HOW TO COLLECT
A DOCTOR BILL

BY

FRANK P. DAVIS, M. D.

Secretary Oklahoma State Board of Medical Examiners, 1908-11. Superintendent Oklahoma State Institution for Feeble Minded, 1910-11. Member County, State and American Medical Association. Member American School Hygiene Association. Member State and National Eclectic Associations. Member Oklahoma Association of Charities and Corrections. Member Oklahoma Press Association. Member Southwestern Medical Association. Late Editor Davis' Magazine of Medicine, Etc.

Publishers
PHYSICIANS DRUG NEWS CO.
NEWARK, N. J., U. S. A.
1913

COPYRIGHT 1913 BY
FRANK P. DAVIS, M. D.

Contents

PREFACE

My excuse for presenting this little book to the profession is that I have often felt the want of just such information as is herein contained. In fourteen years of practice I have made it a point to study my patients and the business problems that confront the man in our profession. Some of the things that I have learned are embodied in this book. Taking my professional experience as a whole I have collected over ninety per cent of my accounts.

If this book shall be the means of causing any physician to study the business side of professional life, and get what is due him, I will feel that I have not worked in vain.

Enid, Okla., June 6, 1912.

FRANK P. DAVIS, M. D.

CHAPTER I

THE SUCCESSFUL PHYSICIAN.

A man with a bulging forehead once said that "Life is what you make it." This is very true in the profession of medicine. The successful physician must live in the manner of successful men. To do this, most men must live upon the income from their practice. If the physician properly cares for his wife and children, he must realize on his investment—his medical education. A man's first duty is to his own, and it is written that the man who fails to collect that which is due him, and "provides not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, is worse than an infidel."

To successfully conduct any enterprise it is necessary to adopt business methods. System is the key-note of modern business, and the simplest system is the best. A cash system is by far the simplest.

No man can succeed in practice, nor can he be considered a safe medical adviser so long as he is handicapped by poverty, a worried mind or poor health; or if he is compelled to dodge around corners to escape his creditors.

There are men who tell us that they are not in practice so much for money as for the glory and honor of the profession. If these men are sincere, I pity them from the bottom of my heart, and feel sorry for their wives and children. Nor can I understand where the profession can gain much honor from men who are financial failures. Not that money is the only thing for which we should strive, but that the man who provides not for his own, cannot be representative of the noble profession of medicine. Also, I have observed that the path of glory leads in the direction of the cemetery, and checks on the National Bank of Fame are generally protested when the rent comes around.

The applause and compliments of the multitude are no doubt sweet, but it only lulls to rest the voice of duty, and fails to provide sustenance for those dependent upon us. Man cannot live on air alone—even though it be flavored by the ambrosia of sweet compliments and the hypnosis of applause. Again, I have observed that a larger crowd will turn out any time to see a man hung than to compliment him on a duty well performed.

The man who answers calls at all hours of the day and night, for any and every one who may request his services; with no assurance of ever receiving pay; and who is afraid to demand settlement for fear of losing practice, is not competent to conduct his own affairs, much less to practice medicine. It is this class of men who make dead-beats of our patrons, and thus reduce the income of physicians to a point where a bare existence is all we can hope for.

To be a safe medical advisor requires that the mind be free from the petty cares of life. He should live in a manner in keeping with the dignity of the profession to which he has given his life. He must have a neat office, wear good clothes, have a happy home and a contented mind.

It is well to achieve the reputation of being an indefatigable and shrewd collector. It pays. It will