HealthEngine shakes up online booking with free AGPAL deal
Online appointment booking and directory service HealthEngine has struck a deal with Australian General Practice Accreditation Limited (AGPAL) to offer its online booking system to AGPAL-accredited practices for free.
HealthEngine, thought to be the market leader in the consumer online medical appointment sector, will also identify practices that meet AGPAL quality accreditation in its online directory. AGPAL accredits about half of the estimated 7000 general practices in Australia.
HealthEngine CEO Marcus Tan said he did not expect the deal to be a big hit to the company’s revenue, as the majority of revenue comes from other offerings such as its directory and the marketplace. The company is Google’s premium partner for healthcare-specific search engine marketing in Australia.
“We provide other services to practices that we can generate revenue from, so we don’t feel that this will be a huge hit to our revenue from that perspective,” Dr Tan said.
Dr Tan said the main aspect of the deal was to help drive patients to accredited practices and help them understand what accreditation means. For practices, he said easier access to healthcare was part of providing a quality service and online appointments are part of this service.
“We’re willing to almost offer this up as a key piece of infrastructure, like a phone line or a fax line or an email,” he said. “This is something that quality practices should have, so we’ve negotiated a deal with AGPAL to provide that for patients as part of their accreditation.”
HealthEngine’s online booking system is integrated with PracSoft, Best Practice, Zedmed, Genie and Practice 2000, and it offers a plug-in for each practice’s website to make appointments available online. It also has a practice-specific app called Get Better that practices can offer to patients, as well as its consumer-based HealthEngine app through which consumers can search for local healthcare providers.
The company says practices can save up to $20,000 a year through online bookings in terms of less time wasted on the phone for practice staff, extra bookings and fewer no-shows. Most of its rivals charge a monthly subscription, while HealthEngine charges per appointment.
The deal only involves the online booking system, with added extras still commanding a fee.
“[The online booking system] is part of a productivity suite that we offer, including marketing, to fill gaps within the practice,” Dr Tan said. “Whether it’s on Google or whether it’s on HealthEngine or whether it’s through a directory, we’re basically offering that suite of services to practices and that’s where we derive a significant amount of our income.”
The move reflects a intensification of competition in the online booking market, which has traditionally been marked by a differentiation between practice-focused players such as Appointuit, OzDocsOnline and Clinic Connect.
New players include DocAppointments and HotDoc, along with HealthEngine’s main rival in the consumer search segment, 1stAvailable.
More recently, the market leader in GP clinical and practice management software, MedicalDirector, announced that it was set to launch its own online booking system, integrated within PracSoft. However, MedicalDirector will also offer an application programming interface (API) that will allow practices to continue using third-party appointment booking services if they wish.
Klaus Bartosch, managing director of 1stAvailable, said HealthEngine’s move was a strong signal that the Australian health industry is ready to embrace online appointment booking systems.
“However, the challenge for the market is to carefully consider which provider is aligned to doctors’ priorities of maintaining a continuous patient/doctor relationship and how this technology can enable their business and not disrupt it,” Mr Bartosch said.
“Given this is a new area of a health professional’s business, it’s important the market understands that not all online appointment booking solutions are the same. Each of the three leading solutions in the GP market vary radically and we believe ultimately that healthcare providers will be swayed by what is best for both their own practices and their patients.”
Practice owner and co-founder of Appointuit, Gordon Cooper, said that while there are many online appointment models, Appointuit’s approach was firmly based on the RACGP standards (1.1, 1.3 and 1.5), which concern understanding the patients’ healthcare journey of access, continuity of care and preventative healthcare.
“While there is a place for a search and find marketplace directory model, for one-off, last-minute appointments, patients and practices benefit far more from the continuity of care model,” Mr Cooper said.
“Practices recognise the business and practice efficiency value and patients have embraced our model resulting in Appointuit being in the top 10 Appstore rankings every single day in 2014, making it the most popular medical appointment app downloaded in Australia.”