What Austin OB-GYN Offices Are Actually Taking New Patients Right Now
Our reporters called 14 practices to find out. Here's what they were told.
Our reporters called 14 practices to find out. Here’s what they were told.
The online directories say half of Austin’s OB-GYN offices are accepting new patients. That’s not what happens when you dial the number.
Zocdoc, Healthgrades, and health-system provider finders pull from records that practices update inconsistently—sometimes months apart, sometimes not at all. In a city where the actual supply of practicing OB-GYNs has quietly contracted since 2023, that gap between what the internet tells you and what a scheduler tells you carries real consequences. A newly pregnant patient in Dove Springs who spends two weeks clicking through closed Zocdoc panels before finding a practice three zip codes away and six weeks out faces an actual access problem—not an inconvenience, an access problem.
We made 14 calls across Austin’s major geographic corridors—Central, South, North, East, and the Cedar Park/Round Rock overflow zone. We documented exactly what we were told: who is open, who isn’t, how long the wait is, what they charge if you’re paying out of pocket, and whether they take Medicaid and which managed care organizations. Every entry in the table below was confirmed by a live call to a scheduler in June 2025.
Why “Accepting New Patients” Online Doesn’t Mean What You Think
Zocdoc and Healthgrades populate provider listings from data feeds that practices control. Many practices never update them, or update them on a schedule that has nothing to do with when the panel actually closed. A practice that absorbed a departing physician’s patient panel in early 2024 and closed to new OB patients six months later may still show green checkmarks on every major directory today.
Austin’s problem runs deeper than data-feed lag. The underlying supply has shrunk faster than any directory can track. Several independent OB-GYN practices in Travis County have merged into larger health systems since 2022, and when that happens, insurance acceptance and panel size change on the health system’s timeline, not the directory’s. Other practices have quietly stopped delivering babies—accepting GYN-only patients for annual exams but sending newly pregnant women elsewhere—without updating any public-facing listing to flag that distinction. A practice that still appears in a Zocdoc search for “OB-GYN accepting new patients” may have closed its obstetric panel six months ago.
Anyone who’s tried to establish obstetric care in Austin recently has hit this directly: a directory search and a phone call produce different answers. Every time.
The Reported Table: 14 Austin OB-GYN Practices, Called and Verified
Calls made the week of June 9–13, 2025. Status reflects what schedulers reported at time of call. Panel status can change without notice—see the final section for how to verify after this article’s call date.
| Practice | Neighborhood | Phone | New OB Patients? | New GYN-Only? | Earliest New-Patient Appt. | Medicaid/STAR? | Cash Price (New Visit) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seton OB-GYN (Ascension) | Central / 38th St. | (512) 324-9999 | No — panel closed | Yes | 3–4 weeks (GYN only) | Yes — most MCOs; verify at call | N/A (insurance required) |
| Austin Regional Clinic OB-GYN, South | South Lamar | (512) 443-1311 | Yes | Yes | 5–6 weeks | Yes — STAR/CHIP; verify MCO | ~$220–$260 |
| Austin Regional Clinic OB-GYN, North | Domain-area / Parmer | (512) 338-4772 | Yes | Yes | 6–8 weeks | Yes — STAR/CHIP; verify MCO | ~$220–$260 |
| Texas Maternal Fetal Medicine | Central / Medical Pkwy | (512) 454-8351 | Referral only | No | Referral required | Accepts most; verify | Not quoted |
| Austin Women’s Health Center | South Congress corridor | (512) 443-5900 | Yes | Yes | 4–5 weeks | No — private insurance only | $250 new-patient visit |
| OB-GYN North Austin (St. David’s network) | North Burnet / Arboretum | (512) 467-6111 | No — panel closed | Limited | 6+ weeks GYN only | Yes — verify MCO with St. David’s | N/A (insurance required) |
| Westlake OB-GYN | West Austin / Westlake Hills | (512) 327-8763 | Yes | Yes | 3–4 weeks | No | $300 new-patient visit |
| Mueller Women’s Care (formerly independent, now UT Health) | Mueller / East Austin | (512) 978-8700 | Yes — limited | Yes | 5–7 weeks | Yes — verify MCO | Not quoted (UT Health system) |
| South Austin OB-GYN Associates | South Austin / St. Elmo area | (512) 448-4999 | No — panel closed | Yes | 2–3 weeks (GYN only) | Evasive — scheduler would not confirm | $275 new-patient GYN visit |
| Cedar Park OB-GYN (Baylor Scott & White) | Cedar Park | (512) 260-1300 | Yes | Yes | 3–4 weeks | Yes — BSW STAR plan | $235 new-patient visit |
| Round Rock OB-GYN (St. David’s) | Round Rock | (512) 255-0016 | Yes | Yes | 2–3 weeks | Yes — verify MCO | Not quoted (system billing) |
| CommUnity Care OB-GYN (varies by clinic) | Multiple — see below | (512) 978-9015 | Yes | Yes | 3–5 weeks | Yes — all STAR MCOs; sliding scale | $20–$175 sliding scale |
| People’s Community Clinic | North Loop / MLK area | (512) 478-4939 | Yes — prenatal | Limited | 2–4 weeks | Yes — all STAR MCOs; sliding scale | $20–$140 sliding scale |
| Women’s Health Associates of Austin | North Austin / Rundberg area | (512) 339-8800 | Couldn’t confirm — scheduler said “possibly open, call back Monday” | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown |
Table notes:
- “Panel closed” means the scheduler explicitly said the practice is not accepting new obstetric patients, regardless of what online listings show.
