“How is this fee to be paid, Doctor?” “In advance,” the doctor will reply in a mild, it-doesn’t-matter manner. “Isn’t that rather hard on the patient, Doctor?” “It is the only way in which we can protect ourselves. If we extended credit indiscriminately many patients, when assured that they were well started on the road to recovery, would disappear, and it would require long, expensive litigation to collect from them, even if we could get service on them here, which is doubtful. The average man, Mr. ——, has a queer idea about the obligation of a doctor’s bill. It is the last thing he will pay 142voluntarily, even when almost miraculous benefits have been obtained.” “Don’t you ever extend credit?” “Oh, yes. When assured of a man’s financial responsibility and honest intention, we are glad to accommodate him in a reasonable way if it is inconvenient for him to pay cash.” In this, as in naming the fee, the physician must create the impression in the mind of the subject that payment of the fee is about the last thing he is thinking of. There must be no anxiety, no undue haste to get the money—at least not so that the patient can notice it. Switching the conversation for a few moments back to the case itself, in order to get the patient’s mind diverted, the doctor will finally say: “Now, in your case, Mr. ——, if it is any object to you, I can arrange for you to pay the fee monthly. If this is satisfactory you can pay $150 a month while you are under treatment.” “How long will that be, Doctor?” “I don’t know. Certainly six months, perhaps twelve, and possibly longer. Nobody can tell in advance how a chronic ailment like yours will respond to treatment. It is very seldom that we have two cases exactly alike in this respect. If there is such a thing as striking an average I would place it at about ten months.” “Would I have to remain here all that time?” “Oh, no. A month or so, should be sufficient. May be less. Just long enough to allow me to get the treatment graduated to meet the requirements of your case. Then you may return home and continue it there. It would be 143better, of course, if you could stay here the entire time, but there is no real necessity for it.” “On the basis of ten months it would cost me $1,500?”