Healthgrades

Thank you for contacting Healthgrades via the Revdex.com.I apologize for the difficulty you had with Healthgrades.I do see that you sent a contact us request to have your profile removed on 2/3/ Then on 2/8/you sent another request to have the survey(s) removed because you are a mental healthcare provider On 2/8/Healthgrades responded that your case was being escalated to our review investigation team On 2/17/Healthgrades notified you via email that the survey functionality had been suppressed on our website Search engines do have to re-index their pages and unfortunately Healthgrades has no control over the timeliness of this In checking the profile today, it appears that Google has not yet re-indexed their information I'm hopeful this will occur in the next few weeks since the information has been updated on Healthgrades website as of 2/17/16.Please feel free to reach out to me directly if further assistance is needed.Regards, [redacted] ***Healthgrades

Revdex.com: I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted] , and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me I appreciate the Revdex.coms help with this matter and the response from the company Sincerely, [redacted]

Dear [redacted] **, Since receiving your complaint via the Revdex.com, Healthgrades launched an investigation into the comments/opinions posted on the profile at Healthgrades.com The subject matter comment meets Healthgrades criteria for display and will not be removed The location and name on our surveys are not a required field and therefore can be left blank or pseudo names/pseudo locations can be used During the investigation, we also saw that you submitted reviews/comments on your profile We allow a provider to submit one for themselves so we are removing the duplicate star rating/commentYou may have your attorney contact Healthgrades at the following: [redacted] ***

Dear [redacted] ***, Thank you for contacting Healthgrades via the Revdex.comWe are excited to announce that you may now respond individually to patient comments on Healthgrades.com! Healthgrades operates a website which provides information on healthcare providers as a free service to consumers, patients and other healthcare professionals In its provision of this service, Healthgrades aggregates information related to provider practices from publicly available sources and accepts user comments Healthgrades is an objective source and does not block content from specific individuals at the request of 3rd partiesUpon review of the survey data we have determined that the survey comment meets Healthgrades criteria for displayAccordingly, our business rules would prohibit us from removing any such survey data from our site We remind you that survey submissions at healthgrades.com represent the individual opinions of patients and are aggregated for the benefit of consumers To respond to an individual patient comment, please log into our provider portal Keep in mind Healthgrades is a community driven site All comments from provider and patients are filtered for inappropriate content prior to being published We encourage you to read the Best Practices pdf and watch the educational video: [redacted] Please remember, HIPAA compliance is YOUR obligationYou must have a portal account in order to respond Healthgrades cannot post a response on behalf of a provider [redacted] In the left hand rail, hover on the blue silhouette of a person, (next to Basic Information) Select ‘Patient Experience’ Select ‘Patient Review’ Locate the comment you want to reply to and click on the white 'reply' bubble on the rightReplies will go through an audit process and will not be available on our consumer site immediatelyIf you have questions, please use our ‘contact us’, located at the bottom of the provider portal page.Regards,Healthgrades

I am rejecting this response because:In my original complaint, I did mentioned that these fake reviews seem to be posted by non-patient which might be a competitor or just someone non-patient who doesn't like our progress.One of the fake review is posted from Brooklyn, NY where we don't have any patient from, this raises very strong possibility that review might be for other similarly named dentist in Brooklyn.In one of the reviews, The same person posted similar reviews with different names on different websites on same day, This raises strong suspicion that these reviews might be from a zealous competitor / rival FYI, other websites [redacted] and [redacted] already deleted those fake reviews.Answering your question regarding" You mentioned in your response that I didn't offer any information about this competitor If I knew about the competitor who posted this fake review, I wouldn't complaint to Revdex.comI would have hired an attorney right away.Again, These are all strong possibilities/assumptions because we don't recall any such incident (mentioned in reviews ) happening in our office.As previously mentioned,We are a professionally run dental practice who seriously care about the patients and their well beingWe are ready to pay for a recognized third party organization to verify that these reviews on healthgrades.com are actually from patients of the practiceIf these reviews are found to be from actual patients then we do welcome their honest opinion and we will try to fix our shortcomingsbut if these reviews are found to be from competitors or non-patients, then healthgrades.com must take these reviews down.Why healthgrades is opposing third party verification of these fake reviews , if we are paying for it ? Healthgrades.com shouldn't have any resistance or opposition against hiring recognized third party organization for verifying the reviewer identity