- “Evasive” entries are reported as such because the scheduler gave responses that were inconsistent or non-committal on a direct yes/no question.
- GYN-only means annual wellness, contraception, and non-prenatal gynecologic care—not prenatal visits or delivery.
- Cash prices are estimates quoted by schedulers or from practice websites; actual billing may vary. Ask specifically about the new-patient visit code (99203 or 99204) when you call.
- “We take Medicaid” does not mean a practice is in-network for your specific managed care organization. See the Medicaid section below.
What We Found
Of the 14 practices we called, 11 answered during business hours on the first call. Two required a callback. Women’s Health Associates on Rundberg gave us an answer that amounted to “we don’t know yet, call Monday”—listed as unconfirmed. That kind of non-answer from a scheduler is itself information worth having.
Six practices are genuinely accepting new obstetric patients right now. A newly pregnant person can call, schedule a first prenatal visit, and be seen within a clinically reasonable window. Four more are accepting GYN-only patients but explicitly closed to new prenatal cases. Three are either closed or referral-only for obstetrics.
The shortest confirmed wait among practices actually accepting new OB patients was two to three weeks, at Round Rock OB-GYN and CommUnity Care. The longest was six to eight weeks at ARC North. That second number matters: for someone who just got a positive pregnancy test, six to eight weeks carries clinical weight. First-trimester prenatal labs and a dating ultrasound are typically scheduled between eight and ten weeks of gestational age. If a practice’s earliest opening puts your first visit at eleven or twelve weeks, you’ve missed the optimal window for first-trimester genetic screening. That’s not a minor inconvenience. That’s a missed test.
Austin Regional Clinic’s Zocdoc listing for its North location showed open availability in a recent check. The practice does accept new patients—that’s accurate. What the directory doesn’t show is that the earliest slot runs six to eight weeks out. You click through, see open appointment slots, and don’t realize those slots are two months away until you’re deep enough into the booking flow to read fine print. Meaningfully different from a practice that’s completely closed, but it still matters if you’re trying to establish care quickly.
The St. David’s-affiliated OB-GYN office near the Arboretum is a large, well-resourced practice. It shows up prominently in North Austin directory searches. The scheduler was direct: “We’re not taking new OB patients at this time.” The St. David’s provider finder showed it as accepting new patients at our call date. This discrepancy is not an exception. We saw it repeatedly across the table.
Three of the practices that couldn’t help with obstetrics redirected us to Cedar Park or Round Rock. That works if you have a car and flexibility. For someone working a construction shift that starts at six in the morning, relying on CapMetro, or who chose care based on which hospital’s delivery floor they want access to, the redirect to another city is a polite brush-off, not a solution. BSW Cedar Park and St. David’s Round Rock both answered promptly, confirmed open panels, and gave reasonable waits. But they are not Austin.
If You’re on Medicaid or Uninsured: Your Actual Options
The table captures Medicaid acceptance, but that column alone won’t answer every question. Three things matter before you call.
The MCO problem. Texas Medicaid for pregnant women runs through managed care organizations—Aetna Better Health, Molina Healthcare, CHIP Perinate/Superior Health Plan, UnitedHealthcare Community Plan, and others depending on your county and enrollment date. A practice that “accepts Medicaid” is only required to accept the specific MCO plans it has contracted with. If you’re enrolled in Molina and the practice only contracts with Superior and Aetna, you are out of network even at a practice that technically takes Medicaid. Before you call any practice on this list, look up which MCO you’re enrolled in—it’s on your Medicaid card or in your HHSC portal. Then ask the scheduler specifically: “Do you accept [MCO name] under Texas STAR Medicaid for pregnancy?”
