Cancellation Policy

Please provide 24 hours notice for all cancellations (voice mail or message is required) or the full appointment fee will be charged. Advance notice allows us to accommodate other patients from our waitlist. 

For the health and safety of staff and clients, we ask that that you cancel your session if your child or family member is ill. This includes any condition that may be infectious and/or would ordinarily exempt your child or family member from attending school, daycare or work, including any symptoms that have been exhibited in the last 24 hours. If your child or family member is sick, your session will be cancelled and you will still pay the full cost of the session unless you have given 24 hours notice. Please contact your clinician, as soon as possible, if you are unsure. Please note: we are happy to offer online sessions in lieu of an in-person session but virtual/online sessions are not always offered for cancellations due to illness, as it may not be clinically beneficial for an individual to do an online session if they are feeling sick.

Examples of contagious diseases:

  • Strep Throat

  • Unexplained rash

  • Stomach Flu (Gastroenteritis)

  • Diarrhea

  • Vomiting

  • Hand-foot-and-mouth disease

  • Pink Eye

  • Head Lice

Once again, if your child or family member is too sick to attend school, daycare or work, they may be too sick to attend an in-person therapy session. If you suspect that your child or family member has a contagious illness, please verify with a doctor prior to booking more sessions.

Groups: If your child is registered for a Richmond outdoor basketball/soccer/golf session, or a playgroup/scavenger hunt group, and it is raining or snowing, the session will be moved indoors (or outdoors under cover) and our team will continue to work on executive functioning and motor skills, inside the clinic (or outdoors under cover). If you choose to cancel the session, due to the fact that it is moved indoors due to weather or under cover outdoors, you would still be charged a late cancellation fee.

Infection Control Protocols

Come join our individual OT sessions, scavenger hunts, Rock Climbing sessions, group basketball sessions, kayaking sessions and biking sessions! We have established specific infection control protocols for these sessions, including our group basketball sessions. If you or your child is sick or unwell (or have experienced in the past 7 - 10 days: pink eye/conjunctivitis, diarrhea/nausea/vomiting, abdominal pain, skin rashes, discoloration of fingers/toes), please connect with a staff member to discuss your return date for in-person sessions or alternatives such as online sessions. If you or a family member are exhibiting any of these symptoms, we may ask your child to refrain from participating in sessions for 7 days, due to the vulnerable nature of our elderly clients. 

Please see below for the list of enhanced precautions that we have taken to protect your family:

  • Clinicians may be wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) which include disposable one-time use latex gloves, disposable one-time use surgical masks OR N95 masks, eyeglass protection or face shields, and following hand-washing protocols before and after sessions.

  • We will have one-time use, disposable, surgical masks for your child to wear, if they do not have their own, during cold and flu season or if they still have a lingering cough or runny nose. If your child cannot tolerate wearing a mask or has a medical condition which would be exacerbated by your child wearing a mask, an exception may be provided by the Clinical Director for your child to not wear one during sessions.

  • Clinicians will be cleaning and sanitizing ALL toys and equipment before/after each session, in addition to all surfaces (tables, chairs, doors).

  • In-person therapy sessions at our clinic will be booked with staggering appointment times to minimize the overlap of families or kids in the waiting area

Please note: our outdoor groups during this time are limited to 4 children per group. It is expected that families will use hand sanitizer upon arrival to the clinic or outdoor session. Children may be asked to utilize hand sanitizer at regular intervals during the sessions (please advise if your child has any allergies to this) to prevent the spread of viruses.

During cold and flu season, clinicians may be calling families the morning of the session to ask mandatory questions before proceeding with the session, to ensure the safety of all families and staff members. Please kindly ensure that your phone number on file (that we are calling on the same day, morning of the session) is the best one to reach you at, and is your updated/current phone number (if we are unable to reach you via phone on the day of the session, then your session will be cancelled and still billed). However, if we need to cancel your session, due to an answer that was provided during these screening questions, it may be possible to have the last minute cancellation fee waived. Alternatively, we may be able to offer you a virtual/online option for a clinic session, at no additional cost, if we need to cancel your in-person session, due to an answer provided during our call (but this requires approval from the Clinical Director, and this is only an option if the supervising OT believes an online session is clinically beneficial for your child, and if your child is feeling well enough to receive clinical benefits from an online session).

