If getting large swaths of doctors to buy software is hard, raising prices is a non-starter.
The company has tried to do for doctor's offices what OpenTable did for restaurants and Airbnb did for vacation rentals.īut Zocdoc faces challenges that are unique to health care. In particular, Zocdoc is relied upon by tens of thousands of private practices that don't have the big administrative budgets employed by hospital systems and universities. Patients in need of an immediate dermatologist, dentist, internist or optometrist can find an available appointment nearby rather than calling all over town or getting a referral from a primary care physician and waiting for a time slot to open up. In January, electronic health records provider Practice Fusion was acquired by AllScripts for $100 million, a fraction of its earlier valuation, and in May the board of HealthTap, a struggling medical advice app, fired the founder and CEO after concerning reports about his conduct.įounded in 2007 and led by CEO Oliver Kharraz, a former doctor, Zocdoc has particular prominence in its hometown of New York, where about one in five new patient-doctor relationships are established on the service. Zocdoc, which is backed by some of the biggest names in tech, including Jeff Bezos, Marc Benioff and Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, is the latest highly-valued software start-up that's found it difficult to find sustainable growth in health care. Late last week, Zocdoc told the Medical Society of the State of New York that it was putting the plan on pause and started informing some of its customers that it "will slow down to take the time to listen and consider the feedback." So Chien helped launch a public campaign on Facebook and through a petition, which now has more than 100 signatures, to rally support from doctors and keep Zocdoc from moving forward with its proposal. "Zocdoc is basically forcing doctors to engage in professional misconduct," Chien, 43, said in an interview. Beyond that, the booking fee would put doctors in a legal gray area, because of state and federal laws that prevent physicians from paying third parties for referrals.
The model was piloted recently with some physicians in New York and, according to a document seen by CNBC, certain doctors in Washington, D.C., were informed of a pricing change starting July 1.įor Chien, the change would multiply his Zocdoc bill by more than seven-fold, an increase his low-margin business would be unable to absorb. 1, lowering the annual charge while adding a booking fee for every new customer, even those that end up canceling. The company had been planning to roll out a pricing change starting Oct. Personal Loans for 670 Credit Score or Lower Personal Loans for 580 Credit Score or Lower Best Debt Consolidation Loans for Bad Credit
0 kommentar(er)
