Cancellation Policy

As a community clinic, our goal is to help as many people as possible by providing low-cost acupuncture treatments that make holistic health more accessible and affordable. To do this, we must make sure our schedule is as up-to-date and open as possible. Late cancellations and no-shows take away appointment slots that others may have used to heal, and because of this, we strongly enforce our cancellation policy. We require a credit card to schedule an appointment with the hope that patients will be more likely to honor the time they committed to us. More specifically, this policy:

1. Ensures that the patients who really want to come to us to improve their health get the opportunity to do so. As already mentioned,  our goal is to help as many people as possible but we have limited hours in which we can do this. 
2. Reinforces the importance of self-care. You can easily fill your schedule with errands, chores, extra work, and other things instead of coming in for your acupuncture treatment, and we hope that the knowledge of a cancellation fee will motivate you to prioritize taking care of yourself.
3. Supports us as a small business. Least importantly, by paying a cancellation fee for your missed appointment, you help us recoup a fraction of what we would have earned from a patient seeing us. Many clinics will charge the full cost of a visit to maximize profit, but we only ask for 43%, or $32.25 for new patient appointments and $25.80 for follow-ups. Again, our cancellation policy is not designed to guarantee our income but rather to encourage patients to keep their appointments.

Taking all of this into account, we will charge the cancellation fee to the card on file if a patient needs to cancel within 24 hours' of his or her scheduled appointment time or if a patient does not show for the appointment at all. We will never charge your card for anything outside of cancellation fees unless you've expressly told us to do so.

If you know that you need to cancel an appointment, please give us as much notice as possible so that we can reach out to anyone who was waiting to come in. Rescheduling for another day does not waive the cancellation fee, but moving an appointment for earlier or later on the same day (if available) will not incur a fee.

We understand that life happens and that appointments may be missed due to circumstances outside of your control. However, we do not feel that it's right for us to judge whether a last-minute emergency is important enough to waive the cancellation fee. Is your boss calling a meeting out of the blue more urgent than a babysitter canceling? Should exceptions be made for sick children but not sick pets? We will treat everyone the same no matter what the excuse, and we hope you understand the reasoning behind this decision. The only times we will waive the fee are:

• True emergencies like a death in the family or a car accident
• COVID-related circumstances, such as possible exposure, symptoms, vaccination appointment, or vaccination side effects
• Sickness to the point that you will not be able to sit in the treatment room chair for at least 20 minutes, for example because of persistent vomiting or diarrhea; other symptoms such as fever, migraine, nausea, and coughing can be helped by acupuncture and should impel you to keep your appointment, as long as there is not a risk that they are due to COVID.

Our clinic is open in all types of weather, so if you know that you are uncomfortable driving through rain, storms, or other meteorological events, we encourage you to check the forecast for the day of your appointment ahead of time and cancel in advance. We will only waive cancellation fees - or more likely, cancel all appointments - if weather is expected to be very severe, meaning the local authorities have cautioned the public to stay at home. This doesn't happen often and usually involves a snow storm, ice storm, or tornadoes.

Credit card information is stored securely in the same software where we store your protected health information (PHI) and medical records. We have used this software to run credit cards, debit cards, and HSA/FSA cards for years, and many patients have opted to have their credit cards saved within our system for years as well. Vagaro services many clinics, gyms, studios, and salons that require credit cards for services, classes, membership fees, etc., and in their own words:

Vagaro takes privacy and information security as a top priority to protect you from hackers, spammers, and cyber attacks. Our team works tirelessly with security experts and implements the latest mandates and guidelines per The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). We work hard to mitigate risks for you so you can operate with peace of mind in this connected cyber world. We are adding more security to the transactions between Vagaro service computers and users' devices such as computers, tablets and phones are well encrypted such that no middle-man, wired or wireless, can decrypt and seize your information. 

If you feel uncomfortable with having your credit card information saved, reach out to us and we can discuss if there is an alternative option or if it would be better for you to go to another clinic instead of ours. We do not keep paper records of any patient information - regarding health or payment - because we feel that is far less safe to do so. 

On the bright side, having payment information attached to your account with us offers plenty of benefits:

• Convenience: There is no need for you to bring your wallet with you into the clinic if you're paying with the card on file.
• Options: Although you have a credit card stored, you may always pay with cash, check, or another card if you prefer.
• Easy ordering: If you call us to order you a product or want to purchase a gift certificate for someone, there's no need to provide us with payment information over the phone.
• No surprises: Because cancellation fees are charged immediately, you will never have to pay a fee at a later date. 

We want you to come in so that your body can heal! We will send you multiple reminders so that you can remember exactly when your appointment is going to take place:

• Confirmation text/email immediately on booking the appointment
• Confirmation text/email two days before your appointment
• Reminder text/email 26 hours before your appointment

You are more than welcome to reschedule online or by phone until 24 hours before your scheduled appointment time; within 24 hours you will need to call us. If you try to contact us after hours, please leave a voicemail (or send us an email), and we will note the time that you left the message.