CPI was 1.84 percent and CPI-Health was 2.97 percent. In comparison, the CAGR for the median patient fee was 3.12 percent; staff salary was 1.95 percent; property cost was 2.47 percent; and total monthly practice cost was 9.21 percent.

Conclusion: Between 1996 and 2013, the rise in patients’ fees matched the rise in CPI-Health but the rise in practice cost outpaced CPI-Health by more than threefold. However, the low response rate limits the generalisability of the data.