Our wise and loving Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, gives counsel and admonition to guide both practitioner and patient in the matter of payment for Christian Science treatment.
In an item titled "Practitioners' Charges" Mrs. Eddy says, "Christian Science practitioners should make their charges for treatment equal to those of reputable physicians in their respective localities."The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 237; from this statement it is clear that Mrs. Eddy expected the charges of Christian Science practitioners to maintain a reasonable relationship with the charges of medical practitioners in the community. However, it is obvious that our Leader did not have in mind the charges of the present-day medical specialist but rather the well-balanced charges of a reputable physician in general practice. Furthermore, the Christian Science practitioner should bear in mind that in medical practice the patient usually sees the physician intermittently. In Christian Science practice the practitioner may be called upon for daily treatment until the problem is solved. Consequently, justice, born of a quickened sense of divine Principle, Love, must characterize the entire proceeding between practitioner and patient.
The fee for Christian Science treatment should be set in the light of local conditions and be arrived at through demonstration. Generally speaking, the practitioner should decide upon an adequate fee and from that basis adjust his charges according to the duration of time over which treatment is requested. Another important factor is the guidance to practitioners that Mrs. Eddy offers in the Manual of The Mother Church: "Also he shall reasonably reduce his price in chronic cases of recovery, and in cases where he has not effected a cure. A Christian Scientist is a humanitarian; he is benevolent, forgiving, long-suffering, and seeks to overcome evil with good." Man., Art. VIII, Sect. 22;
