Connecting Patients with
the Right Physician
Two Insurance Companies Verses ZocDoc
Ross Kopelman
MBS graduate
Tufts University
Who , What, and Where?
 Scenario: My friend Joe has a painful palpable lump on the right
side of his neck. He hasn’t been to a primary physician in over 5
years so he is not quite sure what the problem is, which kind of
doctor to consult and if this doctor practices in close proximity to
where he works or resides.
 Examining two major health insurance web sites compared to
ZocDoc a physician appointment scheduling site
 I pose the question: Which company does the best job of helping
their insurance subscribers to navigate their websites to identify
the correct physician for their specific medical problem within a
designated geographic area ?
 United Health Care
 Blue Cross
 ZocDoc
United Health Care
 Mission
 “is to help people live healthier lives by supporting the
physician/patient relationship and empower people with
the information, guidance and tools they need to make
personal health choices and decisions”
 Have they fulfilled their mission statement?
www.uhc.com
United Heath Care Web Strategy for
connecting patients to physicians
 Allows patients to
make very basic
searches for
conditions but the
feature does not
always work
 No physician profiles
 Mobile application
 Social Media Usage
 Facebook
 Twitter
United Heath Care SWOT Analysis
Strengths
• Ability to compare multiple
physicians
•Provides tools to narrow down
search to help patient pinpoint the
right doctor
Opportunities
• Improve the physician profiles
•Provide patient feedback of the
physicians
Weaknesses
• No use of social media for the
physician profiles
•Inability to book an appointment
directly from the website
•Weak social media presence
•Won’t allow patient to search based
on the symptom – maybe because
they want you to go to a primary
care doctor
Threats
• better navigation tools to find the
right doctor
Recommendations for United
Health Care
 Improve the physician comparison by incorporating patient
feedback comments
 Make it easier to search for a physician directly from the
homepage
BlueCross BlueShield
 Mission:
 “to help (patients) make the right choices, to offer
valuable coverage, and help you get quality health care for
you and those you love.”
www.bcbs.com
BlueCross BlueShields Web Strategy
 User friendly interfaces for
both internet and mobile app
usage
 Social Media
 Twitter
 Facebook
 Google +
 Profiles for physicians
 Mobile application
BlueCross BlueShields Web Strategy
BlueCross BlueShields SWOT Analysis
Strengths:
• User friendly interface for both
mobile and internet
Weaknesses:
• Won’t allow patient to search based
on the symptom – maybe because
they want you to go to a primary
care doctor
Opportunities:
• allowing users to book
appointments with physicians on the
internet or through mobile usage
•Increase social media presence
Threats:
• patients want to take control what
physician that they see and the rates
between companies don’t vary that
much so they must maintain a user
friendly interface and continue to
make it easy for the patient to find
the right physician
Recommendations for BlueCross
BlueShields
 Connect physician profiles with social media pages which
will reinforce the importance of a patient/physician
relationship
 Integrate online booking into their mobile application and
internet site
 Increase use of Social Media for the BlueCross BlueShields
brand
ZocDoc
 Mission:
 Is to improve access to healthcare by allowing patients to find
and book an appointment with a nearby doctor who
accepts their insurance
 "ZocDoc is used by 2.5 million+ patients to book
appointments with a wide range of medical specialties
across 1,600+ cities – serving more than 40% of the US
population. Target audience: health policy researchers,
policymakers, state and federal government officials,
healthcare organizations, and the media “
www.zocdoc.com
ZocDoc Web Strategy for
connecting patients to physicians

User friendly interfaces for both internet and
mobile app usage

Social Media to promote the ZocDoc brand
but also a social media approach for the
physicians that are listed on the site





Twitter – @zocdoc
Facebook
Google plus
Blog (only for zocdoc not for physicians)
Distribution



RSS Feeds
Newsletters
Youtube

Profiles for physicians

Mobile application
ZocDoc Web Strategy
ZocDoc SWOT Analysis
Strengths
• User friendly interfaces for both
internet and mobile usage
•Easily book appointments online
•Provides patient feedback of
physician
•Focus on their strength which is
helping a patient to easily find the
right doctor
•Strong social media presence on
twitter, facebook, and Google plus
Weaknesses
• System is bias because physicians
pay to be listed
•Bias also might be present in the
patient comments left for each
physician
•Don’t list all sub-specialties
•Doesn’t all regions
Opportunities
• System to help patients determine
which doctor would be ideal to see
given their current medical
condition
Threats
• competition from competitors that
could easily copy the flow of their
website
Recommendations for ZocDoc
 Provide a physician comparison system for the patients
 Encourage physicians not listed on ZocDoc to start an
online account and provide them with service for free for a
month
 Allow each physician profile to have a blog component
which will grow the content on the site and allow for the
search crawlers to pick them up etc
Web Strategy Comparison
Feature
United Health
Care
BlueCross
BlueShield
ZocDoc
Facebook
√
√
√
Twitter
√
√
√
Blog
√
√
Google Plus
√
√
Physician Customized Profile
√
√
√
√
Mobile application
√
Ability to book appointments
from internet
√
Ability to book appointments
from mobile app
√
Conclusion
 All three sites do not assist the patient in finding the
doctor best suited to care for their problem
 There is an assumption that going to a specialist is going
to cost the insurance company more money so these
companies purposely do not let the patient bypass
primary care physicians by navigating independently to
specialists
 This may? not be a cost saving measure because the
initial visit to the PCP may add an additional layer of
expense
Any Questions?
Thank you for your time and attention!