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Your Website Is the New Front Door
Before most prospective members call, they search. Your website is often the first room of your practice they walk into. Here is what they look for, what confuses them, and the accessibility rules that may now apply.
Start here: the questions this brief answers
Tap a question for the short answer, then jump to the evidence.
Most people look online before they choose a new doctor. In a 2024 Harmony Healthcare IT survey, 46% of people who found a new provider used Google search, 42% used online reviews and 32% relied on word of mouth. Payer directories were just as common, but many membership practices aren't in them, which makes search and your own site matter more. A prospective member wants to know, quickly and in plain words, what they get, who you are, what it costs or how to find out, and how to talk to a person. And accessibility is no longer optional for many organizations: HHS's Section 504 rule requires covered recipients of federal financial assistance to meet WCAG 2.1 AA, with deadlines now extended to 2027 and 2028. Build the site a first-time visitor understands in thirty seconds.
“Your website isn't a brochure. It's a waiting room. If a stranger can't tell in thirty seconds what you do, who you're for and how to reach a human, they've already left, and you'll never know they were there.”
How do people find a new doctor?
In a 2024 survey, 46% used Google search, 46% their insurer's directory, 42% online reviews and 32% word of mouth.
Go to the full answer ↓What should a membership practice website show first?
What members get, who the clinicians are, how pricing works or how to ask, and a phone number that reaches a person. Part 2 has a checklist.
Go to the full answer ↓Do accessibility rules apply to my website?
They may. HHS's Section 504 rule requires covered recipients of HHS federal financial assistance to meet WCAG 2.1 AA. Deadlines were extended to May 2027 (15+ employees) and May 2028 (fewer). Ask counsel whether you are covered.
Go to the full answer ↓What's the biggest mistake?
Insider language. Model names and acronyms mean little to a first-time visitor. Describe what they get.
Go to the full answer ↓They visit your website before they visit you
You spent months on the lobby. Most prospective members will see your website first.
In a 2024 survey by Harmony Healthcare IT of people who had found a new provider, the most common routes were Google search and their insurer’s directory, followed by online reviews, word of mouth and referrals from another provider.1 Industry Research
Here’s the membership-practice twist. Many concierge practices won’t show up in an insurer’s directory as a membership option, so search, reviews and your own site carry more of the load. That’s CMT’s inference, not a finding of the survey.
The thirty-second test
Hand your phone to someone outside healthcare. Open your home page. Give them thirty seconds. Can they answer these five questions?
| Question | What answers it |
|---|---|
| What do I get? | Three or four plain-language benefits, such as "a doctor who answers your call" or "same or next-day visits" |
| Who will I see? | Real photos and short, warm bios of your physicians, NPs and PAs, and your front-desk team |
| Is it for someone like me? | Who you serve best, in a sentence (Brief No. 58) |
| What does it cost, or how do I find out? | Pricing, or a clear "call us and we'll walk you through it" |
| How do I talk to a person? | A phone number at the top of every page, answered by a human (Brief No. 60) |
CMT original guidance. Evidence type: Practice Insight.
The most common failure is insider language. No More Waiting Rooms warns that if someone has to learn your code to understand you, many won’t bother.2 Describe what patients get, not the label for your model.
And remember what one of Michael Tetreault’s marketing mentors often says: “Everything communicates!” Stock photos of models in lab coats communicate something, too.3
Contact forms, chat tools and website analytics can collect health information. HHS treats marketing uses of patient information as generally requiring written authorization.4 Ask your compliance adviser to review what your site collects and which vendors receive it. This brief is educational and is not legal advice.
Accessibility is part of hospitality, and may be required
HHS’s Section 504 rule, finalized in May 2024, requires recipients of HHS federal financial assistance to make web content, mobile apps and kiosks accessible, using WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the technical standard. A law firm summary lists Medicare and Medicaid among the programs whose participants are covered.5 Policy and Law
In May 2026, HHS issued an interim final rule giving covered entities one more year: May 11, 2027, for those with 15 or more employees, and May 11, 2028, for smaller ones.6
Whether a particular concierge or membership practice is a covered recipient depends on its federal funding, including how it participates in Medicare. That is a question for counsel. Either way, an accessible website is simply good hospitality: captions, readable contrast, buttons that work with a keyboard and images with text descriptions.
Rebuild the front door
Run the thirty-second test
With three people outside healthcare. Write down where they hesitate.
Rewrite the home page
Plain benefits, real people, how to join, a phone number. Cut every acronym.
Check accessibility
Ask your web developer for a WCAG 2.1 AA review, and ask counsel whether Section 504 applies to you.
Review privacy
Have your compliance adviser review forms, chat tools and analytics.
