Can a dental or medical office charge you for cancelling an appointment?

My Dentist does, but it is only £15.

that for missed or cancelled ?

Oh, sorry. Missed. I don’t think they charge for cancelling as long as you give 24 hour notice.

thanks @Dibley

If you missed for a true family emergency; call and talk to a real person. If you cancel, you cheat the office. There is always a waiting list for any medical or dental practice.

@trailsillustrated
My Dentist charges $75 for missed appointments. Her credit agreement has that charge in bold letters. Yes you have to sign a credit / insurance agreement.
Cancellations must be made 24 plus hours before appointment.
Agreement is signed by myself.

It is a contractual matter, so they can, but only if you were made aware of the 2-days-in-advance rule before you decided to make your appointment.

If you were not made aware of this clause before agreeing to an appointment, you should have little trouble convincing them not to charge you. If you do, you can always go to court where there is a 99% chance that you will win.

hmmm, I’ll have to read the agreement thing- thanks evabody

Maybe we should add to the agreement that the Dr. will be charged $75/hour for the time between our appointment and when we actually see the Dr.

$150/hr if I’m in my underwear in a cold examing room.

The pediatric dentist we used to see charged $50 for a missed or canceled appointment less than 24 hrs. before the appointment. I knew that was their policy, and understand why they have it in place. We saw them for two years and never had to cancel or miss an appointment. One morning, my son woke up with a fever and started puking. I called the dentist to say we wouldn’t be in later that morning and explained the reason. The receptionist reminded me of the $50, and I asked if they would waive it under the circumstances. We’d never missed an appointment, and I reminded her that I’d paid them almost a thousand dollars the week before for dental work my daughter needed. She flatly refused to waive the fee. Her attitude completely pissed me off, so I informed her we would not be returning and to cancel any future appointments we’d set up.

They sent me a bill for the $50 and I threw it away. For a long time I expected another bill or a call from a collection agency, but I never heard from them again. We see another pediatric dentist who has the same policy but is more understanding. If you need to cancel for an unavoidable reason, they don’t charge you. I love them for acting like human beings and being so understanding.

If I were you, I would make sure to talk to a person in the office and explain your circumstances. Maybe they will be reasonable, but if you seem to have a pattern of last-minute cancellations they might not make an exception.

Most doctors or dentists I’ve had in the last 30yrs have had cancellation charges but the most I’ve seen mentioned is about $50.00

Here we get cut a lot of slack when there is bad snow and ice. No one expects you to drive when there’s a severe storm.

youbetcha

@MissAusten interesting, the practitioner is actually someone I knew in school, whom I really like, but the receptionist had a total attitude when I said I wanted to be on the short notice list and the fee waived. If they charge me for this, I am definitely going somewhere else

It depends on their policy, but most are very clear what that is, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise. I have been going to the same dentist for over a dozen years now, and they don’t charge me because the only time I would miss would be a good reason.

One day, when I didn’t show up, they called my house. I had simply forgotten, and it’s only 5 minutes from here, so I hurried on over.

They certainly can, but the ones I’m aware of won’t charge if 24 hour notice is given.

haha update- I just got a nice ‘do not come back’ letter. hehe- I certainly never had a boutique practise uptown, but I felt they were heavy into the upsell and over treated. yaaay!