Short Notice Cancellation / No Show
You can only enforce fees if we have a signed cancellation policy on file. We send that form to the client at the same time we first send you the patients prescription, but not all will sign it. You are our final assurance to make sure that the form on file. For many patients you will need to get them to sign the form in the first session. You can see if it is already on file by looking in the note system under their prescription detail screen.
I want to document every infraction even if you are going to forgive the fee. Reason being: if there is a pattern, I want to document it, as you will probably be less lenient the more infractions that occur. Please email or text us the time and date of the appointment and the time of the cancellation.
If you want us to help enforce the fee, ideally you could send me a screenshot of the text where the booking was made. They are likely going to make some excuse and the more evidence we have the better.
You can only charge a fee if you notify them a fee is due before their next appointment.
To prevent late cancelations and no shows, we strongly suggest sending an appointment reminder over 24 hours before the session. This allows them time to change or cancel with more than 24 hours notice and avoid fees. If you send a reminder and they still make a change or forget, they really can’t blame anyone but themselves. (One strategy to do this is: every morning, text reminders to all your clients scheduled for the following day.)
You are welcome to have your own cancellation policy that is more strict than ours. You can even take a deposit if you want. As long as all this is clearly communicated to your client. The only caveat is that you cannot charge a work comp patient for the session if they no show; that is illegal. But you can charge them a no show fee to resume treatment.
If the client is late/no-shows/cancels:
Notify me and include date and reason. Tell me even if you don’t plan on enforcing the fee.
Remind the client of the agreement they signed even if you don’t plan on enforcing the fee.
Let me know if you want help enforcing the fee. While we cannot force them to pay, we can withhold treatment by all of our therapists until they do…as long as they have signed the policy.
Regarding other Inappropriate behavior
Please let me know what happened, even if you do not require a consequence. What may not bother you may bother other therapists and we put this in their file for full disclosure. Every instance needs to be documented. Inappropriate behavior includes
being under the influence
anything sexual
mean comments regarding race, sex, gender, etc.
I’m sure there other things, if it makes you uncomfortable, lets talk about it.