Telerehabilitation

We are continuing to use a telerehabilitation application for clients who are working on gross motor skills, balance, executive functioning skills/social skills/safety awareness, anxiety reduction or mindfulness techniques as many families prefer this type of session for convenience.  These online sessions are an effective way of delivering treatment for impulse control, planning/organization, social skills or anxiety reduction! Our wonderful tech-savvy staff members can easily guide you through the process of using ZOOM on your tablet, phone or home computer. 

Discharge/Re-starting OT services

(Due to our wait list, if a family cancels a regularly scheduled session three times or more, within the time frame of 4 weeks, the family’s regularly scheduled spot on the caseload may be released to another family on the wait list, even if advance notice is provided for those cancellations.)

As we are a busy clinic, we cannot keep a file open for greater than 4 weeks, with the exception of the summer months July - August. As such, our clinic policy is generally to discharge clients who are absent for 4 weeks or longer, or have ceased attending OT sessions with our team for greater than 4 weeks. Families are welcome to re-apply for Therapy services upon their return from the absence/vacation and we will consider them at a later time, if we have space available. If your child has not received services in 4 - 6 weeks, it is required that your child see an OT within their first few weeks back at the clinic to ensure that the treatment plan established for them is still applicable, effective and safe, before they can work with an OT Assistant. In general, if your child has had not received OT services, as per the above time frame, then an initial OT assessment may be required, again.

Policies: Reports, Letters, Fees and Scheduling

Scheduling

  • If you would like to change your weekly session (the day of the week or time of a session or increase frequency of services), it is recommended that you provide us with 8 - 10 weeks notice for this request. This request requires advance approval from the Clinical Director and regretfully, not all requests for a change of time or date can be accommodated.

  • If you would like to change the duration of a session, we require a minimum of 2 weeks notice to do so (and approval from the Clinical Director)

  • For households with more than one child being seen by the same Therapist, 72 hours (3 business days, Monday through Friday) notice is required if the family wishes to switch which child is receiving treatment at the upcoming appointment.

Funding and Costs

  • To secure a spot on the OT caseload, you will be required to put a credit card on file to hold the spot. It will be charged only if there is insufficient funds in your funding/AFU account, if you are using a funding source. We are unable to hold a spot on the OT caseload, for new families, without a credit card being put on file.

  • Autism Funding (Request to Pay Service Provider forms): If you would like to use a funding source to pay for OT (or BI/OT Assistant) services, such as Autism Funding, then please notify the Admin team/Accounts team prior to the initial session at the clinic or prior to the group/solo session being conducted (i.e. Kayaking, Soccer). Additionally, if you would like to switch to pay privately for sessions, we require advance notice (minimum of 3 weeks notice).

  • The initial Request to Pay Service Provider form must also be filled out at the first session, in collaboration with the Clinical Director, prior to commencing OT services with our clinic, if families would like services to be billed to this funding source, to ensure accuracy of our clinic information on the form.

  • If funding is obtained after the initial session, the family must book a 15 minute appointment, free-of-charge, to fill out the Request to Pay Service Provider paperwork, in person, in collaboration with the Clinical Director (to ensure accuracy of the clinic information on the form), a minimum of 3 weeks in advance, to commence use of this funding source. Additionally, we are unable to bill services to AFU until you show us the AFU funding approval letter for your newly diagnosed child or teen, and we require 1 - 4 business days to process this item.

  • We are unable to reimburse families who pay privately for sessions, prior to their AFU funding being in place, unfortunately.

  • For funding renewals/amendments of services, the new AFU authorization number must be in existence (and have been generated by AFU), and the specified service must be added (such as BI/OT Assistant services), before the session for the service occurs, if the family wishes to bill the session/service to AFU (if the service has not been added before the session occurs, the family must pay for the session privately). Please note: we do not “back date” funding with AFU nor do we provide reimbursements if services have been paid privately and funding is obtained, later.

