How to Collect a Doctor Bill Part 3

during his present illness.

When some corporation or other responsible party calls you up and wants you to attend some one, have them sign the card, then they will be bound to pay if the patient fails to do so. The person representing a corporation should sign, as in many cases they have no authority to bind the company.

CHAPTER VI

LIMITATIONS.

The following table gives the time an account or instrument of writing, (note, judgment, etc.) will survive before becoming "out-lawed" by the statutes of limitations in the several states.

Open account Note Judgment years years years

Alabama 3 6 20 Alaska 6 10 Arizona 3 Arkansas 3 10 California 4 4 5 Colorado 6 6 6 Connecticut 6 17[1]

Delaware 3 6 Florida 3 5 20 Georgia 10 6 7 Hawaii 6 6 20 Idaho 4 5 6 Illinois 5 10 10[2]

Indiana 6 10 20 Iowa 5 10 20 Kansas 3 5 5[3]

Kentucky 5 5 15 Louisiana 3 5 10 Ma.s.sachusetts 6 20 20 Michigan 6 10 Minnesota 6 6 10 Mississippi 3 6 7 Missouri 10 Montana 6 Nebraska 4 5 Nevada 3 4 6 New Hamps.h.i.+re 20 New Jersey 20 New Mexico 4 6 7 New York 10 20 North Carolina 3 3 10 North Dakota 6 6 Ohio 6 6 15 Oklahoma 3 5 Oregon 6 6 10 Pennsylvania 6 6 20[4]

Rhode Island 6 20 20 South Carolina 6 6 20 South Dakota 6 6 20[5]

Tennessee 6 10[6]

Texas 2 4 10 Utah 4 6 8 Vermont Virginia 2 5 10 Was.h.i.+ngton 6 6 West Virginia 5 5 10 Wisconsin 6 10 20 British Columbia[7]

Manitoba 6 10 Wyoming 8 5 10 New Brunswick 6 6 20 Nova Scotia 6 20 Ontario 6 10 Quebec 5[8] 5 Mexico 1 3

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Promissory note not negotiable.

[2] Justice Court. Court of Record, 20 years.

[3] Judgment may be kept alive by issuing execution every five years.

[4] May be revived by proof of non-payment.

[5] If judgment is from any other state, 10 years.

[6] "Where the statute of limitations of another State or government has created a bar to an action upon a cause accruing therein, while the party to be charged was a resident in such State or under such government, the bar is equally effectual in this State." (Code (M. & V.) Sec. 3481.)

[7] "All actions for debt upon any recognizance, shall be commenced within twenty years after the cause of action arose."

[8] "Surgeon's, physician's and dentist's accounts dating from the time the services or medicine is supplied."

This table is as near complete as we are able to make it at this time.

The laws are changed frequently. This is accurate enough to enable any physician to look over his books and find what per cent. of his accounts have outlawed by his failure to enforce payment.

Remember that a payment, however small it may be, will revive an account, even after it has become outlawed. Hence the advisability of getting small payments at every opportunity. These payments should be less than one year apart, as some States do not consider payments made over one year apart.

Under the Oklahoma law a foreign judgment is limited to one year. In West Virginia a foreign judgment against a person who has been a resident of the State for ten years is barred.

A similar clause to the following, taken from the laws of the State of Was.h.i.+ngton, is incorporated in the acts of nearly all States, and may be considered as a general rule:

"In an action brought to recover a balance due upon a mutual, open and current account, where there have been reciprocal demands, the cause of action shall be deemed to have accrued from the time of the last item of the account proved on either side, but when more than one year shall have intervened between any of a series of items, they are not to be deemed such an account."

Thus, if you do practice for a person, and a year elapses and you again attend him, you cannot combine the two as one account, and enforce collection by law.

CHAPTER VII

EXEMPTION LAWS.

Before starting a suit to collect money due you, carefully read up on the exemption laws of your State. After carefully considering the matter you will find that a judgment, if obtained, will avail you nothing, should the debtor elect to take advantage of the exemption allowed him by law.

Some States are very liberal in the amount of property a man may hold which is exempt from execution on a judgment for indebtedness. Take for instance, the State of North Dakota, where the head of a family may hold a homestead and personal property to the value of $6,450, and in case the head of the family should die, and was insured, the widow and children could hold an additional $5,000 of life insurance money, making a total exemption of $11,450.

Delaware is the only State that has made a special provision for physicians in any manner. Here the statutes provide that a physician's bill shall be a preferred claim for services in the last illness of the patient.

In nearly all States the exemption runs to the widow and minor children.

This is so general a rule that I have not included that part of the statutes covering this phase of the law. There is no exemption against money due on mortgages, for the purchase price of property, for manual labor or taxes. Tennessee also provides that there shall be no exemption on fines for failure to work the roads, for voting out of the district the voter lives in, for carrying concealed weapons, or for giving away or selling intoxicating liquors on election day.

Rhode Island exempts wages due or accruing to seamen.

Pennsylvania does not exempt the homestead, and personal property to the value of three hundred dollars only is exempt. The chances to collect a bill in Pennsylvania are better than in any other State, so far as the exemption laws are concerned.

Oregon exempts one gun or revolver to each white citizen over sixteen years of age, in addition to the other exemptions.

Public buildings owned by the State or munic.i.p.ality are always exempt.

Other buildings are not exempt against liens for material or labor used in their construction.

The exempt property may be selected by the debtor, or on his failure to make such selection, some States permit the wife to make the selection, but in case no selection is made, the proper officer will make the selection for them.

The exemption of estates generally runs until the youngest child is of age. Judgments usually expire in twenty years or less if not renewed.

Hence you will see that the attorney's fees that you will have to pay to secure judgment will generally be worth more to you than the judgment, if you have to wait so many years to satisfy it.

CHAPTER VIII

EXEMPTION LAWS.

The following extracts from the statutes of the various States gives the exemption laws in so far as they apply to the collection of accounts.