Paying for no shows? Just say NO NO NO!


I just received an email from Zocdoc detailing their new pricing for the upcoming year. They plan on billing me for all new patients booked through their website $110 per booking. If a patient no shows they will bill us. If a patient cancels in less than 24 hrs, they will bill us, If a patient cancels their appointment more than 24 hours after booking their appointment they will bill us. I looked over the email and decided to opt out of receiving any new patients from ZocDoc this month and probably will continue not utilizing their site for new patient bookings. Zocdoc has pointed out that since I do not get many new patients booking through Zocdoc it may even cost less than the previous year, but  at the end of the day, their new policy doesn't sit well with me.

I don't feel that I should have to pay for "phantom patients" , who can book and cancel or just not show up. The logic eludes me entirely. I realize that Zocdoc does quite a bit of advertising and most likely wants to maximize their profits, but for the time being I will do without. Instead I have started using a link to  Localmed to book my online appointments ( from my website and my Google Box). If new patients want to book appointments online for my practice, they can use the links I have provided. Localmeds software links seamlessly with my Dentrix Software and doesn't require me to manually enter appointments the way the Zocdoc software does, so it's easier to use and it shows my hygienist's availability separately from my own availability.

from Ask Dr. Spindel - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/2019/11/paying-for-no-shows-just-say-no.html - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/

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