Reducing administrative costs for doctors: ZocDoc’s insurance checker helps doctors pre-verify a patient’s health insurance.

By helping doctors see patients whenever they’re available, ZocDoc allows them to distribute their fixed costs over more patients.

Increasing doctor utilization: while doctors are often booked for weeks, their utilization is 60-70% because of last-minute cancellations and no-shows.

Enabling patients to book doctor appointments within 24 hours: wasting less time in visiting a doctor could mean early detection and cure for patients and lower healthcare expenses.

Pathways to a Just Digital Future Watch this tech inequality series featuring scholars, practitioners, & activists Therefore, ZocDoc has created value for both patients and doctors: ZocDoc is essentially a Yelp for doctors with the features of OpenTable.

Doctors, in turn, can choose to be listed on ZocDoc and allow the platform to access and integrate with their digital calendars so that their updated calendars can be viewed by patients in real-time. Appointment booking is not just online but also via iOS and Android apps. The ZocDoc platform allows patients to search based on the doctor’s specialty, location, insurance coverage, and profile reviews. ZocDoc is a two-sided digital platform that allows patients to search and view the available appointment times of doctors online and book them instantly. In 2007, ZocDoc was born to improve access to healthcare. In Boston, the average wait time was 52 days to schedule an appointment with specialists like cardiologists, orthopedic surgeons, or gynecologists. This is a 30% jump from 2014 and has been driven by doctor shortages, aging baby boomers, and greater insurance penetration (thanks to the Affordable Care Act). Patients wait an average of 24 days to schedule an appointment with a doctor in U.S.

Zocdoc primary care doctor