Why AI Could Finally Fix Healthcare Access | Zocdoc CEO Oliver Kharraz

Zocdoc is still a doctor-finding and booking marketplace, but CEO Oliver Kharraz says the company is also opening its scheduling infrastructure to payers, AI platforms, consumer and review platforms, and search sites. Its partnership with Gemini is one example of a broader model: providers integrate once, then make their availability bookable through multiple services patients already use. Kharraz argues that no single organization should own healthcare’s “front door.” In his view, patients should be able to reach care through different channels rather than having access depend on one platform.

The infrastructure behind that model took 20 years to build. Zocdoc says its connected network has more than 99% accurate provider data and integrations with over 175 EHR systems, but Kharraz cautions that an EHR connection alone cannot ensure accurate availability. Practices use their systems differently, and informal workflows can still produce booking errors. The distinction matters as more platforms try to connect patients with appointments: accurate listings and genuinely available appointment slots require more than access to a provider’s software.

Kharraz sees AI as a way to make patient engagement more personalized and more likely to end in an appointment, with Zocdoc translating information into bookable care. He describes AI agents as extensions of patients, while maintaining that patients should control which provider is the right match. He also says choosing a provider was not a major barrier even before newer AI tools. The intended role of AI, then, is not to take that choice away, but to help people move from searching or receiving information to securing care.

The access problem is also about unused capacity and long waits. Kharraz says the average nationwide wait for a primary-care appointment has climbed from about 17 days when Zocdoc started to 31 days, while users can typically see a doctor within three days. He puts doctors’ capacity utilization at just under 70%. Zocdoc surfaces last-minute openings, including cancellations, and adds providers where capacity is low for a particular specialty, ZIP code, and insurance combination. Those figures underpin the company’s argument that better matching can improve access without relying only on adding new capacity.

Zocdoc lists 250 specialties, with bookings in every one, including tens of thousands of oncology bookings in New York City alone. Kharraz says the platform connects patients to primary, dental, mental-health, and specialized care, and can often find appointments sooner than calling practices. Its payer-directory connections are designed to take members directly from a health plan’s provider directory to an appointment. Kharraz says that can help keep patients out of emergency rooms, which he says cost 10–12 times as much as ambulatory care and have worse outcomes; he expects payers to connect to the infrastructure with relatively little change and aims to serve many payer members in the coming year.

Opening more routes to care raises a countervailing concern about continuity and coordination. Kharraz says roughly 75–80% of patients who book in a specialty return to the same provider, and argues that good care, rather than software lock-in, should earn that loyalty. Zocdoc’s provider economics have also changed: a flat subscription fee did not work because doctors received different numbers of patients. After presenting its case to regulators, the company began charging providers for bookings that come from general searches, while facilitating bookings for patients seeking a specific doctor for free. Kharraz says 97% of providers signed in the prior 12 months came inbound through word of mouth, and Zocdoc applies its own qualification rules and removes doctors who do not meet them.