>It may be that prepayment is something of a trend in response to a sad >trend of non-payments. I don't know. Yep. I work for a vet in the front office. It truly is amazing the # of people that don't pay, walk out (we've had a few really sneaky ones when we are REALLY busy - we are a walk-in office), etc. The vets get sick of it, and start refusing to do stuff without payment. Now, for emergency stuff, they usually will let people make payments, they understand those things are unavoidable and unplanned, and the finances aren't always there. However, they get so used to it they can also often determine ahead of time those emergencies that won't pay, so that helps. I HATE to turn people away though. It is so sad. >Maybe being well known as reliable helps us get the care needed when it >is needed, but I can see where a practise which had been shorted too many That is a big one. If you are new to the vet its a tough call. If you are longer-time client who's never had a balance, I've found many vets are cool with it. All of the vets I have used have accepted payments on large, unexpected bills. My hit by car dog cost $1600, which we took 4 months to pay! in the meantime they still did our other dogs routine stuff, as long as we paid that at the time of service like always. >provide labor or barter, depending on the area and the situation, to pay >a bill. There simply usually are ways to pay a bill, even if it's not I did this once too! It was neat, she told me i could pay her $75 a week, or work for her a few days a week instead. I chose the work, as it was something i really wanted to do anyhow. :) Sorry, just had to add my opinion :) ~S~ Susan and the Catahoula Gang Always missing those at the bridge Grace It Is, Snowflake, Duke Sammy, Nikki, Oreo, Jake & Duchess http://www.geocities.com/sue_delaney/ **last update 10/27** Feed RAW for healthy dogs! http://www.raw4dogs.com SW Florida Distributor ========================================================== [Posted in FML issue 4055]