These are difficult economic times, not only for patients but for physician practices.

Most patients do their best to pay their bills, and doctors and hospitals do their best to institute reasonable payment plans.

However despite all the help that’s offered, there is a small proportion of patients who “brazenly withhold payment as if they can do it with impunity.”

Sending delinquent accounts to collections is often the choice of last resort. “I think it just feels wrong,” says this urologist, adding, “as a human being, I can understand that difficult choices that many people face in deciding where to spend their hard earned yet meager wages.”

But sometimes there’s no choice, and it’s a step done very reluctantly by the medical community.