Every Empty Slot Has a Price.
A no-show costs the visit fee, the provider’s time, and often a follow-up that never gets booked. Enter your schedule and no-show rate to see the annual cost — and how much cutting it to your target rate would add without one extra hour of clinic time.
- Annual revenue lost to missed appointments
- Provider hours left idle after refills
- The dollar value of hitting your target rate
Runs entirely in your browser — nothing you enter is stored or sent anywhere.
Your schedule, in numbers
All providers combined.
Collected, not billed.
Revenue lost to no-shows each year
$320,717
Bringing no-shows from 16% to 7% is worth about $180K a year — with no extra marketing or hours.
Missed visits / yr
2,458
Idle provider hours
737
per year, after refills
Value at target
$180K
recovered per year
A systematic review of 105 studies found an average no-show rate of about 23%, but rates vary enormously by specialty, patient population, and lead time. Your own history is the best baseline.
How It Works
No-Shows Are Predictable — So They’re Fixable
A systematic review in Health Policy covering 105 studies put the average no-show rate around 23%, and found the strongest predictors were long lead times and a patient’s own no-show history. Both can be acted on: shorter booking horizons, reminders timed to the patient, and targeted outreach to the patients most likely to miss.
The formula
Annual cost = Weekly appointments × No-show rate × (1 − Refill rate) × Revenue per visit × Clinic weeks
Reduce
Remind, then confirm
Multi-touch reminders by text and phone, with an easy way to cancel or reschedule. A cancellation two days out is a slot you can refill; a no-show isn’t.
Refill
Keep a live waitlist
A same-day and next-day waitlist turns cancellations into filled visits. Even refilling 20–30% of slots changes the math significantly.
Target
Focus on the repeat few
Prior no-show history is one of the strongest predictors. Flag patients with two or more misses for confirmation calls and shorter lead times.
Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average no-show rate for medical practices?
A widely cited systematic review (Dantas et al., Health Policy, 2018) found an average of about 23% across 105 studies, with large differences by region, specialty, and patient population. Many outpatient practices run lower; behavioral health and safety-net clinics often run higher.
What is a good no-show rate target?
There is no official benchmark. Many practices aim for single digits. The more useful target is a reduction from your own baseline — every point is worth the amount this calculator shows.
Should I charge a no-show fee?
It can reduce repeat no-shows, but check payer contracts (Medicare permits missed-appointment charges as long as the policy applies equally to all patients, not only Medicare beneficiaries) and state rules. Many practices find reminders and easy rescheduling more effective than fees.
Does overbooking solve no-shows?
Targeted overbooking based on predicted no-show risk can help, but blanket overbooking creates long waits on days everyone shows up. It works best combined with reminders and a waitlist.
Why use collected revenue per visit, not billed?
Billed charges overstate the loss because payers pay contracted rates. Divide collections by visits over a recent quarter to get a realistic figure.
Do no-shows affect anything beyond revenue?
Yes — missed follow-ups affect care continuity and quality measures, and long lead times caused by unused slots push other patients to urgent care or competitors.
Sources
- [1]Dantas LF, Fleck JL, Cyrino Oliveira FL, Hamacher S. “No-shows in appointment scheduling – a systematic literature review.” Health Policy, 2018
- [2]Patient No-Show Prediction: A Systematic Literature Review (PMC)
This is an independent planning tool built by MedVersify from published methodology. It is not an official CMS, payer, or clinical tool, and results are estimates — confirm decisions against your own reports, payer contracts, and clinical judgment.
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