re: Charging no show fees

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Your most valuable asset is time. If they waste it, they have to pay

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What if a doc wastes your time? I've left plenty of appointments after waiting 45 minutes in the waiting room. Doctors are typically at least 30 minutes behind, and it doesn't matter what time your appointment is

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And I would be fine to lose your business just as anyone in the medical field would.

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I dealt with an oncologist once whose policy was that if you missed an appointment, you went to the back of the line and might have to wait months for a reschedule. There were enough people that were willing to show up on time to live that he had zero chill.

fricking savage.

It is situational to me as to doctors and whether I would mind a missed appointment fee.

You can tell a doctor who overbooks the second you walk in an office. A glance at the sign in sheet and you see four people scheduled for the same slot and you feel like cattle when you finally go in the back for 30 seconds with the doc. For those offices I would tell them to get bent if they wanted a cancellation fee. It also seems those offices are also the one that hand you the god damned clipboard every time you come in to fill out an encyclopedia of information they should already have.

One exception I would make is an appointment with a surgeon. Their schedules are always interrupted when they have to do unscheduled followups and such at the hospital. It is unrealistic to expect their office visits to be on schedule.

And when I have a physician like my old GP who was willing to spend the time needed with each patient and actually listen rather than check boxes I have little issue if charged a missed appointment fee. A good doctor does not shave time off a patient that needs time and, therefore, would get behind and be late to some appointments.

my only problem with cancellation fees is that businesses don't pay it when they cancel.

The answer is simple. Make a policy and stick with it. Now, you need to make sure the policy is well understood. And if you want to be nice, give everyone 1 or 2 warnings. 1 warning is fair enough, they don’t show, tell them next time you have to charge them and explain why.

Also, if you expect them to not cancel, you cannot cancel either.

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I hope you're not a doctor or dentist because this would quite a ballsy complaint considering most here have probably had multiple experiences with waiting well beyond their appointment time before being called back to be seen by their doctor or dentist.

You give a credit if you're late?

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You do realize that Dr’s take an oath to take care of their patients right? So if a patient goes in for one thing and through some talking the dr notices something else, I can forgive the dr for running a little late die to an unexpected situation with another patient.

I had this exact situation happen years ago with a former GP Id see. He was with a patient and while talking to her she ended up having a heart attack. I’ll admit that I was pretty pissed after waiting over an hour past my appt time but after he apologized and explained what happened, I had no issue.

I have them sign consent for treatment and go over the late cancel fee. I do waive it if I can fill the slot. I only charge $40 fee when most charge the full price of the session.

To me it is... I’ll gladly wait an hour every 6 months or so to have a great MD give me advice. He’s helped me and mine in many ways, and spends extra time when it’s needed.