Online Appointments

I tried to make an online booking with a physiotherapist and was led to this site (separate to the physio’s actual website) to make the appointment but did not like that they asked for my credit card details as a mandatory field , which included providing CCV digits. I haven’t even had the physio appointment yet! It might make it more convenient for their subscribing business to collect their fees and manage appointments but I don’t like it from a consumer point of view. Don’t use it!
Who knows where your information could get to!
https://www.booklyfe.com.au/about-us/

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4 posts were split to a new topic: Companies Retaining Credit Card Details for Auto-renewals

Yes, it would have been my first visit. So now I have chosen to go to another one that get you to pay afterwards.

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Several of the medical/dental service providers we use now encourage us to book on line.

When I tried this recently for one, it was clearly a third party app or provider as I was required to accept a terms and conditions of use clause. I declined, so no appointment. When I rang to book it was suggested I should use the online booking. I’ve had several reminders about this service from the counter staff.

I gather from the automated SMS I received after a phone booking the counter staff may be using the same system. What is most disturbing is the online system asked me to provide personal details such as my Medicare number, etc. details that the practice already held in their records. I’m assuming that if the practice uses the online system if I phone a booking in they do not need to provide the same data, or they have entered it in at some stage. At least in that instance it is up to the practice to ensure the information entered is secure and it is the practice that is responsible for how it is used?

I don’t recollect being asked for credit card details in the online booking however I did not complete registration. It may be the final step?

My partner believes the online booking is great as you can book outside office hours, you are not put on hold, and importantly there is no need to talk to a stranger. The majority may see these benefits and none of the risks. Is it too late? Has this slipped past the political and privacy radar?

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We have an allied health practice and despite the push, we avoid online booking systems. We can see why they are popular, but the recent discovery that one of these systems was providing information to third parties, has made us more wary.
We like our patients and would like to keep them, but we do not want to be answering to their information being shared without our knowledge.
As to CCV numbers, as we do not do online selling in any way, I am not clear on the platform that might require this. If someone pays by credit card, on the phone, the Suncorp machine we use requires them to give us the CCV no. If we are in an area where someone else can overhear, I don’t repeat the number for clarification and never write the number down. I certainly think we have as much responsibility for the patient’s security as they do. And because our practice behaves in this way, I expect any other medically related practice to behave in the same way.

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Kudos for your office taking a best practice approach, but why would that beget any other office behaving similarly because you expect it, although one would hope they did?

We recently paid a few medicos for what and sundry and their payment methods varied from EFT instructions to fill out card information including CCVs and drop it in the post, to mailing a cheque (!), to emailing payment information, to they took card information on the phone (it was obviously opaque whether they were writing anything down or if it was going direct into a computer billing form).

Bottom line is that my perspective is that any individual provider reflects the practices they have adopted, and those are not automatically transferable to any other provider’s practices. One always hopes and may reasonably expect they work at best practice as do you, but until you know, you don’t know.

If I edit your comment to: because our practice behaves in this way, I expect many other medically related practices to behave in the same way. I agree with you.

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