Large Fees and How to Get Them: A book for the private use of physicians. Albert V. Harmon
VIII.
| Getting at Financial Status. How to Ascertain the Monetary Resources of Callers Who Appear Unannounced—Line of Conversation That Will Lead Any Man to Unwittingly Reveal His Financial Standing—Free Examinations and How Smart Specialists Make of Them a Big Drawing Card—Bringing a Caller to the Point of Submitting to an Examination—Means by Which an Impression is Made—Benefit in Keeping an “Assistant” Within Handy Reach—Clinching the Caller as a Patient—Avoiding the Naming of a Definite Time for Treatment—Reasons Why Some Specialists Fail to Obtain Good Fees—Lack of Tact in Getting at a Caller’s Ability to Pay a Reasonable Fee—Crude Tactics that Defeat the Purpose of the Physician—Danger in Too Much Haste and Rash Promises—Modesty Properly Applied the Great Winner | 119 |
CHAPTER IX.
| Deciding Upon the Fee. Value of Psychological Influence in Acting at the Right Moment—Just as Easy to Get Big Fees as Small Ones—Experience of a Young Physician—Great Difference in Patients—An Exhibition of “Gall”—Incubus of the Old Dollar-Fee System—When to Name the Fee and How to Fix Upon the Amount—What the Practitioner Should Say and Do in Order to Secure Large Payments—How Reduction May Be Gracefully Made When a Patient Protests Against the Amount—Dealing With “Tight Wads”—How to Skilfully Dangle the Bait of Health Without Actually Promising Results—Taboo on the Word “Cure”—Bringing the Caller Who Hesitates Down to the Point of Positive Action—System to Be Followed in Deciding Upon Amount of Fee a Patient Will Pay | 131 |
CHAPTER X.
| Getting Fees in Advance. How the Money May Be Secured Before Treatment Is Started—Undue Haste, or Evident Desire to Get the Cash, Bad Policy—Putting the Patient’s Mind in Condition to Make Advance Payment—A Successful Fee Getter’s Line of Talk—Creation of Confidence in the Physician’s Ability and Honesty the Main Factor—Making Sure of Payment When Partial Credit Is Extended—Method of Drawing Notes That Are Readily Negotiable and Non-Contestable—Inducing Patients to Sign Iron-Clad Notes—When and How to Act—Turning Checks and Notes Into Cash—Weeding Out the Payers and Non-Payers—What to Say When a Patient Objects to Signing a Note—Smart Man Easiest to Deal With—Instance in Which a Banker Paid a $2,500 Fee Twice—How a $10,000 Fee, Definitely Settled Upon, Was Lost | 141 |
CHAPTER XI.
| Getting Additional Fees. Patients Who Have Paid Big Fees for Treatment Almost Invariably Good for a Second Payment—Lines Upon Which More Money May Be Had—Men of 50 Years and Over Gold Mines When They Have the Means—How to Handle Them—Dangling the “Sexual Vigor” Bait in a Delicate and Effective Manner—Suggestions of Supplementary Treatments That Bring Additional Fees—Arrangements With Occulists, Pharmacists, Surgeons and Instrument Dealers That Add Materially to the Physician’s Income—How Patients Are Induced to Patronize the Specialist’s Allies—Secret Ciphers That Result in Extravagant Charges—Division of the Proceeds—Adventure With an Undertaker—Doctors Who “Sponge” Upon Their Professional Brethren | 153 |
CHAPTER XII.
| Proper Handling of Notes. Kind of Note That is Negotiable and Easily Discounted—Manner in Which Such a Note Should be Drawn—Defects in Ordinary Form of Promissory Note—Ease With Which Payment May Be Evaded or Delayed—Difficulties in the Way of Enforcing Collection—An Iron-clad Promise to Pay That Binds the Maker—Avoidance of Litigation and Attendant Expense—What to Do With Notes When Taken for Medical Services—How to Dispose of “Paper” to Bankers Who Know the Financial Responsibility of the Signers—Successful Method of a Chicago Physician Who Handles Considerable “Paper”—The Collection Agent Evil | 171 |
CHAPTER XIII.
| Prescribing of Remedies. Why Physicians Should Dispense Their Own Prescriptions—Trouble With Present System of Drug-store Dispensing—Number of Drugs Actually Required in Practice Limited—Duplication of Prescriptions by Pharmacists an Injustice to Doctors—Proprietary Medicine Fakirs—Prescribing Secret Formula Preparations—How Many Practitioners Are Hoodwinked—Positive Injury in Prescribing Remedies by Trade Names—Violation of Code in Using Preparations With Unknown Ingredients—Value of Mystery in the Administration of Drugs—Unwise to Let Patients Know Too Much About Their Prescriptions—Why All Remedies Should Be Designated in Latin—Views of Dr. Osler on Drug Prescribing | 179 |
CHAPTER XIV.
| Medical “Steerers” and Their Work. Method by Which Many Physicians Obtain Patients—Men Who Make a Business of Directing Invalids Where to Go for Treatment—Commercial Diplomats—Their Style of Work—Large Incomes—How Sufferers Are Approached—The Kind of Talk That Wins the Confidence of the Sufferer—Directing the Victim to a Physician—Landing the Patient in the Doctor’s Office—The Steerer’s Commission—How He Protects Himself and Insures Square Treatment by the Doctor—Opportunities for Obtaining Patients—Leading Hotels Favorite Places of Operation—Old Brace Faro Game Worked in New Form—Women Steerers and Their Methods | 187 |
CHAPTER XV.
| What Should the Physician Do? Various Remedies Proposed for Existing Conditions—Too Many Doctors in the Land—Not Enough Patients to Go Around—What the Medical Colleges Are Doing—Over 5,000 Doctors Made Every Year in the Strictly Ethical Schools Alone—Temptations of Young Physicians—What Men Like Dr. Evans and Dr. King Have to Say—Prominent Practitioners Endorse Division of Fees as an Act of Justice—Prof. George Burman Foster on the Profession as Allied to Business—No Reason Why There Should Be Any Distinction Between the Two | 195 |
CHAPTER XVI.
| Corporation Doctors. Evils of the Contract Plan—How It Injures the Regular Practitioner and the Contract Doctor Himself—Miserly Economy by Corporations—Disastrous Competition Among Physicians—Life Insurance Examiners and Their Lack of Business Sense—Moral as Well as Medical Honesty Dwarfed by the Corporation System—Contract Doctors Expected to Hide the Truth to Retain Their Jobs—Beggarly Salaries Paid by Corporations—Practice Wrongfully Diverted from Doctors Entitled to It—Collusion Between Corporation Doctors and Claim Agents—Sick and Injured Employees Often Induced to Sign Away Their Rights by Misrepresentation or Intimidation—The Drawbacks of Promiscuous Fraternizing | 207 |
PREFACE
There are some methods explained in this book which the author does not endorse. They are printed because they are necessary to a thorough understanding of the subject. Newspapers publish reports of murders, but this does not imply endorsement of the crimes.
Aside from these features there are many things which the practicing physician may read and follow to his advantage. The introductory chapter by Dr. Lydston will be found to be of special interest.
THE AUTHOR.
CHAPTER I
MEDICINE AS A BUSINESS
By G. Frank Lydston, M.D.
As a general proposition it is safe to assert that the practice of medicine from a business standpoint is a failure. The successful exceptions merely prove the rule. It is also safe to assume that the elements