Cancelation Policy and Fees
Read through the full discussion of the Cancelation Policy below, but for brevity’s sake here is the TL;DR:
All independently practicing counselors here have a 24-hour cancellation policy. If you cancel 24 hours or less before your session, a $50 fee applies. No-showing incurs a $140 fee. These fees help ensure your counselor can maintain appointment availability and continue offering their services. Repeated cancels, late cancels and no showing could lead to termination of the counseling services. If you have scheduling concerns, discuss potential solutions with your counselor. For info, and to understand the reasoning on these points, read on.
A cancelled appointment hurts three people: you, your counselor, and another client who could have used your time slot. Counseling sessions are scheduled in advance and are reserved exclusively for clients.
When a session is cancelled without adequate notice, your counselor can’t fill the slot by offering it to another current client or someone on the waitlist. In addition, they are unable to bill your insurance company for sessions that are not kept.
Please understand that counseling should be viewed as any other important health appointment would be viewed. This cancellation policy is important for your counselor because while a medical doctor can see 35 patients in a day, a counselor generally sees a maximum of 6 to 8 clients a day.
Without a cancellation and fee policy in place, your counselor will lose money or the opportunity to schedule another client if you late cancel or do not show up.
Clients can cancel or reschedule an appointment with no fee charge if they provide 24 hours notice. If you cancel an appointment with less than 24 hours notice, you will be charged a $50 fee for the appointment.
Some places you can go for counseling have a 48 hour requirement, some have even earlier notification requirements. Your counselor’s is firmly at 24 hours.
Your counselor reserves for you a full hour of their time for the session and clinical notes. If a client cancels with less than the full 24-hour notice it is not likely that your counselor will be able to fill that time slot, and they lose an entire hour from their work schedule.
You can cancel your appointment by calling and leaving a voicemail with your specific counselor.
The cancellation policy is not a penalty or a punishment. Most clients understand this. Very rarely, there will be a client who will feel that he or she is being punished when they are charged a late cancellation fee. Your counselor doesn’t want you to feel this way, if someday you miss an appointment.
If you are in counseling long enough at some point you might forget about an appointment, or something will come up in your schedule that will result in you missing an appointment. Perhaps you’ll need to work late, or you’ll get a sudden onset of the flu. Maybe your kids will have to get to a doctor appointment, or your car will break down, or something unavoidable will come up.
Your counselor is not upset with their client when they miss an appointment; they understand that’s life. Likewise, clients understand that scheduling an appointment with their counselor is like buying tickets to an event. If you miss the event, it doesn’t matter why you missed it, or even if it was your first time, you can’t turn in your tickets for a refund.
If you are more than 10 minutes late to your appointment time, it will be treated like a No-Show. It’s important to remember that insurance does not pay for missed appointments, so you will be responsible for the full $140 fee, not just a copay.
The only time your counselor will waive fees is in the event of serious or contagious illness or extreme weather or some other unavoidable circumstances. If you are unsure, please contact your counselor for further guidance.
The fee for a Late Cancel session is $50.
The No-Show fee is $140, reflecting the full cost of the time that was scheduled and reserved specifically and exclusively for you.
– If you are a weekly client and you Cancel, Late Cancel or No-Show for three scheduled appointments within a three-month period, the counseling relationship may be terminated and appropriate referrals to other practices will be offered if desired.
– If you are a bi-weekly client and you Cancel, Late Cancel or No-Show for two scheduled appointments within a two-month period, the counseling relationship may be terminated and appropriate referrals to other practices will be offered.
Clients who are unsure if they can commit to counseling appointments scheduled for them should seek services elsewhere. Your counselor may provide referrals, if requested. If you find that you are not in a place in life where you can keep this serious commitment, you may discuss a course of action with your counselor to address this concern.
Potential options may include: switching to Telehealth, adjusting the future scheduled meeting slots to a more suitable time for your schedule, adjusting the frequency of scheduled meetings or ending services until you have more availability to make it to scheduled sessions.
If you have questions or concerns about this policy, please discuss those concerns with your counselor.