Dear [redacted] ***, [redacted] Thank you for contacting Healthgrades via our contact us and the Revdex.comHealthgrades provides information on healthcare providers as a free service to consumers, patients and other healthcare professionals In its provision of this service, Healthgrades aggregates information related to provider practices from publicly available sources Because you are a practicing provider and the published information regarding your practice is publicly available and of interest to the general public, Healthgrades’ policies prohibit me from completely removing this information from our website Per our previous correspondence(s) with you dated 1/20/17, Healthgrades relies upon the veracity of the person submitting the review that they are the patient or family member of a patient Additionally, Healthgrades responded to your inquiry on 10/17/to which you replied with another question and a second response went out to you on 10/20/for a total of responses to your emails If you did not receive these responses, please check your spam or junk folder If you cannot locate these responses I’m happy to copy and send them again to you Unfortunately, your request to see Healthgrades survey data from patients is respectfully declined We have a privacy/confidentiality policy that we abide by I’m sure you understand, and if someone were to ask you for a list of your patients, you would decline that request for privacy reasons Again, Healthgrades relies upon the veracity of the person filling out the comments/opinions Respectfully, [redacted] Healthgrades Operating Company, Inc Tell us why here

Complaint: [redacted] I am rejecting this response because: It does not address my concerns about potential damage to my businessYour internal policies are created by your organization and not my concernI did not authorize your company, which is not a governmental agency or any sort of publicly funded service agency, to list my business, or to collect reviews from unverified sourcesA primary focus of my work is with domestic violence, abuse and assault survivorsQuite a few of these clients are involved in civil litigation or criminal trials with their abusersAbusers, by their nature, are prone to malicious acts against people who are supports to their victims, especially if they can do it without any repercussions to themselves or proof of misconductYour policy does not take these issues into consideration and needs review, in my opinionAt the least, providers should be able to opt out of your site without having to go through this many rounds of requests, and a complaint to the Revdex.comBecause of the nature of my work, I do not use anonymous, public review sites of any kind for my businessI am asking, once again, that you remove my listing

Thank you for contacting Healthgrades via the Revdex.comI apologize for the difficulty you’ve had with Healthgrades I do see that your initial request came in on 3/12/requesting removal of the profile On 3/21/(today), the customer support rep picked up your case and saw that you had written in an additional times The rep sent your request to our investigation team to disable the survey functionality because you are a mental healthcare provider ~Healthgrades allows mental healthcare providers to opt out of surveys I have escalated your request so that the survey functionality will be turned off within 24-business hours from today You will also receive an email from the survey investigation team advising you that the functionality will be disabledRegards, [redacted] ***

Tell us why hereThank you for contacting Healthgrades via the Revdex.comHealthgrades provides information on healthcare providers as a free service to consumers, patients and other healthcare professionals In its provision of this service, Healthgrades aggregates information related to provider practices from publicly available sources Because you are a practicing provider and the published information regarding your practice is publicly available and of interest to the general public, we display this information on our websiteHowever, due to your concerns for your safety, we have suppressed your HG profile Respectfully, Healthgrades

Dear [redacted] , Thank you for contacting Healthgrades via the Revdex.comYou recently contacted Healthgrades regarding a concern you had about a survey received by Healthgrades Your concerns were forwarded to me As a result of your inquiry, Healthgrades launched an investigation into the profile of [redacted] and analyzed the legitimacy of all surveys submitted through our websiteYou insisted that Healthgrades was removing or not posting surveys to [redacted] account however, please be aware that during our investigation we also discovered that a number of additional surveys were submitted from the same email address, IP address and/or mobile phone numberThese surveys include several submissions from your email address and phone number as well In general, the way our system works, when an individual submits and confirms more than one survey using the same email address or telephone number, only the most recent survey is displayed in accordance with our business rulesTherefore, any surveys from duplicate email, or phone numbers were automatically overwritten by subsequently submitted and confirmed surveys Additionally, please be advised that fraudulent submissions may also be removed from our site where they don’t meet our business rules or when they have been submitted in violation of our user terms The submissions made from your email addresses and phone number appear to have been submitted in violation of our user terms and therefore have been removed We have also removed those surveys that were coming from your office with same IP addresses that were not part of a work station Regards, [redacted] ***Healthgrades Operating Company, Inc

Complaint: [redacted] I am rejecting this response because:Despite your explanation I'm not convinced.First of all you can't use my information to use in your website for survey without my permission this is totally unethical My location , insurances enrolled and several information is incorrect and miss-leading for patients.You recommended me to register in your website and advertise for my patient to rate.I'm not willing to register and update information cause I don't have a practice of my own and most of you r survey is about appointmentsStaff , location which I as a dentist working for a company , I have no involvementMy request is to be removed from your website , and I don't want to be enrolled for misinformation for people who are visiting your website Sincerely,

