Produced by David Garcia, David E. Brown, Bryan Ness and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Print project.) _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 Page CHAPTER I The Successful Physician 1 CHAPTER II Attitude Toward Debtors 11 CHAPTER III Proper Time to Collect 16 CHAPTER IV Books and Bookkeeping 19 CHAPTER V Letters and Forms 24 CHAPTER VI Statutes of Limitations 31 CHAPTER VII Exemption Laws and Their Application 33 CHAPTER VIII Extracts from Exemption Laws of All States 35 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."