The practice has a policy to charge patients a fee when they fail to attend their appointment. This fee is not covered by Medicare.
At the time of booking appointments, patients are encouraged to write down their appointment time and date. Hot Doc will send a sms appointment reminder to patients, but this cannot be relied on as the internet or system could go down and messages will not be sent out.
It is the patient’s responsibility to keep track of their appointments and cancel if the appointment is no longer required. When cancelling appointments, the clinic requires four hours’ notice. This can be done via the Hot Doc App, SMS or calling the clinic.
The practice policy is to charge patients $80 for a standard appointment or $120 for a double appointment.
These fees are charged to deter patients from non-attendance due to the scarce availability of appointments. Our appointments can be offered to other patients if they are no longer required.
When DNA fees are charged, patients have all future appointments cancelled. It is the patient’s responsibility to pay the outstanding fee before another appointment can be made at the clinic.
