First of all – we don’t like charging cancellation fees! Cancellation policies are always a difficult process to manage, as we balance the needs of all of our clients.

We provide a range of options for keeping track of your appointments: 24/7 access to the client portal where you can book, cancel and check all your appointments, an email confirmation for each appointment you book through the portal, an appointment confirmation via SMS 24hrs before your appointment, and a list of all future appointments in each receipt we send you. We also make our cancellation policy very clear by providing it: here on our website, in the initial information you are emailed, in the consent form, on each receipt you are sent and referred to in our confirmation SMS. 

The purpose of the cancellation fee is so that we can continue to provide a responsible, sustainable and high-quality service. When you book an appointment, that 1hr is reserved specifically for you. Unlike other medical services that have short appointment times, it can be very difficult to fill late cancellations, as another client then needs to be available during that hour. These longer appointments also mean that your psychologist is typically only able to offer around 2-5 appointments in a day, so each appointment is valuable as a resource to our client’s and also for your psychologist’s income.

In the event that you need to cancel with limited notice, we will offer telehealth as an option. If this isn’t suitable and we are unable to fill your appointment with another client, we will process the following fees (note: this is an industry-standard policy and based on the guidelines provided by the peak body for psychologists,  the Australian Psychological Society – see their document here). This policy also applies if you choose to reschedule a late-cancelled appointment (i.e you want to late-cancel an appointment and change it to a future appointment). The reason for this is that, even though you are booking another appointment in the future, the one you have late-cancelled was still a booked appointment that you had reserved. We will still follow all the same processes as above, but a late cancellation fee will still apply if we cannot fill the appointment. 

More than 3 days before your appointment – no fee
3 days before your appointment – 20% of the fee
2 days before your appointment – 45% of the fee
1 day before or the same day as your appointment – 100% of the fee

Please note: We use full-day cancellation windows rather than counting specific hours. This is calculated based on the day of the cancellation and the day of the appointment – it isn’t based on the number of hours. The purpose of this timeframe is to try to give us enough time to attempt to rebook the appointment for another client, which is the best outcome for everyone.

As an example – for an appointment that is scheduled for a Friday

• Cancelled on a Monday = more than 3 days notice
• Cancelled on a Tuesday = 3 days before
• Cancelled on a Wednesday = 2 days before
• Cancelled on a Thursday or Friday = 1 day before or same day as appointment

A cancellation fee is charged in all circumstances, which is an important part of maintaining fairness and equality (i.e. we are not deciding whose reason for cancellation is more valid than another). For your understanding, approximately 40% of all booked appointments are cancelled/rescheduled. While we understand your specific circumstance might be a ‘one-off’, for our team, it is likely that they will have multiple ‘one-offs’ within a given day or week. In many cases, your psychologist may only have available 3-5 appointments per day, so even one late cancellation can mean the loss of around a third of their income for the day.  Given this, and as part of operating a responsible and sustainable healthcare business, we consistently apply our cancellation policy in all circumstances.

In the event that we cannot process the fee through the credit card we have stored on our system, you will need to pay it online using the client portal (select ‘my invoices’) within 24hrs, or an additional late payment fee will be charged (an additional 1% per business day). In addition, we may continue to try to process the fee using the stored credit card if the payment continues to be outstanding. If payment is not made within 24hrs, future appointments may be cancelled. In the event that fees continue to be outstanding, we may pursue legal action to recover these fees.

If you are late for an appointment your session may be less than 50 minutes in duration. Please note you will need to pay the full amount in these circumstances, however, your medicare/insurance rebate (if any) may be reduced.