No, most do not. Only 17.0% of medical groups pay for third-party platform listings or bookings, while 77.0% do not, according to MGMA's Sept. 15, 2026 Stat poll of 251 applicable responses.
The remaining 6.0% were unsure. Those numbers matter because a booking platform charges per patient, and the bill grows with every new patient it sends.
What MGMA's two 2026 polls show
MGMA published the platform result on Sept. 17, 2026, next to an earlier poll on AI search strategy. Read together, they show how few groups spend money to be found online by new patients. The table lists both polls.
| MGMA Stat poll | Question | Yes | No | Unsure | Responses |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sept. 15, 2026 | Pays for third-party platform listings or bookings | 17.0% | 77.0% | 6.0% | 251 |
| June 16, 2026 | Has a strategy for AI search visibility | 35.0% | 55.0% | 11.0% | 218 |
Source: MGMA Stat, "Third-party booking: capacity vs. demand," Sept. 17, 2026. Percentages are as MGMA reported them, so the June row sums to 101.0% from rounding.
Roughly 1 in 6 groups pays a platform. About 1 in 3 has a plan for AI search. MGMA did not report how many groups do both.
How the best-known platform charges
Zocdoc's current help material says a one-time fee applies only when a new patient books through its Marketplace or partners. It lists no monthly fees and no spend minimums. Existing patients do not trigger the fee, even when they book through the Marketplace.
Bookings through a practice's own Book Online Button, or through a Google Business Profile button, are free for new and existing patients alike. Zocdoc says it may waive the fee if a patient cancels within 24 hours of booking, and a practice has 7 days to claim a credit for a patient it already saw. That waiver is discretionary. A practice can also set a monthly spend cap on new-patient bookings, according to Zocdoc's page dated Dec. 17, 2025.
The page gives no dollar amounts, and says only that the fee varies by specialty and location. The last published range comes from 2019. The Health Care Technology Report said on Aug. 1, 2019 that Zocdoc charged $35 for a primary care booking and $110 for a dentist, replacing a typical $3,600 annual subscription. At that time Connecticut, Colorado, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Washington had already moved to per-booking pricing. Check any quote against your own dashboard before you plan around it.
Zocdoc also launched an AI phone assistant in 2025. MGMA reports it charged $2 per successfully booked appointment at launch.
What per-booking fees add up to
Take a practice that books 20 new patients a month through a platform. At the 2019 range of $35 to $110, that is $700 to $2,200 a month, or $8,400 to $26,400 a year. At 50 new patients a month, the same range gives $1,750 to $5,500 a month. These are arithmetic from a 2019 range, not current prices.
The fee is charged at booking, so a no-show still costs the full amount. Track the fee against the revenue from each platform patient. A practice that cannot see that number cannot tell whether the 17.0% who pay are making a good trade.
Capacity decides whether a booking fee pays back
A platform only helps if the schedule has room. MGMA's DataDive Financials and Operations data shows a median third-next-available new-patient appointment of about two weeks across many specialties. In the same MGMA article, 28.0% of groups said new-patient waits grew longer, and nearly half said they were unchanged.
Staffing affects that room. MGMA reports that 51.0% of groups added net-new advanced practice provider positions in the past year. A November 2025 MGMA Stat poll of 305 leaders found 48.0% had added APPs relative to physicians, 40.0% held the ratio steady and 11.0% moved toward more physicians. MGMA's article on that poll also cites an average new-patient wait of 31 days across 15 metro areas in 2025, up 19.0% since 2022.
A group with a 31-day wait gains little from paying for more new-patient demand. A group with open slots in a specialty with weak referral flow has a stronger case.
Where patients look before they book
The rater8 2026 Patient Choice Report surveyed 992 U.S. adults in April 2026. It found 47.0% had used AI tools to research a provider, up from 31.0% in the prior survey nine months earlier. Among the 714 who searched for a new doctor, 36.0% named AI tools as an influence, ahead of Google results at 34.0% and doctor referrals at 32.0%.
On a Google results page, 37.0% of respondents trusted the AI Overview most. Only 13.0% trusted the local map pack most. Of the 465 AI users, 66.0% had seen incorrect provider information from an AI tool.
Ratings carry weight too. In the same survey, 75.0% would not book a provider rated below 4.0 stars, and 44.0% would not go below 4.5. Those cutoffs apply to any listing a patient sees, paid or free.
A booking button on the practice website or Google Business Profile costs nothing per booking under Zocdoc's published rules.
Sources
- MGMA Stat, Third-party booking: capacity vs. demand, Sept. 17, 2026
- MGMA Stat, APP utilization and how care team redesign continues into 2026, Nov. 12, 2025
- rater8, 2026 Patient Choice Report, survey fielded April 2026
- Zocdoc, Pay-per-booking fees explained, Dec. 17, 2025
- The Health Care Technology Report, Zocdoc changes payment model, begins charging per booking, Aug. 1, 2019
Talk to us
Fifteen minutes about your practice and the systems you run.