Zocdoc

Zocdoc scams doctors by charging them a fee depending on what specialty they are in through a "third-party valuation company." What this means is they have a third party company figure out how much a doctor in that specialty makes, and increases the fee as high as possible to try to bilk them. If you ask ZocDoc what third party company that engineered all this they don't tell you. No transparency. Also patients get screwed because since the doctors have to pay high fees to ZocDoc, they can't afford to let patients with insurance plans that reimburse less because it doesn't cover the cost of practice expenses with the exorbitant ZocDoc fees on top of it all, so those patients are excluded from the list of insurances the practice takes. ZocDoc used to charge a flat subscription fee so doctors' practices have more flexibility in spreading the ZocDoc fee expense across patients with different insurance plans -- those reimbursing higher can cover the fee and allow practices to see patients with plans that reimburse less. But with the current per appointment fee bilking model, ZocDoc basically forces practices to cherry pick only patients with insurance plans that reimburse more to cover the per patient booking fee. For the sake of health care access and not discriminating against patients with insurance plans that reimburse doctors less, avoid ZocDoc altogether and just book directly with the practice itself. (ZocDoc is like OpenTable which also screws restaurants with expensive booking fees.)

I signed up for one appointment via Zocdoc. That seems to have been enough to trigger NINE SEPARATE EMAILS (1. Welcome to Zocdoc, 2. Confirm your email, 3. Pending appt, 4. Confirmed appt, 5. Add your insurance [though I did that when I signed up for the appt], 6. Appt reminder, 7. Rate your visit, 8. Schedule your follow-up, and 9. Another rate your visit), as well as THREE TEXTS (1. Appt reminder, 2. Appt details, 3. Rate your visit).

Only "confirmed appt" and "appt reminder" should have been necessary. The clincher: I had to cancel because it turned out the dentist I had chosen wasn't in-network. (Edited to add: I'm lucky the doctor's office was doing their due diligence and called to double check -- looks like lots of others here have showed up and been charged out-of-pocket or found their appointment was never registered by the provider.) I canceled directly through their office. Zocdoc never registered the cancellation and kept sending me emails as if the appointment had gone forward. I have tried to unsubscribe, but they keep coming.

Some of their emails seem keen to market their product to me as a way of finding providers. This seems like kind of an underhanded use of addresses they collect from people who are just trying to sign up for doctors' appointments. I resent getting marketing plugs I did not sign up for and regret ever handing Zocdoc my email and phone number.

I wish more providers allowed you to schedule appointments online, but this is not the answer. Other reviews suggest that there are frequent coordination problems between Zocdoc and providers; I suspect that's because any kind of third-party service that works with thousands of providers will never be able to do the right kinds of checking to get everyone on the same page. Your appointments will be more secure and smoother if you contact your provider's office directly. Next time I'll just call.

ZOCDOC is horrible.
They allow fake "medical doctors" to work in their platform.

Kelsey Leveling, PA - was scheduled to meet me.

She tried to get my bank account info, tried to get to me to sign an outside documento, tried to make me go another platform, where I would meet yet another person (who was not a doctor or PA).

This was the worst experience in my life with a "medical doctor"

The related company was THE KINGSLEY CLINIC.
AVOID AT ALL COST!

VERY disappointed with our interactions with this vendor/service company. We are a small/mid-size dental office, positioned for a small amount of growth, but in general, not engaged with marketing. We were solicited by Zoc Doc. What I liked was the opportunity to book through our website. I wish I had never engaged. We are a busy office. Our patient care comes above all else. Since our dealings with Zoc Doc we are averaging four calls with Zoc Docs per day for over one month. We do not want 75% of what they offer. The first two patients who booked cancelled 30 minutes prior to their appointed times - that is, despite our telephone conversations. It just does not work with our demographic, and I am now desperately working to get out of the the arrangement. Their staff is abusive and argumentative. The $3000 upfront free is a scam. They have little care about our practice, or the core values of our business. We have enjoyed many long term relationships with vendors - and this is not one. This is a group of millenials living in virtual reality with just no understanding of the daily operation of a dental practice.

I went searching for an ENT on ZocDoc this morning hoping to book an appointment right away. The soonest was two days away. So I took the appointment. They offered to do the paperwork online. I did all the paperwork and supplied all of the insurance information. The doctors office continued to contact me throughtout the day, asking for more info. I complied with all of their requests. By the end of today, they said they had everything and would contact my insurance company, if everything was fine, then ZOCDOC would confirm my appointment. Wait a minute! ZocDoc confirmed my appointment this morning, or so I thought. Just now, the doctors office informed me that the Wednesday appointment was no longer available. Would I like to book another day? At this point, Absolutely not! Don't they realize that I took the appointment because I need to see somebody now? ZocDoc wasted a whole day for me which I could have spent finding a doctor. The doctors office and ZocDoc do not seem to or want to understand any of this.

My first experience will also be my last. I recently moved back to the Boston area from New York, and needed a new PCP. This was particularly urgent as I am a heart patient, and require regular refills of several prescriptions, mandating a referral to a cardiologist While I wasn't thrilled with the choices available, I gulped and made an appointment, which was confirmed on Jul 22.

Today, I received a call from the doctor's office; my appointment was cancelled, it was "made wrong." How so? "The doctor doesn't have enough time to see you." When I remonstrated, I was referred to another doctor, who has availability in mid-August. My prescriptions will have run out by then, but we'll see what can be done.

In any case, my sense is that ZocDoc doesn't necessarily attract the best and brightest in the medical profession; certainly, this physician's staff rate something south of "F". As noted at the outset, I consider my use of ZocDoc to be a failed experiment, and I certainly wouldn't suggest that anyone else try it.

The times listed for appointments don't always match up with the Drs actual times (especially after hours and weekends). I've had a 3 (recent) appointments canceled due to incorrect times listed. 1 of them never even made it to the Dr's office, and they were overbooked (all of the appointments I've had were seriously overbooked, and I wound up waiting over an hour each time). This was early morning and evening appointments.

You basically need to call the Dr office and confirm your appointment which defeats the purpose of making the appointment online anyways.

The only plus I can give ZocDoc is if there is a problem and you give a negative review they will follow-up directly with a phone call or personal email, but at this point it's too little to late.

I live in Newark, so it's not like I'm dealing with a small town. It was a good idea in theory.

I might still use it to see if my insurance works for certain drs, but I definitely won't be making appointments with it anymore. It will just be a glorified Google search at this point going forward.

After using a dentist, based on the 37 favorable reviews shown on ZocDoc.com, it turned out that dentist wasn't anywhere as good as the biased reviews said... I wanted to post a negative review about this dentist but was told I can not, because I didn't "book" the appointment from the ZocDoc.com site, first... And was told to read their "review policy" regarding it... I offered to show proof I used the dentist in question, but wasn't given any consideration to do so, and was told, by the ZocDoc REP, the dentists advertising on their site request this policy... When I read a review site, I'm not thinking of writing a review before using the dentist, and have NO need to view any "review policy"... This site seems to "protect" the dentists from negative reviews, hiding behind this "review policy", without regard for the public users "right-to-know" the truth about the dentists advertising on ZocDoc.com... I strongly suggest to the public, to IGNORE all reviews on ZocDoc.com as biased, and paid-for by the dentists listed there, as simply advertising for bad dentists who want to keep their secret.