Friends and Family : The issue of charging your professional fee from them.

I have been in private practice for over 11 years now and along this journey I have learned several lessons. Some sweet some bitter but they have all made me a better dentist. However one issue that still plagues my mind is how to deal with friends and relatives when it comes to asking for my professional fee as well as treatment charges.

There are two schools of thought when it comes to this. Many of my esteemed colleagues feel that one should let go of the charges when it comes to family and friends. They believe that ours is a profession which is scaled solely on the basis of word of mouth and friends and family, once you do not charge them and do a good treatment,help spread positive word in the society.

However these days the treatment charges in dentistry have gone beyond a level where one can let go the whole amount or just take the material cost. For example if you are doing a full mouth rehab with the help of dental implants or giving someone comprehensive plan of Invisalign the material cost itself will run into a minimum of 1-1.5 lakhs.

I also personally believe that if you are doing specialty practice then almost 50% of your patients will fall in the category of social contacts, friends and relatives. Now for how long can you keep on treating these many patients only on cost to cost basis. It makes no business sense.

So one thing is clear in my mind that no matter what I can never treat anyone on cost to cost basis. I can pass on a certain amount of rebate to them but that too never more than 10% of the total treatment charges. That's it !

The pain of getting treatment charges collected from your friends and family.

I have also experienced that there are few friends and relatives who are very particular about payments and are very punctual at that.

While there are others who will not pay on time and will also take it on ego and react in a manner unworthy of them when they are reminded by your staff about the due payment.

I have had friends who have taken it otherwise when they were politely requested to make a payment of Rs 5000 which was due after their parents root canal treatment. "Your staff should know that no-one likes to be reminded for such a small sum of Rs 5000."

I have also had patients who have asked for a discount on an Invisalign package of 1.5 lakhs which is anyway a rock bottom price that any clinician can give them.

So instead of more discount I usually give them the option of paying in parts so that it becomes comfortable for them and it is made very clear to them on a written form when and at what stage the part payment is to be released.

In such a case also the patient's husband or father will tell the staff "Ill speak to doctor saab directly" when they are reminded of the payment to be made on the before mentioned stage of the treatment.

I find it unpalatable that when you know about the exact amount as well as the stage of the treatment when payment is to be made then why would you play these little games with the innocent clinic staff who is just doing his duty.

To friends and family anything written on paper also doesn't make a difference be it the payment terms or any vital information related to the treatment.

When anything happens like the issue of due payment or some information that was communicated to them related to their treatment they will simply state "We trust you so much that we just blindly signed it without even reading it" and even after all the efforts of making things clear when things go south the problem is always with the communication policies of the clinic and not with the dear friend or relative who was all so sweet till the time that payment due reminder phone call or message was sent to them.

I am yet to find a good solution to this daily problem in my clinic.

I must add here that otherwise in the practice most of the patients either pay on time or beforehand. It is only some percent of family and friends that create that mental agony which occurs when you do not know how to handle the situation because on one side it is your dear friend and on the other side it is that pending bill that needs to be paid.

What do you do in these situations?

Do comment and let me know !