Stop chasing cancellation fees: just refill the physio slot
Patient did not show up? Enforcing a cancellation fee under section 615 of the German Civil Code is tedious, costs goodwill and rarely brings in money. TerminJet automatically offers the freed treatment slot to your waitlist, by WhatsApp or SMS, and refills it. That way you never lose the slot in the first place.
The cancellation fee is not your problem. The empty slot is.
Most practices never bill a cancellation fee or never collect it. The real gap is the unused treatment time, which never comes back. Honest ballpark figures, not wishful numbers:
- 5-15%
- share of missed appointments in a typical physio practice
- 60-90 min.
- lost treatment time per no-show that no one gets back
- < 2 min.
- until TerminJet offers the open slot to the waitlist
- 1 slot
- the one you would rather bring back into the plan than a cancellation fee
Reduce missed appointments in physiotherapy without charging patients
A cancellation fee under section 615 of the German Civil Code is legally tricky, hard to enforce and alienates long-standing patients. Even if you charge it, the treatment slot is still empty. TerminJet flips the logic: instead of chasing the money, you bring the treatment time back. If someone cancels or fails to show, the slot goes straight to waiting patients who wanted an earlier appointment anyway.
How TerminJet refills the open treatment slot
- Schritt 01
An appointment falls through
A patient cancels or does not show up. TerminJet detects the freed slot on its own, whether the booking was made online or at the front desk.
- Schritt 02
The waitlist gets the offer
Matching patients receive the open appointment by WhatsApp or SMS with a one-click link. A lymphatic drainage slot only goes to people waiting for lymphatic drainage, not to an initial assessment.
- Schritt 03
The first yes wins the slot
Whoever confirms first gets the appointment. The calendar updates automatically, the rest of the waitlist moves up. No double booking, no callback needed.
- Schritt 04
The treatment time is filled again
Dead time turns back into billable treatment. Your team does not have to make calls and no one has to collect a cancellation fee.
Patient did not show up: two paths, one empty slot
A patient cancels her 9:00 appointment for manual therapy 40 minutes ahead. Here is how it plays out with and without TerminJet.
- The 9:00 treatment slot stays empty, the therapist waits
- The front desk wonders whether a cancellation fee is worth it, and usually drops it
- No one has time to phone through the waitlist
- 60 minutes of treatment time and the revenue are gone for good
- In the worst case there is friction with the regular patient over the invoice
- TerminJet detects the open 9:00 slot the moment the cancellation comes in
- Matching patients waiting for manual therapy get a WhatsApp offer at once
- One patient confirms with a tap, the calendar fills back up
- The therapist treats at 9:00 instead of waiting
- No cancellation fee, no phone stress, no annoyed regular patient
Common questions about cancellation fees and refilling slots
Does TerminJet replace the cancellation fee under section 615 of the German Civil Code?
TerminJet is not legal advice and does not collect any cancellation fee for you. In most cases it makes the collection unnecessary: if the freed slot gets refilled, there is no loss of earnings for you to chase. Whether and how you also charge a cancellation fee stays your decision.
What counts as a cancellation here?
Both a short-notice cancellation and a patient who simply does not show up. As soon as the treatment slot counts as free, TerminJet starts refilling it from the waitlist.
Will my patients be spammed with offers?
No. Each waiting patient gets a time-limited offer for an appointment that matches their treatment type. If no reply comes, the offer quietly moves on to the next person. No repeated pings, no pressure.
Are the WhatsApp and SMS messages GDPR-compliant?
Offers only go to patients who have given consent, and that consent is documented. Data sits on EU hosting at Hetzner, health data is encrypted with AES-256.
Does this run on a portal like Doctolib or on my own site?
On your own practice website, white-label and under your domain. Your patients stay with you, not on a third-party portal. No referral commission applies.
Who sets the system up?
TerminJet is set up and supported by a digital agency in Germany. We configure treatment types, waitlist rules, texts and deadlines for your practice and embed everything into your website.
See the refill on a real appointment
Enter a treatment like a patient would on your website. This very form feeds the slot recovery engine that refills missed appointments.