CANCELLATION POLICY FOR FAMILIES
DEFINITION:
Early Cancellation: The family cancel the appointment by calling the clinic or their therapist 24 hours prior to the scheduled appointment.
Late Cancellation: The family cancel the session by calling the clinic or their therapist but with less than 24 hours remaining before scheduled appointment.
Missed Appointment/No Show: When a family do not turn up to the session at the clinic, don’t notify therapist of absence at school /kinder or childcare for any reason, are not at the agreed location to receive a scheduled support and don’t contact clinic or therapist prior to session.
PURPOSE:
At Building Blocks Therapy, we know that regular therapy requires a high level of commitment from all parties involved.
We do our best to ensure that appointments are booked on a term-by-term basis and we enjoy being able to offer families the same day/time for each appointment. This regular booking helps with consistency and allows all parties to commit to the child’s Occupational Therapy program and goal achievement. It also helps you to organize other appointments or notify school/kinder if needed. As we have put this time aside for you, we do ask that you let us know should you not be able to attend any of the appointments 24 hours prior to your session to avoid a cancellation fee.
While we understand things come up, as a clinic we are unable to afford the cost of the high volume of cancellations and/or missed appointments without increasing our fees significantly. We therefore urge families to be proactive in attending the scheduled appointments and notifying therapist in advance if you are unable to attend the appointment. Please note that it is also the responsibility of parents to notify school/kinder/childcares if their child is having sessions at any of these locations.
The following cancellation fees apply:
Early Cancellation: No fee
Late Cancellation: $50 cancellation fee
Missed Appointment/No Show: Full session fee
NDIA managed clients please note that NDIA Price Guide suggests specific policies regarding cancellation depending on the notice given. Please refer to your personalised service agreement with Building Blocks Therapy.
Building Blocks Therapy reserves the right to void the privilege of holding a specific time for families who repeatedly do not attend or cancel their appointment, regardless of the amount of notice provided. We will always discuss alternative booking options and be supportive and understanding where possible, so we urge families to call and let us know about exceptional circumstances, so we can do what we can to come to an arrangement that suits all parties.
Special Circumstances: Charges may be waived if the customer has experienced a catastrophe, e.g. emergency hospitalisation or a death in the family. The decision to waive the charge in extenuating and emergency circumstances will be made by the director of Building Blocks Therapy at their discretion. The decision not to charge does not apply in any other circumstances and is not exercisable by other staff.
PAYMENT FOR CANCELLATIONS:
An invoice will be created and emailed to you following a late cancellation or no show, which is to be paid prior to or at your next scheduled appointment. If you are unable to make this payment, please let us know when we make contact as payment plans can be provided in special circumstances.
Use of NDIS for missed/cancelled appointments:
• Please refer to your personalised service agreement with Building Blocks Therapy.
Use of Third Party funding (e.g. Anglicare, Care Connect) for missed/cancelled appointments
• For all clients that have appointments paid by an outside organisation, Building Blocks Therapy have a responsibility to all of these organisations to use the funds for therapy and be accountable to outcomes. For this reason, most of these organisations will not fund cancellation fees. In the event you are unable to pay the cancellation fee yourself, you will need to provide the third party with the invoice for the cancellation fee yourself and the fee will need to be paid by the next appointment (by either the third party or yourself).
Use of DSS funding for missed/cancelled appointments
• If you use DSS funding to pay for your child’s Occupational Therapy sessions, they do not cover any cancellations. Any missed appointment fees will need to be paid for out of pocket.
Use of Medicare Plans for missed/cancelled appointments:
• Medicare plans can only be used for Occupational Therapy sessions when the child is present. Medicare Rebates are unable to be used towards missed or cancelled appointments. The cancellation fee will need to be funded privately in full.
For all sessions at Building Blocks Therapy a credit card from the person responsible for payment is required as security. No payment will be applied to the provided credit card unless the account reaches 30 days overdue. Building Blocks Therapy will proceed to charge the outstanding amount without notification to the provided credit card if the account remains outstanding. If for some reason we are not able to deduct the amount from the provided credit card Building Blocks Therapy reserves the right to engage a debt-collecting agency, which may result in legal action.