1. Connecting Patients with the Right Physician
Two Insurance Companies Verses ZocDoc
Ross Kopelman
MBS graduate
Tufts University

2. 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

3. 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

4.
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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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.”

9.
Very user-friendly homepage – emphasizes is on finding a health insurance plan but notice finding a Doctor is capitalized

10. BlueCross BlueShields Web Strategy
User friendly interfaces for both internet and mobile app usage
Social Media
Twitter
Facebook
Google +
Profiles for physicians
Mobile application

11. BlueCross BlueShields Web Strategy
They do allow users to rate physicians and leave comments – a feature that is not found on united healthcare

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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 “

15.
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.

16. 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
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

17. 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.

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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

22. Any Questions?
Thank you for your time and attention!