Why do patients try to get my professional advice for free?
Because it is human nature, and you need to stop being surprised by it. People naturally try to build an arrangement where you help them and never get paid for it. Some of that is fine. There are parts of what you do that you give away on purpose, and you systematize where that line sits. But there is a limit, and if you have no system, patients will happily walk you far past it, collecting your diagnosis, your plan, and your reassurance, then taking all of it down the street. This is not malice. It is just how people behave when nobody sets the boundary. So set it. Decide in advance what is free, what is not, and where the conversation stops being a gift and starts being your livelihood. Generosity without a fence is just slow self-sabotage.
If the answers you are finding here resonate with you, my team and I work with a small group of clients each year. The next step is a complimentary Discovery Consultation and Practice Review with Dr. McAnally.