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? Do they really care about the physician / patient relationship as they poport

www.uhc.com Even though the underlining purpose is to connect a patient with the right physician we can clearly see on their homepage that their focus is to sell patients an insurance plan. Priority of finding a doctor is third to the botton left

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 Facebook = 68,115 likes Twiiter = 3,102

United Heath Care SWOT Analysis Strengths Ability to compare multiple physicians Provides tools to narrow down search to help patient pinpoint the right doctor 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 Opportunities Improve the physician profiles Provide patient feedback of the physicians Threats better navigation tools to find the right doctor Facebook = 68,115 likes Twiiter = 3,102 UnitedHealth Group serves approximately 70 million individuals nationwide

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 Very user-friendly homepage – emphasizes is on finding a health insurance plan but notice finding a Doctor is capitalized

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 They do allow users to rate physicians and leave comments – a feature that is not found on united healthcare

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 “ http://venturebeatprofiles.com/company/profile/zocdoc/

www.zocdoc.com Question is – why would a service like this need to exist if one already belongs to an insurance plan – it should be very easy for a patient to log on to their insurance website and do then same thing. *the emphasizes here is finding a doctor – not finding an insurance plan etc. finding the right doctor than narrowing it down to the insurance plan etc. Pain is that people want to find the right doctors who are competent to take care of their personal needs – but the way that insurance companies utilize their websites its to try and get patients to buy insurance plans – what they should really be selling is the doctors they offer in their system and then finding a plan that suits an individuals health needs etc.

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 Articles are about wellness etc. ZocDoc recognizes that there most important asset are the physicians that are listed on their site

ZocDoc Web Strategy Look at the ease of this layout – very easy to book an appointment or find out info about physician --- also notice the use of social media on the profile pages which is unique in comparison to the insurance company pages.

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 Google plus = 5,668 Facebook = 112 thousand likes Twiiter = 7,960

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!