The fallout from HotDoc’s controversial telehealth pilot has continued throughout the week.
Online medical bookings site Healthengine is now offering GP clinics referred by education group Business for Doctors a six-month free trial, as competing booking engine HotDoc moves to quell disgruntled clients.
Last week, it emerged that HotDoc had been quietly running a trial telehealth service since February.
The service, which HotDoc claims to have suspended as of Friday 11 July, worked by identifying patients trying to book a “low complexity” appointment at their regular GP clinic and displaying an option for a same-day telehealth appointment with a GP at a different practice altogether.
When news of the pilot hit GP social media, it sparked fears that the booking engine – which clinics pay to use – was diverting patients away from their regular practice.
Business for Doctors founder Dr April Armstrong wrote in a now-deleted post on LinkedIn on Saturday that the pilot was a “pivot toward direct competition” that “directly undermines the trust and collaboration” between doctors and HotDoc.
In that post, Dr Armstrong advised that she would be taking her business elsewhere.
HotDoc has since put out multiple statements apologising for its lack of transparency.
Rival booking engine Healthengine is now advertising a special offer “available to new GP customers referred by Business for Doctors that sign up to Healthengine between 13 July 2025 and 13 October 2025”.
Business for Doctors does not receive any compensation from Healthengine.
The offer allows practices that sign a 12-month GP Complete Healthengine contract to receive six months for free.
The subscription reverts back to the full rate for the last six months of the contract.
Healthengine has faced its own set of challenges; in 2018, then-health minister Greg Hunt ordered an urgent review of the company following an ABC investigation which revealed that the booking engine was sharing patient information with third parties.
When this news first broke, HotDoc offered Business for Doctors members an exclusive discount on its product.
The Healthengine investigation culminated in 2020 with the Federal Court ordered it to pay $2.9 million in penalties for engaging in misleading conduct in relation to the sharing of patient personal information to private health insurance brokers and publishing misleading patient reviews.
Healthengine’s leadership has since changed.