  • Funding (allocation/funding maximums): Families using Autism funding, At Home Funding (or alternative funding sources such as Self-Design) are responsible for keeping track of the amount allocated to the Enable OT team independently and being utilized by the Enable OT team. If a family exceeds the amount allocated to the Enable OT team, then they are required to make an amendment via phone or online on the parent portal (within 48 hours of notification by the Enable OT Accounts/Admin team) to cover the outstanding costs or they will be responsible for paying the remainder of the costs, privately, and the credit card on file will be billed, accordingly.

  • Receipts for privately paid sessions are generally sent within 1 - 2 weeks of the credit card being billed, due to the volume at our clinic, except during May - September (our busiest time of year!) when the receipts may be sent out 2 - 4 weeks following the credit card being billed.

  • Effective March 2023, we no longer issue invoices to families for approval, prior to billing for private pay sessions. We charge the credit card on file directly following a session.

  • Monthly statements or copies of AFU statements are not able to be produced to families on a monthly basis; however, we can produce them every 4 - 6 months or on a yearly basis

  • Fees are charged for photocopying/reproducing and retrieving client files to a maximum of $160.

  • Fees - OT hourly rate is charged for meetings and teleconferences with schools, funding sources, and other health care providers (i.e. social workers, physiotherapists, speech-language pathologists, behavioral consultants, behavioral interventionists).

Records and Documentation

  • Report writing for schools, funding application letters, or Letters of Justification (JFE) cost: 1 - 2 hours of the OT hourly rate (a minimum of 3 weeks notice is required for reports). Please note: no requests for Letters of Justification or Progress Reports can be accommodated during June - September or December, generally, as our OT team is on vacation during this time.

  • Requests for “Letter of Justification for Equipment (JFE)” require advance approval from the Clinical Director and supervising Therapists. A minimum of 3 weeks notice is required for all Letter of Justification for Equipment requests. (Please note: these requests for Letters of Justification are a request only. Our Therapists are not obligated to perform this request.) If your child has not received OT services within the past 4 weeks from our OT team, then an OT re-assessment is needed to ensure that the clinical information in the JFE is accurate.

  • Reports are released to families after payment has been made in full for the cost of report writing.

  • Client requests for records or files may take up to 30 days to process

  • A formal Discharge document may be provided to the family to sign to acknowledge termination of services from our clinic. This document may provide a summary of dates of service and amounts that have been invoiced to date. Parents may be asked to sign this before final Therapist reports are released from the Enable OT clinic.

Other

  • Toileting: Please note that although our Occupational Therapists and OT Assistants are trained to assist with toileting, we cannot assist with this task in the clinic setting for every child. The team can only assist with this task in a client’s house with an ergonomic setup with proper equipment for the child, after a formal home OT Assessment has been conducted by the Registered OT. (Advance approval from the Clinical Director is required if you would like our team to assist with this task.)

  • If a parent or guardian leaves the clinic or outdoor area while a child is in session with our team, the parent or guardian must have a cell phone with them that is charged and in working condition, and stay within 5 minutes driving or walking distance of the session (for emergencies).

  • If your child is working with a Rehabilitation Assistant(RA)/Occupational Therapy Assistant on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, please note that a re-assessment by the supervising Occupational Therapist is required and it generally occurs every 4 - 6 weeks to evaluate your child’s progression. Please note that the services are generally billed for both clinicians during these sessions. (This includes basketball sessions, as they are generally conducted by Rehabilitation Assistants. The first basketball session attended by a child or youth, always has the cost of a supervising OT billed, in addition to the regular basketball session to fee, to enable the supervising OT to create a specific treatment plan for the RA team to follow for basketball sessions. If your child is struggling significantly during the basketball sessions, then the supervising OT may be required to attend additional sessions and the cost of the OT’s attendance is billed for those sessions)