I Will Take It!

I met up with a mentor yesterday to explore various options of building up my practice, what is that phrase? Practice development. It was a great meeting, he gave me some really good ideas and I was excited about everything psychiatry related.

He suggested that I should accept credit cards in my practice for a few reasons, people always carry their credit cards with them, and I won't have to run to the bank every week. Most of all, it removes me from becoming 'the greasy doctor who handles cash.' But boy, I should have taken that guy's cash!

I saw this patient a few weeks ago for a consultation. I should have known better: anyone who demands a meeting immediately will eventually be trouble. The 'access time' to my practice is usually within one week, and if someone can't wait less than seven days to solve an issue that has been going on for years (usually) has some other problems. Alas, I digress. At the end of our meeting, it was time for him to pay me. Even though we had discuss payment via phone, he didn't bring a check. He did, however, had some cash. But not quit enough. He offered me about 90% of the fee, and said he will bring the rest next time. I foolishly said no, that's ok, you can just pay me in full next time. (Note to self, when people offer me money, just take it. Always just take it. Use the phrase: I will take it!) Alas, I didn't want to be the greasy one and be responsible to keep track of how much people owed me.

A few days later, he called and said that he won't be coming back: apparently, I didn't solve his problems (which had been going on for a long time) quickly enough. So now he owes me money.

I sent him a letter requesting payment, so far, it has been pretty quiet. I will be sending out a second notice in a few weeks. In that notice, there will be a paragraph about collection agency, basically, if I don't get paid by a certain date, this account will be forwarded to my contracted collection agency.

That's right. I have a contracted collection agency. They charge me about 30% of whatever they collect, but hey, I can still use that 70%.

And, I should totally pick up a credit card system...