Vitals.com

Review: this company rates doctors but there is no verification of whether people have actually seen the doctor. I received a negative review from this site and don't even know who wrote it. I cant rebute or dispute it. when I contact them I am basically told I have no recourse. this is a democracy right? how is this possible that someone has that much power? these reviews can make or break a business. it is not fair that we have way to even verify these complaints. anyone can go and make a complaint whether they are your patient or not your competition can go on the site and write something negative if they are unscrupulous. this stuff should be better regulatedDesired Settlement: I want this sight to be more careful on what they write and give the person getting a negative review to be able to dispute it and have it removed if found to be not valid or about things like a bill the patient received and is unhappy about that. again this should be better regulated because of the detrimental affects it can have on peoples business'

Business

Response:

Regarding anonymous patient ratings published on our service -Per HIPAA regulations we are not permitted any level of access to private and confidential patient records that could be utilized to "verify" or "validate" the identity or account of treatment care submitted. Assuch patients may freely and of their own accord supply information regarding their identity but we are unable to force or require them to do so.Furthermore, per federal regulations outlined in [redacted] and [redacted], the federal government does not require that interactive conduit rating services perform any such level of"verification" of opinion-based, user-generated content. This policy is appropriate and consistent with [redacted], which generally affords immunity from liability to internet service providers and other intermediaries, such as ours, for postings by visitors to its sites. Accordingly, [redacted] has no legal obligation to monitor, pre-screen or remove postings by patientsand other consumers on its site and any legal claim that any provider profiled on the site, could potentially have, should be against the person who authored a review and posted it on [redacted] but notagainst [redacted]. We do not screen content beyond the automated language filters that are currently in place but when notified of a possible violation of our terms of use/language policy (profanity, vulgarity, racism, sexism, threats of physical violence, attacks on religion or other similarly inappropriate content) in a review posted by a visitor to the site, we will always investigate and if a clear violation is discovered, we will generally exercise our discretion and remove the review.We have reviewed the ratings in question and find that they are not in any violation of our terms or policies.If you would like to remove up to two patient comments or respond directly to comments to refute any perceived inaccuracy present please visit: [redacted] and complete the registration form completely andaccurately. Upon completion of registration you will obtain access to comment management tools that we freely and openly provide.Please note that [redacted] is one of many health directory websites that provide anonymous ratings and review services to patients.Thank you

Review: I am a physician, and recently found that "Vitals", which is an online site that allows patients to review physicians, has a listing not only of my office addresses, but also my personal home address. I don't know why this site is even allowed to list my office information and my educational background, let alone my personal home address, as I have never provided this information to this company. They are purchasing this information from somewhere, and to list my home address is a breach of my privacy and also security. I have not contacted "Vitals" directly because I saw online that another physician had contacted them with a similar complaint (i.e., his home address was published on their site and he was asking them to remove this information) using their online support form, and his entire message including his home address and personal email address was posted online - another breach of privacy.Desired Settlement: I would like to find out where and how the "Vitals" company obtains my personal information, and I want them to remove ALL of my information (both professional and personal) from their site. At the very least, I want them to remove my home address from their site, as this is a violation of my privacy and not information I want displayed online. In addition, I would like to ensure that this company is not allowed to continue their practice of publishing personal information of medical professionals on their website. Thank you for your help.

Business

Response:

We received a letter from [redacted] on 4/26/2013 asking us to remove her home address from Vitals.com. Upon receipt of the letter, we updated her address immediately to reflect only her work address. The information that we compile is a matter of public record on both a state and national level. Therefore at some point, [redacted] has listed her home address on one of these public record sites. Once notified however, it was removed immediately. Unfortunately, it is a common practice that healthcare providers use their personal information on these public sites (such as the National Provider Registry) and is then posted online. Vitals is contacted on a daily basis regarding this issue and we respond immediately by removing the personal information.