ZocdocReviews 1,426

I found zocdoc when I was searching for a new doctor. I signed up and scheduled an appointment with a doctor on their site, said it was scheduled. A day later the doctor office called and said they had to reschedule my appointment because the time I had picked was not available. I tried 4 different doctors and picked the date and times that zocdoc had on their site and then received calls from all 4 that those appointments were not available. It's a waste of time to go through this site. Call the doctor yourself, your better off.

We have been using Zocdoc for the past five years but under the new management and new deceptive pricing policies ZOCDOC has turned into a scam. They charge us $35 for each new booking but ever since they started the new pricing model we are being peppered with fake bookings people having no insurance and out of network being able to book with us despite our repeated warnings and clear instructions on our profile and ZOCdoc just does nothing to resolve such bookings as they have shielded themselves.

Zocdoc was good until last year when they became aggressively greedy. Physicians are unfairly charged for bookings, regardless of whether patients actually show up or not. I've had other physician friends suspect ZocDoc defends this as they come up with fake accounts and bots to make these appointments to dishonestly generate revenue. There is no way to dispute these bookings as they simply dont allow it. They simply didnt care if they charged you for fake bookings. We have since marketed in other ways that have generated more revenue and patients and way less frustration.

If you are a patient, please be aware that insurances are not verified and may be out of network. Zocdoc will still show you providers out of no network and even the "in network" insurances are not verified by them.

They start out telling you that if a client books an appointment and they don't keep it, they sign up for a service not provided by you, if you are not in-network with their insurance, you have 24 hours to cancel the appointment and not get charged. However, after receiving my first bill, they charged me for every appointment clients made that did not cancel the appointment themselves and when I called to dispute it, they told me that they are not a referral service, just a booking service and the it is the client, not the provider, that has 24 hours to cancel before the provider gets billed.

What he is failing to mention in the last review comment is that they were only able to implement this illegal activity in 13 states because they were blocked by regulators since getting kickbacks for medical referrals is against the law in most states and specifically in the state of New York. And if they are not allowed to do so in NY they wont be able to do so anywhere in the US. What doctors need to do is to hire an attorney and sue the company for violating the anti-kickback statute. The interesting point is that if you are a doctor who is paying zocdoc for referrals, you are violating the law as well, which could carry a fine of $100,000.00 and prison time. Zocdoc is able to pay this fine, which is why they are breaking the law, but if you are a physician, think about the penalty before participating in this illegal activity.

We are a 5 star physician Practice who used to accept all insurances and provide an equal access of care to all patients. It's unfortunate that Zocdoc has taken a capitalist approach to Patient care. They decided to charge $80 per patient to our practice (whether patient shows up or not). This forced us to not accept poorly paying plans as we would not be able to sustain a medical practice with that ridiculous price. Charging to see per patient should be criminal because they are putting value on patient care. I am sure doctors will be inclined to order unnecessary test and visits to make up that cost.

Since the new pricing model, $35 per new patient booking (finder's fee) and some detail on this first as a provider you set up a monthly budget of say $300 and if a patient books that $35 is subtracted from your budget until your budget is down to $0 at which point you will no longer be found on Zocdoc until your budget is replenished the next month... so this model is doing a huge disservice to both provider and patient.
Patients may not see the most seasoned and well reviewed doctors on the site as their monthly allotted budget burns quicker than those with poorer reviewed ones leaving patients to only choose from, well, the rest. Also, as a patient if you made an error in booking, like let's say you selected the wrong plan and you're doctor doesn't accept it... the doctor will not be as inclined to clarify your error (due to booking fees and budget restraints mentioned above) prior to treatment leaving you susceptible to out of network charges, that could be financially devastating. After all, you the patient chose the insurance.
Also, doctors are now choosing not to advertise certain insurance plans as their finder's fee eats well into the total cost of the reimbursement. Most patient's only see a provider when needed, so doctor's will do away with lower paying insurer's from the site as taking on someone with say GHI or Emblemhealth just isn't worth it when your total reimbursement is $45 and you have to pay zocdoc back the $35 finder's fee. And, yes, they say you establish a patient bond and you will receive money over the lifetime of the patient's visits upon your practice, well patient's just come when they really, REALLY have to. Don't hold your breath for that doctor-patient bond to pay off. So dropping certain plans from their site now is only logical.
And providers, you're getting the rawest of deals. If the patient cancels more than 24 hours after the booking, you get charged, regardless of the reason. Whether a patient has a gripe with you / your staff or is just acting juvenile in nature and is unknowing of the fees or has a bit of OCD with regards to technology or is even waiting to see if their condition disappears by the weekend and proceeds with a booking and cancels, you're paying for it. Still worth it? Their sales team says yes, many more practitioners are already saying no.
Zocdoc, you blew it!

ZocDoc publishes doctors' business addresses without their permission, knowledge or consent. ZocDoc does not appear to have a real legal department with an actual lawyer - when contacted, there is no real name at the bottom of the email in their reply. Despite multiple requests made to be put in touch with their technical team, they cannot provide that. They do not appear to have a technical team like other third party doctor aggregate sites. If you are your doctor, beware of ZocDoc. They will publish your info without your consent and do not have the ability or technical knowledge in order for it to be off of google. They don't know how to trigger google to take the info you don't want showing up down. They are also unable to do a simple 404 deletion. If they had a real technical team, they'd be able to take these simple steps to ensure a doctor's privacy and safety. As far as I'm concerned, ZocDoc should not be in business anymore.

Zocdoc is a very shady practice. They are about making money and I would not trust anything you see on their site, either as a provider or a consumer. I'm a provider and they charge me $60 for every patient that does not cancel within 24 hours of when they make an appointment, even if that appointment is a week later. When they sold this to me that told me about the 24 hours cancellation policy and it was inferred that this was 24 hours from the appointment time, as an practice would. Very very shady.
DO NOT TRUST THEM!

This company calls our office numerous times per week, insisting to speak to the doctor. I give them our email address to send correspondence because our doctor's wife handles these types of inquiries and responds via email if interested. They are rude when being told they cannot speak to the doctor and continually ask if they can follow up next week. When being told they have to correspond via email they get pushy, arrogant and nasty. They actually hung up on me today!

I live in FL and am on Florida's DO NOT CALL LIST. For the last month I have received at least 10 calls a day from them. When I pick up the phone there is no one there, so that I can tell them to quit harassing me. I have begun listing every call I get from them, and started to turn them over to the state agency in charge of enforcing the law. Wish I could see the expression on their face when they get the bill, at $500 Per Call. Ouch!