Reschedulable and no-cancel appointment types

Overview

When your practice's EHR or PM interface templates are mapped into NextPatient, you gain the ability to configure how each appointment type behaves for online scheduling. Specifically, you can mark appointment types as:

• Reschedulable: This applies to all rescheduling features, including standard rescheduling, no-show rescheduling, and waitlist
• No-cancel

These settings let you fine-tune the self-scheduling experience so that sensitive or high-value visits — like post-op visits or new patient evaluations — are handled differently than routine follow-ups.

How to access appointment type settings

1. Go to nextpatient.co and click Log in.
2. In the top blue menu bar, click Settings.
3. Under Practice Settings, click Visit Reasons.
4. Follow these steps for each appointment type:
   • Reschedulable: Click Configure next to Reschedulable types to select the visits you want to enable for standard rescheduling, no-show rescheduling, and waitlist. Because this is a single shared list, changes here update all three at once.
     • You can also reach this same settings screen from the Waitlist page: click Waitlist in the top blue menu bar, click Settings above the Send now column, then click # types next to Available for appt types.
   • No-cancel: Click Configure next to No-cancel types to select the visits you do not want patients to be able to self-cancel.
5. Click Update on each settings page to save your changes.

Appointment type settings explained

Reschedulable appointment types

Reschedulable appointment settings control eligibility for standard rescheduling, no-show rescheduling, and waitlist — there isn't a separate setting for each. The appointment types you select here determine:

• Standard rescheduling: Patients rescheduling an upcoming appointment themselves (for example, via the reschedule link in appointment reminder emails)
• No-show rescheduling: Patients rescheduling from an automated notification after missing an appointment
• Waitlist eligibility: Whether patients can be offered an earlier opening through when one becomes available

Not every appointment type needs to be reschedulable. A common approach is to allow it for routine visits (annual exams, follow-ups, injections), while excluding visits like pre- and post-op appointments, which typically shouldn't be rescheduled through self-serve channels.

Specific considerations apply depending on your EHR or PM system:

• athenahealth and DrChrono: Rescheduling is available for all appointment types with no restriction.
• NextGen: Rescheduling is available with possible restrictions.
• AdvancedMD and Nextech Select: An appointment type must be mapped in Visit Reasons and marked "Available" to be reschedulable — hidden or unbookable types will not work.
• ModMed and Nextech Practice+: A visit reason can be marked “Hidden” (not bookable on the widget) and still be reschedulable — so you can enable rescheduling for a type without exposing it for online booking.
• CareCloud, CureMD, Veradigm, and unintegrated practices: Rescheduling is not available and shouldn't be enabled.

If you're unsure how this applies to your EHR or PM system, reach out to your account manager for help configuring these settings correctly

No-cancel appointment types

In addition to reschedulable appointment types, you can also prevent patients from canceling specific appointment types online, even though they still receive a standard booking confirmation.

Here's how it works:

• When a patient books online, they receive a confirmation email that, by default, includes a cancel link, which respects your practice's cancellation policy (e.g., cancellations allowed only if the appointment is more than a set number of hours away — otherwise, the patient is directed to call the office).
• Marking an appointment type as no-cancel removes the ability to cancel for that type, but it does not remove the cancel link itself from the confirmation email. Patients who click it will simply be unable to complete a cancellation and instructed to call instead.
• No-cancel types are also respected in Appointment Manager. Once enabled in your reminders, patients with a non-cancellable appointment type won't be able to cancel through Appointment Manager either.

This gives you a way to keep sending confirmation and reminder emails for every appointment type — including ones you don't want patients canceling on their own — without turning off automated communications altogether.

FAQs

Are reschedulable and waitlist-eligible appointment types configured separately?

No. One setting controls all three: standard rescheduling, no-show rescheduling, and waitlist eligibility. Configuring the Reschedulable types setting under Visit Reasons controls all of them together.

Does marking an appointment type as "no-cancel" stop patients from receiving a confirmation email?
No. Patients still get the standard confirmation email — the only difference is that the cancel link in that email won't allow them to complete a cancellation for that appointment type, and instead, they will be directed to call the office.

If I mark an appointment type as reschedulable, will patients be able to reschedule it even if it's not currently bookable online?

It depends on your EHR or PM system. For athenahealth and DrChrono, there's no restriction either way. For AdvancedMD and Nextech Select, the type must be bookable online. For ModMed and Nextech Practice+, a hidden (non-bookable) type can still be made reschedulable. Unintegrated practices and a few other PMs don't support rescheduling at all.

Can I apply no-cancel to only some appointment types, or is it all-or-nothing?

Yes. You can select no-cancel on a per-appointment-type basis, so you can allow online cancellation for routine visits while restricting it for others.

Are these settings practice-specific or group-wide?

They're configured at the group level, so changes apply across all practices or locations in your group rather than to one individually.

Does no-cancel affect Appointment Manager too, or just the confirmation email?

Both. Once no-cancel is applied and Appointment Manager is added to your reminders, patients won't be able to cancel a non-cancellable appointment type through either channel.