Dentist Missed Appointments Fees Average $50

This is among the toughest issues for dental clinics to deal with. Unlike medical clinics who generally book shorter appointments, dental clinics can reserve 2,3,or 4 hour appointments (or even longer) for restorative procedures. Allowing a freebie for such appointments can be devastating, especially if patient A cancels an appointment on Monday, then patient B cancels another appointment on Wednesday, etc..
We require two business day notice for hygiene appointments and a one week notice for restorative appointments of 90 minutes or longer. All new patients sign a form to that effect (we refer to the form as ‘Clinic Ettiquette’ and it lists many positive aspects besides the cancellation/rescheduling policy.) Returning recare patients place their initials to this policy on their Update Forms… We remind pts of this policy when they schedule appointments. The policy is written on their appointment cards. And, we remind them of this requirement when we confirm appointments three weeks in advance.
(our policy provides for us to charge up to the full value of their scheduled appointment.) If they cannot keep the appt, we attempt to find out why. In my experience, many patients wish to cancel their appointment in the last minute not because of an emergency, but because 1) they are apprehensive about the visit – meaning we did not address their fear sufficiently BEFORE scheduling, or 2) because they did not understand the true need/benefit of their scheduled procedure BEFORE scheduling. ‘TRUE Emergencies’ rarely exist and I usually sympathetically ask them some questions to help me understand the nature of the emergency. We treat the death of a close friend/relative and true medical emergencies differently than ‘family emergency’ meaning, it’s nice this Friday and I would like to take a three day trip to the beach. We waive the fee on the former only.
For patients who were suddenly asked by their boss to work on the day of their appointments, we request payment of the fee and would be happy to send them a copy so they can request re-imbursement from their employer.
Ultimately, you have to ask yourself how hard you are willing to work to communicate the importance AND BENEFIT of your time to your patients. If a patient truly values your time no-shows and early cancellations will be kept to true emergencies. Providing freebies to those who do not respect your time is asking for trouble later.

Lastly, I wish there were a central way for dentists to report frequent violators of their no-show policies. It seems we are only too happy to have these patients move to the next practice AND other practices are just as eager to welcome them with open arms. Banks do not allow customers who don’t keep their loan commitments to walk down the street and borrow money from another bank… When a patient does not show up for an appointment, they just cost you hundreds of dollars or possibly more in losses.. is that any different from someone not honoring their monthly payments on a loan?