Zocdoc Enters Its Next Chapter, Expanding Beyond Its Marketplace to Power Access to Care Everywhere

After nearly two decades unifying healthcare's fragmentation to help patients easily access care via Zocdoc's marketplace, the company is opening up its infrastructure to power access to care everywhere patients search.

The company launches its Care Access Network, inviting every front door to care — from payors to AI platforms, search engines to review sites — to partner with Zocdoc and deliver seamless booking directly on their properties.

NEW YORK, Sept. 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Zocdoc, the healthcare access infrastructure that connects patients to great care, today announced the next chapter of its business: expanding beyond its marketplace to power access to care everywhere. The company has spent nearly two decades connecting healthcare's fragmentation to make it easy for more than 20 million patients to find and book doctor's appointments via Zocdoc's marketplace. Now it is opening the unmatched access infrastructure it built for Zocdoc to power booking everywhere patients search for care.

"In travel, you book. In retail, you buy. In healthcare, you're blocked. We plan to change that," said Oliver Kharraz, MD, founder and CEO of Zocdoc. "Over nearly two decades, we have been relentlessly focused on making access to care work for patients solely on Zocdoc. Our next chapter is about powering frictionless access to care beyond our marketplace, everywhere patients search. No one can, or should, own the front door to care. There are many, and they all belong to the patient. Our job is to make sure every door to care opens, every time patients knock."

"Healthcare is the last major consumer industry where people can't easily go from seeking to getting," said Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures. "Virtually every other consumer industry has a universal infrastructure layer: retail has Shopify, payments has Stripe, travel has Sabre. Now healthcare has Zocdoc."

Two Decades of Connecting Fragmented Systems, Removing Barriers to Care
While many companies try to own the front door to care, the fact is: it can't be owned. According to a recent Zocdoc survey, more than two-thirds (~69%) of patients regularly search multiple places when looking for care — including insurance directories, providers' websites, hospital directories, search engines, and increasingly AI platforms. And when they're ready to book, patients still too often encounter outdated directories, disconnected scheduling systems, manual processes, and dead ends that leave them waiting weeks for care while appointments go unused. In fact, the national average wait time to see a doctor exceeds 31 days, while at the same time 20 to 30% of doctors' appointment slots go to waste.

For nearly twenty years, Zocdoc has connected healthcare's fragmentation to make access work for its marketplace. The company has done the singular work of connecting across provider organizations, insurance plans, EHRs and practice management systems, and scheduling workflows to build the unmatched infrastructure layer that healthcare has been missing.

Today, that infrastructure has reached critical mass, powering unparalleled, real-time access to more than 200,000 providers nationwide, with its provider network increasing at 50% CAGR over the past three years. To date, Zocdoc has connected over 20 million patients with care across more than 200 specialties and over 10,000 insurance plans. Zocdoc doesn't only make access to care easier, it makes it faster: the typical patient can be seen within 24 to 72 hours of booking — 10x faster than the national average wait time. 

Zocdoc Launches its Care Access Network, Opening All of the Front Doors to Care 
The company is now opening its infrastructure beyond Zocdoc's own marketplace with the launch of the Care Access Network. This enables partners — from payors to AI platforms, search engines to review sites — to integrate Zocdoc's healthcare access infrastructure to power real-time booking for their users on their properties.

As part of the Care Access Network launch, Zocdoc is announcing its partnership with Amazon Health AI, to enable nationwide appointment booking for its users. Care Access Network partners also include Gemini, Yelp, Healthgrades, Blue Shield of California, WellHive, and leading search engines, with many more to be announced in the weeks and months ahead.

Universal access requires universal integration, and Zocdoc's Care Access Network is built to fit every partner's needs. Partners can connect through machine-readable data feeds, Zocdoc's developer API for real-time search, availability, and booking, or Zocdoc's MCP server for AI-powered experiences.

Care Access Network partners are already seeing results. Blue Shield of California has unlocked two million hours of bookable appointments available in a 90-day window, a 2x increase since launch. Blue Shield of California has seen a 600% (or 7x) increase in booked appointments and is helping its members get care faster with an average wait time of just 6 days – significantly lower than state and national averages for primary, specialty and behavioral care appointments.

"When someone needs care, the last thing they want to do is spend hours searching for an available appointment," said Jigar Shah, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer at Blue Shield of California. "With easy appointment scheduling directly on our website or in our app, we're connecting people to the care they need faster and more seamlessly. Zocdoc was the obvious choice to collaborate on this work, thanks to the scale of their provider network and the ease of integration. This is another example of how we're innovating to deliver a better experience and support the health and well-being of Californians."

"When we set out to make booking with a healthcare provider more seamless on Yelp, Zocdoc was the clear choice," said Akhil Kuduvalli Ramesh, Chief Product Officer at Yelp. "Their scheduling infrastructure and real-time availability is exactly the kind of trusted foundation that complements what Yelp brings to local discovery. Together, we're helping people go from finding the right provider to booking an appointment—directly through Yelp Assistant and on provider business pages—and giving healthcare providers a meaningful new way to reach patients who are ready to act."

An Expanded Leadership Team for an Expanded Ambition
As it enters its next chapter, Zocdoc has been quietly building out its leadership team with seasoned executives including Chief Technology Officer Kamini Dandapani, the company's first-ever Chief Marketing Officer Brian Irving, first Chief Revenue Officer Tony Nelan, first Vice President of Government Affairs Laurent Crenshaw, and President of Health Systems, Phil Perez. Collectively, these leaders have experience across some of the most influential consumer platforms including Lyft, Apple, Airbnb, Meta, Google, Indeed, and Yelp.

Zocdoc invites everyone in the healthcare ecosystem — from payors to technology platforms — to join the Care Access Network to deliver seamless access to care to their users. Learn more and join us here: zocdoc.com/careaccessnetwork

About Zocdoc
Zocdoc is the healthcare access infrastructure that connects patients to great care. By powering access to care everywhere patients search, Zocdoc helps them move from being stuck to being seen. Each month, millions of patients find and book appointments with providers, powered by Zocdoc—on the company's website and app, and across AI platforms, online search, insurance directories, providers' websites, practice phone lines, and more—with the typical appointment happening within 24 to 72 hours from booking.

With nearly two decades of experience unifying healthcare's fragmentation, Zocdoc is uniquely positioned to power access across insurance plans, PMS and EHR systems, specialties, visit types, and provider organizations of every size. By fixing healthcare at the start, Zocdoc empowers patients to get the care they need, when they need it, while helping providers be bookable everywhere patients search.

SOURCE Zocdoc