By automating appointment management, practices can spend less time managing busy schedules. Staff gain greater visibility into schedule changes, patients will have a more convenient experience, and the office can make better use of valuable provider availability.
No-shows cost the healthcare industry more than $150 billion each year—and some practices get hit harder than others.
Independent physician practices, for example, are estimated to lose up to $150,000 annually due to missed appointments, with a single no-show costing around $200. But the true cost goes beyond lost revenue. Practices also have to account for wasted staff time, unused provider capacity, and missed opportunities to schedule other patients who need care.
Here’s a quick example:
- A practice with 4,000 monthly visits
- A 15% no-show rate
- A $130 average visit
That is $78,000 in lost revenue every month—or roughly $936,000 annually—at risk on top of all the other factors mentioned.
That’s exactly why we built two-way appointment reminders. Patients can respond quickly, easily, and directly to SMS reminder messages to confirm or cancel their appointments, giving practices more time to fill open slots and reduce avoidable revenue loss.
That means no extra work for staff and no extra hassle for patients.
Hands-Off Appointment Confirmation & Cancellation
RXNT’s new two-way appointment reminders help practices keep schedules accurate, reduce no-shows, and quickly identify appointment slots that open up due to cancellations.
Appointment reminders are sent automatically by the practice, and patients can simply reply to confirm or cancel, eliminating unnecessary phone calls and making it easier to keep schedules up to date. When a patient responds, appointment statuses are automatically updated within RXNT, reducing the need for manual follow-up and saving valuable staff time.
By automating appointment management, practices can spend less time managing busy schedules. Staff gain greater visibility into schedule changes, patients will have a more convenient experience, and the office can make better use of valuable provider availability.
How Two-Way Appointment Reminders Work
Patients can reply to appointment reminders up to 24 hours before their appointment. Every SMS reminder automatically includes: “Reply STOP to opt out, Yes to Confirm, and No to Cancel.”
Here’s how responses integrate into the system:
- A “Yes” response indicates that the patient has confirmed the appointment and updates the appointment status to Patient Confirmed.
- A “No” response indicates that the patient has canceled the appointment and updates the appointment status to Canceled.
- A “Yes” response after a previous “No” response will confirm the appointment only if an appointment and provider availability exist.
If a response is received within 24 hours of the appointment, the patient will receive an automatic message stating: “Please contact the doctor’s office to make changes to your appointment.”
Responses are automatically processed by our system and will update the appointment status accordingly, giving you real-time insight on upcoming appointments.
For further insights, analytics are available in the “Reminders Responses Report,” providing visibility into patient replies received and autoresponses sent via SMS.
To get started, head over to your Company Preferences and enable two-way reminders. If you need assistance, you can check out our Help Center article.
If you’re not already a customer, get a free demonstration to see how RXNT can make practice scheduling easier for your office.
