Updated April 2018
Attendance Policy
It is your responsibility to keep your regularly scheduled appointments.
Appointment reminders may not always be sent.
To cancel an appointment please call 415-496-6757 or email Bailey@SFStutteringHelp.com
- Attendance: Consistent attendance is critical for making progress in speech therapy and prevents regression of learned skills. Sessions are scheduled for each client on the same day and time each week.
- Non-emergency Cancellations: Non-emergency cancellations require notification at least 48 hours in advance of your scheduled appointment time in order to avoid a late cancellation fee equal to the full session fee. Examples of non-emergency cancellations include, but are not limited to, other medical appointments, school events, social events, sick caregiver (i.e. nanny, baby-sitter, or someone other than a parent), or school vacations. If non-emergency cancellations become excessive, San Francisco Speech and Fluency Center (SFSFC) cannot guarantee the continued availability of your preferred time slot. Non-emergency cancellations with less than 48 hours notice will result in a late cancellation fee equal to the full session fee. This fee will not be covered by your insurance.
- Emergency Cancellations: Emergency cancellations will be accepted with less than 48 hours notice for illness or illness of an immediate family member (see Sick Policy below), death of a family member, medical emergencies, car accidents or other emergency situations beyond your control. In the case of car accidents or medical emergencies, please notify SFSFC as soon as possible. Please be prepared to provide a note from your doctor for emergency cancellations.
- Sick Policy: Please notify SFSFC by 8:00 a.m. on the day of your appointment if you or your child wakes up sick. If there are any signs of ongoing infection, including fever over 100o F, vomiting, diarrhea, sinus infection with green/yellow mucus, or any other highly contagious illness, you are required to cancel your session. If you or your child arrives ill, you will be dismissed and charged the full session fee. You or your child must be fever free for at least 24 hours prior to your session. Cancellations due to illness after 8:00 am will be considered a missed appointment and will be charged a late cancellation fee equal to the full session fee. Please be prepared to provide a note from your doctor for cancellations due to illness.
- Missed Appointments: If you miss one or more sessions during a calendar month in two consecutive months, office policy requires a non-refundable prepayment for all future sessions due at the time of booking. You may prepay for up to 4 weeks at a time. In addition, SFSFC cannot guarantee the ongoing availability of your preferred time slot. If you cancel or otherwise miss three sessions in a row, it is office policy to provide 30 days notice of discharge. You will be responsible for payment for all scheduled weekly sessions during that time. If you know you will be away for two weeks or longer, please inform the office at your earliest convenience to avoid penalties.
- Late for Appointments: If you are late for an appointment your session will need to conclude at the regularly scheduled time. If you are more than fifteen minutes late for your appointment, it is office policy to consider it a missed appointment (see Missed Appointments above) and will be cancelled. It is office policy to charge the full session fee for all late appointments.
- Clinician Cancellations: If your clinician is not able to attend your appointment, you will be contacted as soon as possible. Please be sure that the office knows the best way to reach you. Every effort will be made to reschedule your appointment in a timely manner. If your clinician is late for your appointment, you will be given the full session time. SFSFC regrets any inconvenience to your personal schedule that this may cause. Your clinician will do their best to maintain timeliness.
- Non-compliance: Non-compliance with any portion of this attendance policy may result in termination of services. See section titled Termination of Therapy below.
Termination of Therapy
The following reasons may be cause for termination of therapy:
- Behavior of a client (e.g., repeated tantrums, refusing to engage in therapy, refusing to follow directions or recommendations, physical or verbal abuse, etc.). SFSFC anticipates and understands that everyone has “bad days” from time to time. Your clinician will do their best to implement strategies to minimize and address challenging behaviors. However, if the behavior continues to occur in more than 25% of sessions or if the behaviors do not improve for more than 2 consecutive sessions, therapy will be terminated.
- Behavior of a parent, guardian, or caregiver (e.g. verbal abuse, unwillingness or inability to follow recommendations, inability to participate in sessions when requested, etc.).
- Non-compliance with the attendance policy.
- Repeatedly not paying an account. You will receive a warning when there is an outstanding account balance. If payment is not received within 14 days upon receipt of that warning, therapy will be placed on hold until payments are rendered in full. SFSFC cannot guarantee the availability of your preferred appointment slot.
- Engaging in behavior that breaches trust such as withholding pertinent information about the case history or asking us to alter our data or diagnosis.
- If you need to terminate therapy for any reason, SFSFC asks that you provide written notice a minimum of two (2) sessions in advance. This will allow adequate time to wrap-up therapy and complete consultation with you. You will be responsible for the full session fees for any and all scheduled sessions up to and including the final session, regardless if you attend them or not.
- A discharge summary will be provided for a fee generally within 14 days of receipt of payment. Please provide a written request at time of termination of services.