Doctor's offices usually charge a fee if you don't show up for your appointment. There are a handful of people in this world that respond to these fees by saying "I should not have been late. I apologize. It was my fault. How much do I owe?" Most other people make excuses and try to get out of the extra fees. "Traffic was bad. My kid was sick. I got stuck in a meeting. I just forgot." These are the things they say, and they expect them to work. I used to give these excuses too. I expected service providers of all kinds to be flexible to my needs… until I ran a business that relied heavily on scheduling.
It is very difficult to schedule labor when your customers show up at random, so like most businesses, we instituted policies to deal with absences. I came to view the situation in a very different light.
There was too much traffic? You should have left earlier.
Stuck in a meeting? So was I, but I ended it to meet you like we agreed.
I never felt good about imposing the penalties, and it was a rare customer who agreed to pay them without an argument.
A few weeks ago I started going to a new doctor, and was made to sign a document explaining their late fee policy. It was unique. If you miss a scheduled visit, you are charged a $20 fee. If you are late by more than 10 minutes, that qualifies as a missed session. But the doctor's office doesn't keep the money. All money from late fees is donated to the local children's hospital.
I haven't missed a visit, but if I did, I can't imagine arguing with the penalty. I think it's brilliant. It turns the debate from a me vs. them fight for my money to a decision about whether to give money to a third party charity. In essence, it diffuses customer anger while still imposing a penalty. It reminds me that innovative solutions to business problems do exist, but they sometimes require you to step a little bit outside the lines of conventional wisdom.
How about turning it around: maybe doctors should reimburse the patient for the value of his time if waiting time is more than a certain reasonable value.
And if you arrive on time and the doctor isn’t ready to see you for 10 minutes, does he make a donation?
I’m all for late fees that go both ways — my time is valuable, too.
Though its a good idea to donate the money that they charge from patient but what if Doctor’s miss out an appointment. Is he gonna pay the money for charity? tell me
What others said about doctors! I don’t need more than one hand to count the number of times in the past 4 years my doctor has run on time and my being sometimes even as long as an hour or so late would matter. We’ve even had late appointments that were the first of the day, though that’s safer than most, and not likely to be an hour or two behind.
I’ve also never heard of a late fee from someone like a doctor; only a missed appointment being charged as if it happened if you failed to cancel ahead of time – technically 24 hours notice required. I’ve never thought that was objectionable.
I would expect that an hourly professional could charge from the scheduled time if he is there and the client isn’t yet.
I like the charity angle you described.
My new business is likely to involve scheduling, and requiring people to be present at a specified time, so it’s food for thought. But it’s complicated by the fact that when an appointment ends will be unpredictable and there will be unscheduled emergency calls involved. That’s among the many details percolating as I informally plan things out.
Wow, lots of scorned patients out there. I guess there should be a flip side, but I didn’t think about it because I’ve never had to wait more than a couple of minutes at this office.
It reminds me of that Seinfeld episode where George gets charged a fee for not canceling with a 24 hour notice, then when the Dr. cancels, he tells them he requires a 24 hour notice too.
I second the previous commnets about making the fees reciprocal.
Another would be changing fees to the compnaies (at least one a month, often tow or three) the fould up my billing, ALWAYS in their favor.
I run a surgical clinic, and I can’t tell you how many times a new consult for surgery decides to cancel his or her appointment.
The problem is that they’ve taken up time. We’ve had to check with their insurer to determine eligibility and also any copayments or deductible, we’ve taken all their demographics over the phone upfront (because we run a paperless office), and we’ve arranged to have their records or test results sent in. When a patient decides not to show up the problem is we’ve spent a lot of time preparing for their visit, which translates into staff time, which after all, is money.
The other problem when they cancel is that they’ve taken up the time that could have been given to someone else who is equally or in greater need of requiring an operation. That’s right. There’s a list of people who need to get in, and by blowing us off, you’ve inadvertently delayed someone else’s consultation and also their surgery date.
So we charge a fee of $75. And we tell them over the phone, and we keep record whether or not they agree. If they don’t, we don’t book. Plus we send them a confirmation postcard and it’s on there. It’s also on our financial policy statement, which each patient receives.
There are many reasons for a doctor being late. Perhaps the person(s) before you needed more time than had been expected, maybe they had a complication, perhaps they came in and as it turns out need to be booked into the hospital right that moment. Sometimes, the doctor was in the OR (Operating Room) at the hospital, and THEY were late. His operation got pushed back, hence he’s running late for clinic. Literally running!
However, when this happens the receptionist should tell you, Dr. B is running late. I can either reschedule you or you can wait.
So how come the patients don’t get any fees when the doctor’s offices are late seeing the patient? The only people who agree with this line of thinking are doctors…I have never been in a doctor’s office where they see me when the appointment is…you usually wait 15-20 minutes in the entrance area, then are brought to a private room, where you wait another 10 minutes, and in the end, you see the doctor at 2:30, yet your appointment was for two…this is the norm in any big city.
So whee’s my fee? My time is as important as the doctors, if not more in my eyes, I had no idea adding a DR. in front of your name means your time is worth more than others…yet we just have to wait for the doctor to see us…but if we’re late, EGADS!!!, the Doctor’s want a fee.
What a joke.
To all of you that say you run a business that involves scheduling. You chose your business, you know the risk vs reward (and for the medical industry that is always on your side). If you charge a late or cancellation fee, you should be willing to pay one. That simple. You are not a special little snowflake.