Healthcare Marketplace Releases Patient Engagement Solution Suite

Zocdoc, a platform enabling patients to find and book in-person or virtual appointments, is releasing a free suite of tools to help healthcare providers reach and manage patient care more effectively.

Called Zocdoc Practice Solutions, the suite includes intake tools that allow patients to fill out forms and send insurance information online ahead of the visit, online scheduling solutions that enable patients to view provider availability and book online directly from a practice's website or a search engine, and video services that will allow providers to see patients virtually with HIPAA-compliant video technology.

These tools are available to all healthcare providers, not just Zocdoc marketplace customers. Providers can also use these tools to manage patients, including those who do not use Zocdoc.

"This significant expansion takes Zocdoc beyond patient acquisition and into patient engagement for the first time," said Zocdoc Founder and CEO Oliver Kharraz, MD, in the press release. "We bring 16 years of experience sitting at the intersection of patients and providers, facilitating tens of millions of interactions between the two."

According to the press release, the tools can be integrated into any EHR system and plugged into existing practice workflows. A private Beta test among Zocdoc's existing marketplace customers shows that 35 percent of providers have already adopted at least one Zocdoc Practice Solutions tool.

"We send Intake requests to all of our patients, not just those who book through Zocdoc," said Angela Marler, office manager at Pink Women's Center, a Katy, Texas-based obstetrics and gynecology practice, in the press release. "It is incredibly intuitive to use and not only saves my staff time on the phone, it also offers a better experience for our patients."

The company plans to enhance Zocdoc Practice Solutions by incorporating more services, such as billing and payment and patient-provider messaging.

The launch puts Zocdoc in direct competition with companies like Phreesia and NexHealth. Phreesia, which provides patient intake, billing, scheduling, and analytics solutions, has received high rankings from customers per reports from market research firm KLAS. NexHealth offers tools to digitize the patient journey, including online scheduling, messaging, payments, automated reminders, and marketing campaign capabilities. But, the press release states that these solutions are expensive and challenging.

"We've consistently heard from providers that their costly patient engagement tools fail to actually engage patients, which adds a tremendous administrative burden to practice staff who spend their days scheduling appointments and chasing patients for critical information ahead of visits," said Zocdoc Vice President of Product Alex Doyne, in the press release. "We've also heard from providers that these solutions are not intuitive or easy for their office staff to use; they're hard to set up, hard to incorporate into existing workflows and hard to navigate."

The launch of Zocdoc Practice Solutions comes as demand for digitally enabled healthcare access grows.

According to survey results released last year, six in 10 respondents said they are more likely to pick a provider office if they can make the appointment online, with 48 percent adding that they prefer digital patient outreach over telephone outreach.

The survey conducted by OnePoll on behalf of ModMed polled 2,000 patients about their experience with a doctor's office.

The survey further shows that 22 percent of healthcare consumers want to hear from their provider offices via email, 14 percent via text message, and 12 percent via the patient portal.