Question
What happens to a patient's payment details if I modify/reschedule their appointment booked via HotDoc or directly through the practice?
Solution
Any manual modifications to appointments booked via HotDoc or directly through your practice can be classified as either a modification or a cancelation of the original booking and as a result, we may be required to sync a new appointment with the modifications made.
Manual modifications include:
- Changing the appointment duration
- Changing the appointment type
- Changing the time of the appointment
- Copying and pasting the appointment into another time slot, or even back into the same time slot
- Changing the practitioner
If your practice manually modified an appointment and it:
-
Remained on the same calendar day, HotDoc can modify the appointment.
- The original stored card details or pre-authorised hold will be transferred with the appointment.
- Any appointments that didn't have stored card details or a pre-authorised hold but now requires them, will be reissued the relevant request.
-
Moved to a different calendar day, HotDoc will cancel the original appointment and create a new appointment.
- Any stored card details or pre-authorised hold will be canceled/released, and HotDoc will reissue new payments requests, where applicable.
- Any stored card details or pre-authorised hold will be canceled/released, and HotDoc will reissue new payments requests, where applicable.
There are a few different payments scenarios that you should be aware of if the appointment remained on the same calendar day. (To check these settings, please see How to setup automatic payment requests for appointments)
Appointment remained on the same calendar day
If you made changes to an appointment on the same day, and the original appointment had an associated payment request or pre-authorised hold through HotDoc, we will maintain the original stored card details or any relevant holds, regardless of the settings of the new appointment.
For example:
-
If you change the patient's appointment type from one that requires payment via HotDoc, to one that doesn't, HotDoc will keep the original stored card details or any pre-authorised hold.
- If you change the patient's appointment type from one with a pre-authorised hold to one that is enabled to store a card on file for practice booked appointments, we will maintain the original pre-authorised hold.
-
If you changed the patient's appointment type from one that is enabled to take a store a card on file to one that is enabled to take a pre-authorised hold for practice booked appointments, we will maintain the stored card but not pre-authorise a hold.
- If you changed the patient's appointment type from one that is enabled to take a pre-authorised hold of one value to one that is enabled to take a pre-authorised hold of a different value for practice booked appointments, the original pre-authorised value will be used.
If you made changes to an appointment on the same day, and the original appointment did not have an associated payment request or hold through HotDoc, we will send the patient a new payment request, where applicable.
For example:
-
If you have payments enabled for your practice booked appointment types, and you change a patient's appointment type to one with payment settings enabled, we will send a payment request to the patient, as if it was a new booking.
- Please note: If you make changes to an appointment where the start time is within 5 minutes, you will need to send a request manually. Please see How to manually request patient card details for an upcoming appointment
Appointment moved to a different calendar day
If the original appointment did have an associated payment request or hold through HotDoc, any stored card details or preauthorised hold will be canceled/released, and we will reissue a new payment request, where applicable.
For example:
-
If you changed the patient's appointment type from one that is setup to take payment through HotDoc we will cancel any relevant requests or release any relevant holds.
- If the new appointment is one where automatic payment requests for your practice booked appointments are enabled, we will automatically send a new relevant request to the patient, as if it was a new booking.
-
If the new appointment is one where automatic payment requests for your practice booked appointments are not enabled, we will not send a new payment request.
-
Please note: If you wish to capture payment through HotDoc, you can do this manually by using the instructions here: How to manually request patient card details for an upcoming appointment
-
Please note: If you wish to capture payment through HotDoc, you can do this manually by using the instructions here: How to manually request patient card details for an upcoming appointment
-
If you changed the patient's appointment type from one that is setup to take payment through HotDoc to one that isn't set up to take payment through HotDoc, we will cancel any relevant requests or release any relevant holds.
-
If you originally sent the patient a manual request for card details for their upcoming appointment, this will be cancelled once you modify the booking.
-
Please note: If you still wish to capture payment through HotDoc, you can do another manually request by using the instructions here: How to manually request patient card details for an upcoming appointment
-
Please note: If you still wish to capture payment through HotDoc, you can do another manually request by using the instructions here: How to manually request patient card details for an upcoming appointment
Original appointment did not have an associated payment request or hold through HotDoc, we will reissue a new payment request, where applicable.
For example:
-
If you changed the patient's appointment from one that didn't have an associated payment request or hold to one that where automatic payment requests for your practice booked appointments are enabled, we will automatically send the relevant request to the patient, as if it was a new booking.