Zocdoc acquired insurance technology company Sohar Health as it pushes to evolve beyond an appointment-booking marketplace into broader healthcare access infrastructure.
It marks the company's first acquisition in its nearly 20-year history.
Sohar Health helps healthcare organizations simplify insurance workflows, and its APIs automate insurance discovery, eligibility and benefits verification, network status checks and cost estimates.
The goal of the acquisition is to make insurance coverage verification “more seamless at scale” on Zocdoc and across its growing partner network, executives said.
“As a physician, it has always baffled me that at the moment people need care most, they have to face a gauntlet just to understand whether their insurance will cover it,” said Ashish Mandavia, M.D., Sohar Health co-founder and CEO, in a statement. “Whether someone is navigating a health crisis or booking routine appointments, they should be able to access care without unnecessary friction. We built Sohar to help create that experience, and we can now bring it to millions more patients with Zocdoc.”
Zocdoc is building out the infrastructure around the entire process of finding and accessing care.
In September, the company launched a new enterprise offering—Care Access Network—which enables payers and tech or consumer platforms to embed its appointment-booking capabilities directly into their own websites and apps.
As part of the launch, Zocdoc also unveiled a partnership with Amazon Health AI. Other partners include Google’s Gemini, Yelp, Healthgrades, Blue Shield of California, WellHive and other search engines.
Users can book with more than 200,000 providers across more than 200 specialties and more than 10,000 insurance plans, according to the company.
“As we build the healthcare access infrastructure that powers care everywhere patients search, we are investing deeply in making the experience of finding and booking care more seamless for more patients at scale,” said Oliver Kharraz, M.D., Zocdoc founder and CEO, in a statement. “We know the Sohar technology and team well, and we share a desire to tackle complex, systemic problems to remove the barriers that stand between patients and their care. We are confident that bringing Sohar’s platform and expertise into Zocdoc will make insurance easier to navigate for patients and their providers when it matters most: at the moment of booking.”