italk’s Attendance and Cancellation Policy

Our clinic is different than the typical or regular doctor’s office visits. We require a committed experience for both the clients and the clinicians for a longterm period of time. For the clients, it is often a significant financial commitment as well. This means that there are bound to be some bumps along the way regarding consistent attendance, and unexpected events. How can we best navigate these difficult conversations?

italk’s Policy:

  • All cancellations made before 8:00 AM on the day of the appointment have no fee.

  • Cancellations made after 8:00 AM on the day of the appointment or missed appointment without notification (no show) will be charged at a flat fee of $50.

  • All cancellations will be billed directly to the client; no cancellations will go through the insurance company. It is required that clients have a credit card on file with this office for cancellation/ no show fees.

  • Emergencies are accepted only for illness but will be assessed on a case-by-case basis.

  • If your family takes an extended vacation exceeding 3 weeks, client’s therapy time slot will be forfeited and will be put on the waiting list for an open weekly therapy slot once they have returned to the area and are available for weekly therapy sessions.

Frequent Absence:

  • If there are more than 2 sessions in a month without sufficient notice, a reminder of the clinic’s policies regarding frequent absences will be sent and the client will be notified regarding termination of services.

Late Policy:

  • There are no extensions of therapy time slots in the case of lateness unless otherwise rescheduled with the clinician and the Reception Team.

  • If the clinician is late, time is either extended or provided a make-up session.

  • Let's think about why the attendance and cancellation is important. It's something bigger than respect, which is important in and of itself. italk believes that attendance is importance to emphasize for effectiveness of treatment - not just the billing aspect.

    Before we enforce strict policies, let's think about our efforts to maintain good client relations to avoid conflict and consider the following:

    • Were they aware of the cancellation policy?

    • Can we understand their reasoning as: a medical/personal emergency/sickness/allergies?

    • Are they typically good with the schedule?

  • Hello, thank you for letting us know. I am sorry to hear that Pororo is not feeling well. I have cancelled your session for you with no charge. Medical emergencies or sickness does fall under excusable reasons for a late cancellation.

    For future reference, please keep in mind the clinic’s cancellation policy to avoid our $50 charge as we will start counting:

    1. Please cancel through SimplePractice prior to 24 hours of the session or by phone call or text 8 AM of the session date.

    2. Understand we will only be able to waive fees prior to appointment time for: medical/personal emergencies sickness leading to inability to effectively provide treatment

    Thank you for understanding!”

  • Hello, thank you for letting us know.

    Per our attendance and cancellation policy, this will be your first alert for a late cancellation, which means there is no charge for today. For future reference, as there will be a late cancellation fee of $50, please do the following in order to avoid a charge:

    1. Please cancel through SimplePractice prior to 24 hours of the session or by phone call or text 8 AM of the session date

    2. Understand we will only be able to waive fees for: medical/personal emergencies sickness leading to inability to effectively provide treatment

    Thank you for your cooperation!

  • Hello, we appreciate you letting us know and I am sorry to hear that a lot has been going on.

    However, as we have discussed prior in our first alert for late cancellations, a $50 late cancellation charge will only be waived if the session was cancelled through SimplePractice prior to 24 hours of the session or by phone call or text 8 AM of the session date. Please understand we will only be able to waive fees for:

    medical/personal emergencies sickness leading to inability to effectively provide treatment

    Thank you for understanding - please confirm if the credit card on file can be charged or if you have another preferred method of payment prior to your next session.

    1. Clinician has a meeting or phone call with the caregivers to talk about a potential different time or schedule that would work better. Then remind them of the policies and let the know that if unexcused absences exceed more than 2 in a month, we would have to consider terminating the time slot.

    2. The Assistant Director or Director reaches out to communicate termination or other options available.

  • Please look through the Planned Cancellations Protocol to see expanded cases such as:

    • vacations

    • medical reasons

    • insurance reasons

  • If it is a group of 2, and there are frequent cancellations, the leading clinician will reach out to the parents to confirm whether the schedule can be consistent - if not, the group will be dissolved due to lack of effectiveness in treatment from inconsistent attendance.