- Do the thirty-second test with someone outside healthcare.
- Put your phone number at the top of every page.
- Replace one stock photo with a real photo of your team.
Your website should match the patients you most want to reach. Use the planner to define them first.
Free. No sign-up. Your answers stay in your browser. Step 3 of CMT's Learn, Build, Lead tools. It helps you pick the patient segments that fit your practice, find where they are, plan conversations with local physicians, check that your message sounds like care rather than a pitch, and leave with a 90-day plan.
This brief is educational and is not legal advice. Accessibility, privacy and advertising rules vary and change. Consult qualified advisers.
They search first
Your website is often the first room they enter.
Thirty seconds
What, who, for whom, cost and a human.
Open to everyone
Accessible design is hospitality, and may be required.
How this brief was built
This brief draws on a 2024 Harmony Healthcare IT survey as reported by TechTarget, law firm and higher-education summaries of HHS's Section 504 web accessibility rule and its 2026 deadline extension, HHS HIPAA marketing guidance, and CMT's books. The checklist in Part 2 is CMT original guidance. Whether a given practice is covered by Section 504 depends on its federal funding and should be confirmed with counsel.
How to read the evidence types
Every key finding is labeled by evidence type. Labels describe the type of evidence, not its value. Each type answers different questions. Funding is disclosed on every source.
Randomized trials and systematic reviews.Best for cause and effect.
Large observational studies and government data.Best for trends at scale.
Surveys, smaller studies and expert consensus.Best for real-world experience.
Company-sponsored or company-reported data that is not peer-reviewed.Best for early signals and operating data.
Statutes, regulation and official guidance.Best for what is required.
What we don't know
- How concierge prospects specifically use search versus referrals; the survey covered patients broadly.
- Which website elements most affect conversion for membership practices; no published benchmark was found.
- How the Americans with Disabilities Act applies to a particular practice's website; this brief does not address it in detail.
How to cite this brief
External review: this brief has not yet been reviewed by an outside expert. When review is complete, the reviewer is credited by name above with any conflicts of interest, and the version number is updated. Reviewers check accuracy and fairness; CMT is responsible for the final content.
Corrections policy: when an error is identified, CMT corrects it in the open and updates the version number above. Send corrections to the editor through conciergemedicinetoday.net.
Related CMT Research Briefs
References
- Heath S. Most patients find new doc online, via provider directories (on a Harmony Healthcare IT survey conducted by Prolific). TechTarget Patient Engagement. June 26, 2024. www.techtarget.comFunding: not stated (news report); survey by Harmony Healthcare IT, a health data management company
- Tetreault M. No More Waiting Rooms: A Customer Service Road Map to Help Remarkable Medical Offices Navigate Their Way Towards an Irresistible Practice Where Gratitude Is on Repeat. Concierge Medicine Today, LLC; 2024. Stories are the author's own experiences and accounts told to the author.Funding: Concierge Medicine Today (self-published; no outside funder) CMT original
- Tetreault M. Remark-ology: Creating a Remarkable Patient Experience Worth Remarking About to Others. Concierge Medicine Today, LLC; 2025.Funding: Concierge Medicine Today (self-published; no outside funder) CMT original
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights. HIPAA Privacy Rule guidance: Marketing. Guidance dated 2002, revised 2003; last reviewed 2013. www.hhs.govFunding: federal (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services publication)
- Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP. HHS web accessibility rule: key requirements and fast-approaching compliance deadlines (HHS Section 504 final rule, May 2024; WCAG 2.1 AA). JD Supra. April 20, 2026. www.jdsupra.comFunding: not stated (law firm analysis)
- EDUCAUSE Review. DOJ and HHS extend web accessibility deadlines to 2027 to 2028 (HHS interim final rule, May 11, 2026). June 2026. er.educause.eduFunding: not stated (EDUCAUSE, a nonprofit association, publication)
Educational and informational only. This CMT Research Brief does not constitute medical, legal, tax, financial, accounting or other professional advice, and it does not create a professional relationship of any kind. Statements about laws, regulations, tax rules and payer policies are general, may not reflect the rules in your state, and can change after publication. Consult a qualified attorney, accountant, tax adviser, compliance professional or licensed clinician before acting on anything here.
Independence. Concierge Medicine Today is an independent publication. It does not accept payment for favorable coverage, and it does not favor one practice model over another. Company names and products are mentioned for context only and are not endorsements. Funding is disclosed for every source in the reference list.
Accuracy. CMT verifies figures against their original or best available sources at the time of publication. Where a figure is an estimate, an inference or a company-reported number, the brief says so. This content is not without possible error or omission.
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