May I pay commmissions or referral fees to dentists or non-dentists for patient referrals?
A dentist may not pay anyone for patient referrals. The intent of this rule is to prevent “cappers” (pardon the expression) from drumming up business and being paid a fee for bringing in a patient. I believe that traditional marketing services (print, radio or TV advertisements, mass mailings, publicly available coupons) are allowed by this rule. See Rules of Tennessee Board of Dentistry 0460-01-.12.
