Dina Bair: For many, it can take weeks, even months, to get in to see a doctor. Now there's a new, faster way to get an appointment. It's being called an Expedia for healthcare, a new online physician and dentist finder called ZocDoc. Here to explain how it works is the company CEO Cyrus Massoumi. Thank you so much for being here.
Cyrus: Thank you for having me.
Dina: I think the tendency now when people can't get in to the doctor's office is for them to go to the ER. And that is just not really efficient when you've got just regular things that are wrong with you, not a real emergency.
Cyrus: Absolutely, absolutely. I think an ER can be 80% more costly than going to a doctor's office. So going to a doctor when you need one is an absolute necessity. And many people have a difficult time. It can take over a month sometimes to get doctors' appointments when you need them.
Dina: Right, but yet when you go to the doctor's office, typically the wait is a little less than it would be if you were going and sitting in an ER.
Cyrus: Absolutely, yes. But the question is, how do you find that appointment?
Dina: Right, and I know we talked in the break about our own personal experiences trying to find doctors, saying, "Oh nope, it's 30 days out when you can get in." So you thought, "This is unacceptable." And instead of complaining to your friends, like maybe the rest of us would do, you did something about it.
Cyrus: Absolutely. So one of the things that's really interesting is doctors have a lot of last minute cancellations in fact. And so if you...it's not feasible for a patient to go in and call a hundred doctors' offices to find the one that may be able to see you this afternoon, so you figure what would be a great solution for this would be technology. Being able to integrate all these doctors' offices in one place with the click of a button, you can search hundreds of doctors and literally find the one that has the open appointment time.
Dina: So you compiled all of these and you get these doctors to sign on to the system so that we know where they are and when they pop up when the appointment time is?
Cyrus: Absolutely. So, we have over 371,000 available appointments in Chicago right now, which is over 150% increase from when we launched. And so, we are just bringing on more and more doctors in the Chicago area, so hopefully you'll be able to find your doctor and book after-hours or on the weekend, whenever it's convenient for you.
Dina: And the great thing is...Let's go through this...we have it called up on my computer right now.
Cyrus: Sure, sure.
Dina: So here is the main page from ZocDoc. And you go to find a doctor by specialist. Let's say, dermatologist. And then, I punched in my zip code, which is the zip code here for WGN, and then they'll tell you whether or not your insurance is covered. This is great. So you can search with your insurance carrier, we just randomly picked Aetna here, and we said we have a PPO plan. And then all you do is click on "Find Doctors". And let's hope my computer goes quickly. And then you scroll up here...and what are there ratings for the doctors? They come from other users of ZocDoc? What are they from?
Cyrus: Yeah, so the users of ZocDoc get asked what they think of their physicians, and all of our ratings have to come from a confirmed ZocDoc patient, so you know that it's actually a real person that's leaving the review, not some other someone gaming the system. And everyone that books is asked, so it's another great way to be able to see which doctor you want to find. Really, all the information that you need to book the doctor is here. So, in addition to the ratings, you have of course the pictures of the doctors, which is cool, are they in network with your insurance, and of course, the most important piece, what time are the doctors available. And all you need to do literally is click on one of these appointment times.
Dina: So you can choose. Ok, I'm off the air at 1. So 1:30, I want an appointment with this doctor here. And, what is the reason for your visit? So you fill in all of the preliminary information as well, so you do not have to do that then when you get to the doctor's office? (MORE)
Dina: If we call up my computer one more time, we can see all of the specialists here: allergists, cardiologists, dentists, dermatologists, dieticians, ear-nose-throat, and the list goes on. And you can find a specialist that you need, quickly get the appointment time you like. I love this idea because I'm a real advocate of getting in to see your doctor as soon as you have symptoms. So Cyrus Massoumi, thank you so much. This is great. Such a wonderful tool - ZocDoc.com. Thank you.
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ZocDoc on Fox 26 Morning News Houston, TXby ZocDocVideo380 views
Great Video Cyrus :-)
Ashok Gupta
ashok1082 8 months ago