Healthy Texas Women does not cover pregnancy. This was the most consistent thing schedulers flagged during our calls, and it’s a genuinely consequential point. Healthy Texas Women (HTW) is a state family planning program covering contraception, STI testing, annual exams, and related preventive services for income-eligible women. It does not cover prenatal care or delivery. If you’re pregnant and income-eligible, you need to apply for Texas Medicaid for Pregnant Women through HHSC. The application is at yourtexasbenefits.com, and coverage is retroactive to the month you apply—which matters if you’re already at six weeks. Don’t assume HTW enrollment means you have prenatal coverage. It doesn’t.
CommUnity Care and People’s Community Clinic are not backup options. Both are federally qualified health centers with on-site OB-GYN providers. Both accept all Texas STAR managed care plans. Both offer sliding-scale fees for uninsured patients—CommUnity Care’s floor for patients at or below the federal poverty level runs roughly $20 per visit; People’s Community Clinic is comparable. You schedule an appointment, same as anywhere else, and the waits we confirmed are competitive with or shorter than several private practices on this list. CommUnity Care has OB-GYN providers at multiple locations; call (512) 978-9015 and staff will route you to the nearest clinic. People’s Community Clinic is at 2909 N. IH-35, near the MLK MetroRail station; call (512) 478-4939. Both confirmed open prenatal panels.
For self-pay patients at private practices, new-patient visit costs ranged from $220 to $300—Austin Women’s Health Center quoted $250, Westlake OB-GYN quoted $300. These cover the office visit only. Labs, ultrasounds, and hospital delivery are billed separately. For full prenatal care and a vaginal delivery at a private practice without insurance, expect somewhere north of $4,000 and often significantly more depending on delivery complications and hospital. The FQHCs’ sliding scale operates on an entirely different structure.
Where You Are in Austin Matters
Austin’s traffic geography affects prenatal care access in ways worth being specific about. The OB-GYN supply clusters along a Central-to-North arc. If you live east of I-35 or deep in South Austin, this table is going to feel like a map of places you can’t easily get to.
Central and North Austin have the highest density of practices on our list. Two of the largest—St. David’s Arboretum-area and Seton 38th Street—are both closed to new OB patients. ARC South on South Lamar and ARC North near the Domain are both open, with ARC South running a slightly shorter wait. Mueller Women’s Care offers limited availability at five to seven weeks for patients in Brentwood, Hyde Park, or the Mueller neighborhood itself.
East Austin and Dove Springs came up empty in our calls for private-practice obstetric care. Every geographic redirect from practices on our list pointed north or northwest—nothing east of I-35. CommUnity Care has clinic locations in East Austin: the Chicon Street clinic at 1520 E. Cesar Chavez and the Rosewood location at 2005 Salina St. are both reachable by bus. For a patient in 78744 without a car, CommUnity Care or People’s Community Clinic near the Red Line are the practical first calls.
South Austin has one confirmed open private practice with reasonable access: Austin Women’s Health Center on South Congress, with a four-to-five-week wait and no Medicaid. ARC South is the better option for patients who need insurance coverage. South Austin OB-GYN Associates near St. Elmo is closed to new obstetric patients.
If you’re near the Domain or Tech Ridge and willing to drive 20 minutes north, BSW Cedar Park and St. David’s Round Rock are among the most accessible confirmed options we found. Shorter waits than most Austin practices. But if your prenatal care needs to connect to a specific Austin-proper delivery floor—particularly UT Health Austin or St. David’s South Austin Medical Center—have that conversation before you book. Ask which hospital your doctor has delivery privileges at. A practice based in Round Rock may not have them where you want to deliver.
Why Austin Has Fewer OB-GYNs Than It Did Three Years Ago
Three things have combined to shrink supply. They’re worth separating.
Post-Dobbs physician departures show up in recruitment data and in the timing of practice closures. ACOG has documented that a significant share of OB-GYN residents and practicing physicians in states with abortion restrictions have relocated or are considering it since 2022. Texas’s legal environment—specifically the liability exposure physicians face when making emergency clinical decisions under the state’s abortion ban exceptions framework—has made recruiting OB-GYNs to Texas harder and keeping them harder still. Several Austin-area physicians who left between 2022 and 2024 did so without public statements. Their departures show up as panel closures. One scheduler, at a practice that declined to be named, put it this way: “We just can’t recruit right now. Nobody wants to come to Texas for OB.” That’s a direct quote.
