PURPOSE

Here at Building Blocks Therapy, we pride ourselves in providing exceptional quality therapy. As a clinic we invest in the professional development and supervision of our team to ensure that intervention for children and families is evidence based and of the highest quality possible. However, to support families in achieving goals we know that it is not just about our skill and commitment but also about our partnership and shared commitment with the family.  Therefore, we have an attendance/cancellation policy. 

BACKGROUND

The following principles underpin this policy: 

  • CLIENT OUTCOMES: 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 at regular time intervals.  This helps with consistency and allows all parties to commit to the child’s Occupational Therapy Program, whether this be parent training and education, programs of support, individual therapy etc. It also helps families to organize other appointments or notify school/kinder/childcare if needed. 
  • CLINIC LONGEVITY: We understand that at times, challenging scenarios can happen at the last minute. As a clinic however, there is a significant financial impact when families frequently cancel or miss appointments  and/or there are outstanding invoices.  We don’t want these factors to require us to increase our fees significantly. 
  • FAMILY SUPPORT: Monitoring attendance enables us to be aware of families who might not be engaging in therapy for various reasons, and communicate with them to ensure we are supporting them in the best way possible. 

IMPORTANT DEFINITIONS

  • Attendance: When a child and their family attend the session, are actively engaged, and are willing to try new things in the therapy process. 
  • Early Cancellation The family cancel their appointment by calling the clinic or their therapist at least 24 hours prior to the scheduled appointment.
  • Late Cancellation: The family cancel their appointment by calling the clinic or their therapist less than 24 hours before scheduled appointment. 
  • Missed Appointment/No Show: When a family have not contacted the clinic or the therapist prior to a session and do  not attend their scheduled session. Please note for all offsite/community sessions (e.g. home, school, kinder, childcare) it remains the responsibility of the parent/caregiver to notify Building Blocks Therapy if the child will not be at the agreed location for their scheduled session.

ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENTS:

Below are the expectations for attendance at appointments at Building Blocks Therapy:

  • Maintain attendance of >80% for all scheduled appointments 
  • Maximum of two cancelled sessions per term
  • Maximum of two no shows in a six-month period 
  • Families are on time for sessions
  • Provide notification for a cancelled session

When a family has not met one or more of these requirements, Building Blocks Therapy will bring this to the family’s attention, try to understand why this is occurring and implement reasonable steps to ensure therapy sessions are attended consistently. In the instance where attendance continues to be unsatisfactory, appointments are frequently rescheduled, or a family is frequently late to their sessions, Building Blocks Therapy reserves the right to void the privilege of holding a specific appointment time or end the service agreement and cancel any future appointments. 

Given this, we urge families to be proactive in attending the scheduled appointments and notifying their therapist in advance if they 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.  If the family feel that their child’s session time is not suitable or they need a break from therapy, they are requested to contact their therapist who will work with the family to find a workable solution.

CANCELATION FEES

The following cancellation fees apply

  • Early Cancellation: No fee
  • Late Cancellation:  If family cancel the session by calling the clinic or their therapist less than 24 hours before the scheduled appointment, the family have the following two options available to avoid a cancellation fee:
    1. To change the appointment to a Telehealth appointment, or
    2. To reschedule the session within the fortnight (if therapist has availability). If families are unable to reschedule the session a Full Session Cancellation Fee will apply. To ensure your child does not miss out on the benefit of a therapy sessions, your therapist will use the time of the cancellation to provide 3 activities that you can complete at home to work towards goals set for that period. We refer to these as Parent Directed Therapy Sessions.
  • Missed Appointment/No Show: Full Session Fee and the family will be provided with activities that they can complete at home with their child to ensure progress continues. We refer to these as Parent Directed Therapy Sessions.
  • Special Circumstances: Charges may be waived if the family 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.  Building Blocks Therapy 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.

PAYMENTS FOR CANCELLATIONS

An invoice will be created and emailed to the family following a late cancellation or no show, which is to be paid prior to or at their next scheduled appointment.  If the family is unable to make this payment, they are requested to contact Building Blocks Therapy, 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 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. If a family is unable to pay the cancellation fee, they will need to provide the third party with the invoice for the cancellation fee and the fee will need to be paid by the next appointment (by either the third party or the family).

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.

DIRECT DEBIT OPTIONS

Here at Building Blocks Therapy we understand that families often have a lot to juggle and might forget to pay accounts. We do our best to make paying for sessions as easy and effortless as possible. We us a direct debit system called Payrix to provide all families (except NDIA Managed) the option to have fees automatically debited from a nominated account. Families who are set up with payrix will have cancellation fees processed automatically via direct debit. If families want to discuss a cancellation/no show fee, they are asked to call the clinic and speak to someone on our finance team.

Families can sign  up for payrix to make direct debit payments by calling our clinic

** Please note that in the instance where sessions cannot be delivered face to face, due to conditions out of the control of BBT, the service will automatically be moved to Telehealth consults. The cancellation and attendance policy remains the same.