[jessaustin]

I work in Europe so the situation is somewhat different here as insurance is used by a very small percentage of patients compared to the US...

I'm jealous of this. Most of our problems come from dealing with insurance.

...99% of other offices do not make patients pre-pay...

This is interesting. By "pre-pay", you mean "pay on the same day that work is done"? Expecting payment afterward seems destined to lead to an untenable collections situation, especially with poorer patients.

[freedom_dev]

Usually patients pay on delivery, so for treatments like a filling it would be the same day that work is done. For lab work such as a mouth guard, they don't pay when we take impressions but rather when the work is delivered

[jessaustin]

Yeah, that's a tough one. Actually many insurance plans (and Medicaid) say they only accept claims for multi-visit procedures after they're totally done, and we generally follow that rule for insurance. With private-pay patients, however, we've always said pay half at the first visit and half at the last visit (so there's no payment at e.g. a wax try-in). Some patients complain, but I just smile and explain that I can't change the rule.