The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-11-14
DOCTORS BILLS.
A Company That Collects Money OWING by
Patients and n Possible Reduction In Rates.

Patients and n Possible Reduction In Rates.
"The incorporation of a company to collect
the bills duo to physicians" said a doctor. lis
another step that shows tho remarkable change
which has been gradually taking place in the
business methods Of the profession. Who would
have thought twenty years ago, or, for that
matter, ten years ago, of a Physicians Collec-
ton Company which should have for its object
to collect by suit and otherwise debts and OBJ
legations due and owing to physicians and
other persons. and to distribute among
physicians and other persons from time to
time q record Of the financial condition Of
other persons, and also to distribute among
physicians and other persons records showing
the promptness and readiness of physicians
clients and othcr persons to pay their debts and
obligations due and owing to physicians for SER
vices and also for all other like purposes of the
same general character A physician of repu-
tation in New York twenty years ago would
have been astonished at the proposal of a COM
pany to do any such business. for in those days
it was customary for a doctor to be satisfied
with only a certain share Of the money that was
owing to him. 1t used to be said that the doctor
who was able to collect half of what was owing
to him was fortunate beyond the usual ex-
perience Of his profession.
But that state of affairs has been changing
every year, and physicians have come to look
upon their compensation and the collection Of
the amounts owing to them with the same keen
business sense that men in other occupations do.
and the old idea of being satisfied with only a
certain proportion has long since passed away.
The doctor wants all that he asks for his SER
vices just as any other business man does. This
tendency on the part of the physicians has been
very much strengthened within recent years by
the additional difficulty of collection caused by
the hard times. The recently formed company
marks the final step In the changed methods
of doctors business ways. l should think that
The rate of a physicians charges was usually
based on the anticipation of difficulty and delay
in collecting the bills and with an allowance for
that percentage which might not be collected at
all. With such thorough means OF collection as
the new company contemplates there will be
less money lost. less delay about collecting il.
and the condition of the doctor will be improved
altogether in u business way.
Tho present complaints against tho dispen-
them. afford another reason for a decrease in
doctors rates. Only the other day j heard a
young physician complaining of the difficulties
which a beginner met through the free treat
ment to be had at the dispensaries. !
heard the other day that one of tho
city hospitals had not published any state
ment of its income for several years because its
profits through the dispensary practice had been
so large that 1t would certainly have attracted
faces every young doctor to-day, and IL seems to
me that more aggressive methods in collecting
bills from their patients may. contribute to the
disadvantageous favor in which dispensaries
have come to be held. or lead to a reduction in
the rate of physicians charges