Routine Requests is online healthcare from your regular doctor, powered by HotDoc. Patient requests like online repeat prescriptions, referrals as well as medical certificates can be sent directly to your doctor, saving your team time on admin and reduced phone calls. 

Routine Requests provides your doctors with the convenience and flexibility to action requests in their own time and turn previous unpaid work into paid consults. This will allow them to better meet patient demand for patients who might already be seeking these types of services from other virtual care providers. 

In your HotDoc Dashboard, go to Routine Requests > Get Started and follow the set-up checklist! To view more information, you can view our guide Getting started with Routine Requests or take our course in HotDoc Academy.

Our improved reporting in the Payments > Reporting section of the Dashboard will allow you to reconcile your payments for Routine Requests to the receipts in your practice software. As the fee will be covered by the patient, you should use the 'subtotal net' amount to reconcile, as this is what you received from the patient. This should also be the amount that you enter into the patient's invoice. The net amount is also the amount you will be paid out to your bank account. 
For a step-by-step guide, please see: How do I reconcile my HotDoc payments to the receipts in my practice software? & How do I use Payments Reporting to reconcile payouts to my bank account?

Yes, practitioners set up for direct-to-practitioner payouts will receive payment directly into their account as they would with any other booking. For a step-by-step guide on how to set this up, please see: How to set up Direct to Practitioner Payouts for Payments

Routine Requests is a part of your HotDoc subscription at no additional cost and includes new reporting and automatic invoicing enhancements.

To support ongoing innovation in the virtual care space, patients pay a small platform fee per request when they use the service. This platform fee helps us maintain and improve Routine Requests, covering HotDoc's costs in providing the service.

Routine Requests already has its own platform fee, separate from HotDoc Payments. The change taking effect from 1 October 2026 applies only to standard HotDoc Payments (appointment bookings and payment requests) — it doesn't affect Routine Requests or Telehealth On Demand, which already use their own platform fees.

No. Routine Requests always charges the platform fee directly to the patient, regardless of your "Patient pays platform fee" setting for other HotDoc Payments (such as appointment bookings). That setting has no effect on Routine Requests pricing.

If you wish to lower the amount the patient pays for a Routine Request, you can always set your Dashboard pricing slightly lower. You're always in control of what you charge and the amount you receive.

HotDoc is investing in a new service that brings patients and GPs together in a more convenient way. A small fee allows us to maintain the new service platform and improve upon it with additional features for GPs and Patients.

Your current subscription costs cover the ability to improve the practice efficiency work that we do. However, the patient platform fee allows us to directly contribute to providing a convenient and valuable service to the GP, as well as innovate on future features for them.

We completed extensive research about the amount that a patient would pay for this type of service, and benchmarked this cost against other virtual services. We also extensively surveyed our patient base prior to this change.

We found that most patients are willing to pay additional costs for the convenience of receiving healthcare, especially if it means they don't need to visit the practice. With this research, we set a platform fee that reflects the value and convenience of the service, and helps cover HotDoc's ongoing investment in maintaining and improving it. The overall cost falls well within the expectations of the patients we surveyed.

Extensive testing during trials has shown that patients are expectant of a platform fee as long as we're transparent about what it covers. The fee is made clear in the app and HotDoc website that it's a HotDoc platform fee, which allows us to continue to innovate on Routine Requests, as well as offer the best access and experience for healthcare.

Bulk billing is currently not possible for Routine Requests, as all fees are covered by the patient. 

On average, our customers charge $25 per completed consult. From surveying our patient base, we have found that most patients are willing to pay additional costs for the convenience of receiving healthcare, especially if it means they don't need to go to the clinic directly.

Please see our page for all available marketing collateral, including digital images, printable items and promotional material for your practice: https://practices.hotdoc.com.au/resources/routine-requests/ 

When a patient requests a Routine Request from your booking page, we pre-authorise the funds for 7 days. After this time, we release the funds and store the patient's payment method so that your practitioners can approve requests after 5 business days.

If the practitioner approves a request after 7 days, the patient's payment may fail if they have insufficient funds. When this happens, we'll send a request for them to update their payment method, and you can see the status of their payment in your HotDoc Dashboard. Please see How to manage failed Routine Requests payments for more information. 

If practitioners initially decline a request, we will not charge the patient the platform fee. 

If your practitioners initially approved a request, then refund it, the gross amount will be refunded to the patient, meaning your practice or practitioner* will bear the cost of the platform fee.

*Please note: by default, payments are set up to a clinic's payment account. However, if your practitioner is set up to receive direct practitioner payouts, then it is their account that will be utilised.

Yes – we show the patient a breakdown of the pricing for their request to clearly communicate this before they confirm their request. This includes the cost of their request and the platform fee. They will also be shown this breakdown in the email they receive once the practitioner approves the request. Please see HotDoc Routine Requests - The Patient Journey

We will calculate the time it takes for your doctors to complete a patient's Routine Request and show a response time estimate on your HotDoc booking page, and when a patient requests a Routine Request.

Response time calculations will be updated weekly on your HotDoc page to account for any changes, allowing us to show accurate response times and set the right expectations for your patients. For further information, please see: How are Routine Requests response times calculated on our practice's booking page?