Tuesday, July 29, 2003
(1:33 PM) | Adam Kotsko:
Collecting Money
Effective immediately, at work we are going to become more strict about taking payments. In fact, in some circumstances, we will require prepayment or else turn patients away. I am not comfortable with this for several reasons.
- Personality Flaws: I do not want to confront people about money. I am "in charge" of collecting payments, but I have made it known on many occasions that if a patient becomes at all problematic, I'm just going to pass the buck to someone else. In other words, I am "in charge" (in my own mind) only of payments voluntarily offered to me. I have a recording function, not an enforcement one.
- Deeply-held Beliefs: This is because I think the entire regime of paying for necessary medical treatment is neither a moral nor a practical way to handle the problem of public health. I honestly don't care if people pay or not, because I don't think they should have to pay at all. It makes my job a little easier if they do, and it gives me something to do, but as I said, if a patient becomes a "problem," I wash my hands of the whole affair. I'm in favor of just writing off a patient's account if they fail to pay long enough, instead of sending them to collections. If they put me in charge of that part, that is what I would do, until they fired me.
- Resentment: All this controversy has arisen because the owner of the business, who is also the main draw for patients, has taken the summer off. Business would be bustling, as usual, if he were here, and the same old loosey-goosey policies would get us our paychecks just fine. But since he left, everyone has had to take cuts in hours, everyone has felt as though her job is in danger, and now we have to start being jerks to the patients. I don't have the exact figures, but I'm fairly sure the good doctor has gotten about the same wage -- for doing nothing. The man's probably a millionaire at about age 50, and he wants to nickle-and-dime everyone else because profits aren't as high at the moment. It's capitalism at its finest, right here in Bourbonnais.
And so, as even more changes in office policies were introduced, to make a tense office more tense, I asked, in an unrelated note, "When does the school year start up again?"