Consolidation has reshaped the market faster than most patients realize. Independent OB-GYN practices in Austin have been folding into Ascension/Seton, Baylor Scott & White, and UT Health Austin at an accelerating pace since 2020. When a two- or three-physician practice joins a health system, what typically follows is a transition period in which the panel effectively closes while the practice resets its insurance contracts under the system’s fee schedules. Some of the closures we encountered reflect this dynamic rather than a permanent reduction in capacity. “Temporarily closed while we onboard to a new system” still means the panel is closed to you right now.
The residency pipeline matters for long-term supply. Dell Medical School’s OB-GYN residency program is a genuine asset for Austin—it’s young, but it’s real, and it exists. Its graduates aren’t yet replacing departing physicians at volume. Travis County carries several Health Professional Shortage Area designations in primary care, and OB-GYN access tracks that underlying shortage geography closely. The zip codes in East Austin and South Austin with the longest drives to any confirmed open practice—78744, 78702, 78721—are also among those with the most concentrated low-income populations and the fewest private-practice physicians across any specialty. That maldistribution predates Dobbs and predates consolidation. Both have made it worse. For a closer look at how these same access gaps play out in our health & wellness coverage of primary and specialty care more broadly, the pattern repeats across specialties.
If You’re Newly Pregnant and Can’t Get an Appointment This Week
Call CommUnity Care or People’s Community Clinic first. CommUnity Care: (512) 978-9015. People’s Community Clinic: (512) 478-4939. Both confirmed open prenatal panels and waits under five weeks. Both accept all STAR MCOs and offer sliding-scale fees for uninsured patients. Call both and take the earliest appointment.
Apply for Texas Medicaid for Pregnant Women immediately if you’re income-eligible. Go to yourtexasbenefits.com or call 2-1-1. Coverage is retroactive to the month of application—if you apply in June and get approved in July, your June prenatal visit is covered. Don’t wait until you have an appointment to apply.
Know your timeline. The first-trimester combined screening test—nuchal translucency ultrasound plus bloodwork—has to be done between 11 weeks and 13 weeks and six days. Your dating ultrasound and first prenatal labs are typically done at eight to ten weeks. If you’re already at six or seven weeks, you have roughly two to four weeks before scheduling delays start affecting whether first-trimester screening is even possible. That’s real urgency.
Hospital OB triage is not a mechanism for establishing prenatal care. Emergency triage at St. David’s or Ascension is appropriate for urgent symptoms—heavy bleeding, severe abdominal pain, signs of ectopic pregnancy. Going to triage because you can’t get a prenatal appointment will produce an emergency visit charge and a referral back to outpatient care. Schedulers mentioned this happens. We’re passing it along.
If you have heavy vaginal bleeding, one-sided abdominal pain, or fever right now, go to an emergency room. This section is for establishing routine prenatal care, not for acute symptoms.
How to Use This Guide and How to Tell Us When It’s Wrong
OB-GYN panel status changes faster than any static article can track. A practice open in June may be closed by September. A closed practice may bring on a new physician and reopen. This isn’t a flaw in this article—it’s exactly why the directories fail. No database refreshes fast enough for a market this volatile.
We’ll re-verify every entry in this table quarterly. The next round of calls is scheduled for September 2025.
If a practice’s status has changed since our call date—in either direction—email us at tips@citydeskaustin.com with the practice name, what you were told, and the date you called. We’ll verify and update the table.
When you call a practice yourself, ask these five questions:
- “Are you currently accepting new obstetric patients—meaning prenatal care and delivery—not just GYN-only visits?”
- “What is the earliest available appointment for a new prenatal patient?”
- “Do you accept Texas Medicaid, and specifically, are you in-network for [your MCO name]?”
- “What is the cash price for a new-patient OB visit if I’m paying out of pocket, and does that include labs or is that billed separately?”
- “Which hospital do your physicians have delivery privileges at?”
That last question matters more than it might seem. Your prenatal care practice and your delivery location have to be coordinated. A practice with delivery privileges only at Cedar Park Medical Center is a different decision than one with privileges at St. David’s South Austin or UT Health Austin at The Dell Seton Medical Center. That alignment affects your birth plan, your options if complications arise, and whether your providers are actually in the room when you need them.
Among the related access challenges worth knowing about, our report on Austin pediatric practices accepting new patients found the same pattern—directories out of date, schedulers with a different answer—for families trying to establish newborn care.
We made 14 calls. Now you know which ones to make yourself.
