Keely P.

Our clinic has constant issues with ZocDoc no-shows, post-24-hour cancellations, and drug-seeking client behavior. This platform has been a huge waste of our time, energy, and resources. Zocdoc also has a zero-patient-fault policy and a no-refund policy for clinics. Based on these facts and the actual new patient realization rates we're seeing, the $70/booking, especially for small private pay clinics, feels predatory and like false advertising when it comes to ROI. Patients pretty much never cancel on their own within the 24-hour window. They no-show or cancel about 90% of the time in our case. This might not be the case for insurance-based practices, but for small, private pay clinics it's a nightmare. If the patient cancels on their own within 24 hours after booking, no charge. But if you try to call, e-mail, AND text the patient just 20 minutes after booking to confirm they are aware that you are cash pay and not in-network and they don't respond until the next day, or they never respond, you get charged $70 for all that urgency, time, and effort. Same with potential spammers/bots/bad e-mail or phone provided, etc. ZocDoc says we need to be more clear so no there is zero patient confusion when booking. Our private-pay policies and pricing are abundantly clear throughout our profile. The very top of our profile says "SELF-PAY/CASH-PAY, NO INSURANCE." We don't list any insurance as accepted. We registered as self-pay, etc. Notifications pop up informing the patient that we are "out of network," which I think confuses people, and should just say that we don't take insurance at all. The patient also has to sign forms acknowledging our private pay status and our pricing/rates immediately after booking the appointment. None of this helps, which leaves me dumbfounded. Most people on ZocDoc want insurance coverage and they ghost us or cancel when we tell them it's private pay. If they are one of the few who are kind enough to let us know they are canceling, they don't do it on the ZocDoc site that they used 1 time (we have to go in and do it for them), and they certainly don't do it within 24 hours, so we've usually already been charged. ZocDoc knows these statistics and one has to wonder if they are making fake appointments to rack up charges... That would be a GREAT business model. In any case, they are choosing not to fix a broken system simply to make a huge profit. They have no accountability and no skin in the game. We will be redirecting our marketing dollars into our own SEO efforts and using our own EMR booking features going forward. No more BS. If at any point things change for the better, I will gladly reconsider the platform and will update this review.