Medical and wellness clinics — chiropractic, acupuncture, nutrition, integrative medicine, mental health, physiotherapy — sit between general service businesses and full-stack EHR-heavy practices. The booking flow has specific requirements that don’t apply to a salon.
What’s different about clinic booking
Five distinguishing features:
1. HIPAA / privacy compliance
Patient appointment details often reveal medical conditions. Booking software handling this data needs to:
- Be HIPAA-compliant (signed BAA available)
- Encrypt PHI in storage and transit
- Maintain audit logs
- Offer hard deletion
For pure HIPAA-grade booking, specialised platforms (Jane App, SimplePractice, Therapy Notes) are the right answer.
For wellness-adjacent practices that don’t strictly handle PHI (massage, acupuncture, life coaching), general-purpose booking with good security (Zedule with per-tenant data isolation, Acuity) can work.
2. Intake forms
Patients fill out forms before the appointment:
- Medical history
- Current medications
- Insurance details
- Consent forms
- Symptom checklists
The booking software should collect these alongside the booking. No-form-no-appointment policies are standard.
3. Longer cancellation windows
Most clinics use 24-48-hour cancellation windows. Reason: appointment slots are harder to fill at the last minute (specialist providers, longer appointments).
4. Insurance handling
Some clinics check insurance eligibility before booking. The booking flow integrates with eligibility- check APIs (Stedi, Change Healthcare). Most general booking platforms don’t do this; specialised clinical-EHR booking does.
5. Provider-specific scheduling
Clinics often have:
- Different appointment durations per service
- Provider-specific availability (Dr. Smith only sees patients Mondays/Wednesdays)
- New-patient vs follow-up distinctions
- Multi-provider days (patient sees 2 specialists)
Service catalogue for clinics
Common service types:
- New patient consult (60-90 min, longest, highest scrutiny)
- Follow-up (15-30 min)
- Specialised treatment (30-60 min)
- Telehealth (varies)
The booking page should distinguish:
- New-patient vs returning-patient flow (new patients fill more forms)
- In-person vs telehealth
- Provider selection
Cancellation policy template
Cancellation policy. We require 48 hours notice to cancel or reschedule. Late cancellations are charged a $50 fee; no-shows are charged $100. The full fee may apply for missed appointments billed to insurance.
Critical points:
- 48 hours, not 24
- Fee is meaningful ($50-100 typical)
- Insurance-related disclosure
Reminders
Clinic reminder cadence:
- Booking confirmation: email + SMS
- 48 hours before: email with intake form link
- 24 hours before: SMS — “Tomorrow at 2pm with Dr. [name]. Reply YES to confirm.”
- 2 hours before: SMS — “Reminder: appointment in 2 hours. Address: [address]. Parking: [info].”
Confirmation request (Reply YES) is more important for clinics — provider time is expensive, and unconfirmed slots are often pre-emptively rescheduled.
Telehealth
For practices offering telehealth:
- Booking page should let customers pick “in-person” vs “telehealth”
- Confirmation email includes the meeting link (Zoom, doxy.me, custom)
- Reminder includes the link
- Day-of email: “Click to join your appointment”
The video platform itself should be HIPAA-compliant (Zoom Healthcare, doxy.me). Regular Zoom isn’t.
What HIPAA compliance actually requires
For booking platforms that handle PHI:
- BAA signed by the platform vendor
- Encryption in transit and at rest (TLS, AES-256)
- Access controls (role-based, audit-logged)
- Audit logs (who accessed what, when)
- Breach notification process
- Backup and recovery procedures
- Hard deletion on patient request
Most general-purpose booking platforms (Calendly, Acuity, Zedule) don’t sign BAAs. For HIPAA-required practices, use:
- Jane App — Canadian-built, popular for chiro/PT
- SimplePractice — common for therapy
- TherapyNotes — therapy + EHR
- Carepatron — newer, comprehensive
- Spruce Health — communication-focused
When general booking is OK for clinics
Some clinic-adjacent practices don’t strictly need HIPAA-grade software:
- Massage therapy (in many states; varies)
- Acupuncture (varies)
- Life coaching / wellness coaching
- Nutritional consulting (non-medical)
- Personal training
- Aesthetic services that aren’t medical
For these, Zedule, Acuity, or similar general platforms work fine — with care to:
- Not collect medical information in booking forms
- Use the booking platform for scheduling only, not notes or treatment records
- Keep treatment notes in a separate system if needed
Service-by-provider rules
In multi-provider clinics:
- Some services are provider-specific (Dr. Smith does acupuncture, Dr. Jones does chiropractic; can’t swap)
- Some services are any-provider (yoga therapy taught by 3 instructors)
- Each provider has different availability + days off
The booking page should reflect this. Customers should see each provider’s actual availability for each service, not a wishlist.
Insurance billing considerations
For practices that bill insurance:
- Booking should capture insurance info upfront (policy number, group, primary insurance vs secondary)
- Eligibility-check before booking (some patients not covered for the requested service)
- Co-pay collection at booking or at appointment
This is generally handled by EHR-integrated platforms, not standalone booking platforms.
Sample clinic stack
Mental health practice (5 therapists):
- SimplePractice or TherapyNotes
- Total: $200-500/month
Wellness clinic (chiro + massage + acupuncture, 3 providers, no insurance billing):
- Jane App or SimplePractice
- Total: $100-300/month
Aesthetic / med-spa (non-medical, 4 providers):
- Zedule + Stripe
- Total: $20/month all-in
Solo coach / nutritionist:
- Zedule or Calendly Pro
- Total: $100-200/year