Thank you for contacting Healthgrades via the Revdex.comHealthgrades provides information on healthcare providers as a free service to consumers, patients and other healthcare professionals In its provision of this service, Healthgrades aggregates information related to provider practices from publicly available sources You are a practicing provider and the published information regarding your residency is publicly available and of interest to the general publicHowever, since you are no longer practicing in the U.S., we have suppressed your profile Respectfully, Healthgrades

Please provide more information regarding the provider (full name and city/state of practice) We have no way to locate the comment without more information

Dear [redacted] Thank you for contacting Healthgrades via the Revdex.com Your case has been sent to me to review I do apologize for the length of time it took to get back to you regarding the investigation We work investigation cases in the order we receive them The investigation has been complete and you should have received notification from the audit team regarding the outcome in a separate email If not, please let me know and I will resend the communication to you The ‘display name’ and location associated to the reviewer is an optional field or may be a pseudonym and may not necessarily correspond to the actual patient or location from which the comment was submitted Regards, [redacted] ***

Thank you for contacting Healthgrades via the Revdex.comI have reviewed your complaint and cases that you have sent to HealthgradesWith regard to your comment about ‘a form of extortion’ ~ that is simply not true Here is exactly what was conveyed in an email to you dated 9/8/2016: ”We encourage you to invite your patients to fill out a survey about you so that others have a clearer picture of your practicePlease use the following link where you can print cards to hand out to patients directing them to your survey site.” That being said, Healthgrades encourages all providers to connect with their patients to find out how they are doing as a care giver Ironically, on the same day you filed the complaint with the Revdex.com, 9/9/16, there were more than submissions of positive surveys that trace back to your office/staff (submitted after receiving Healthgrades reply email) This is contradictive of your complaint that Healthgrades is extorting you While we have removed the surveys from your profile, please be advised that if Healthgrades continues to observe further deceptive activity on your profile, we will disable the survey functionalityFinally, Healthgrades provides information on healthcare providers as a free service to consumers, patients and other healthcare professionals In its provision of this service, Healthgrades aggregates information related to provider practices from publicly available sources Because you are a practicing provider and the published information regarding your practice is publicly available and of interest to the general public, Healthgrades’ policies prohibit me from completely removing this information from our website Regards, [redacted] Healthgrades Operating Company, Inc

[redacted] ***,In my last response, I clearly stated a few options regarding what I wished to be doneThe first was to remove my profile completely from HealthgradesYou have said that this is impossible due to Healthgrades internal policiesHowever, I addressed my concerns to [redacted] and then you gave what I thought was a poor excuse i.e [redacted] is out of officeI have had my reputation called into question in a space provided by you by anonymous personsI sent a response to the your voice section stating that I do not offer concierge service, stating the average wait times and the duration of followup visits and on May was sent a response from your service saying that was rejected because it did not apparently conform to guidelinesWhat troubles me is that some unknown person, presumably, a low paid, nonmedical, something with little life experience has decided what I should post and what the patient should postIs there a responsible medical practitioner with some experience as to what constitutes a real complaint, who knows what a responsible medical practitioner should write in response, who reviews all your complaints and decides what gets posted? While it is true that there are online sites for rating all kinds of businesses, while it is true that by virtue of my profession I am a public person, yet for your company to have a space dedicated to giving air to greviances in a manner that (1) does not seek to offer even the basic verification that the evaluator is a person (2) that allows for some impartial brokering before publishing something that could be detrimental to me (3) restrain my response is the worst form of bullyingYour company has arrogantly abrogated to itself, without any checks and balances, the right to be a mediator and propagator of cant and complaint which it is not in a position to verify and have been turning a buck on thisI would wager that to responsibly do what it purports to do would be bad for the company's bottomlineThe company would have to hire more persons to do the kind of verification and responsible publication that I am suggesting.Now each time you respond, you repeat the same idea i.e"we cannot remove your profile because it is public and guaranteed by the laws ..."It tells me that you have either not read thoroughly what I requested or wish to obfuscate the factsI asked that if it was not possible to remove my profile, then to suppress the customer review bit until your company can provide more quality assuranceIt may be true that you are guaranteed the right to publicize my records but, does the law guarantee you the right to provide a space for any anonymous, unverified individual to slander, misrepresent another public person? I doubt thisMedical men being what they are, most practitioners will try to avoid the publicity associated with getting the courts to have you cease and desistFor comparison, see the public article where a psychiatrist claims to have had her name removedI just checked and in CT alone psychiatrists are listed, so it was not company policy to not publicize psychiatrists as your executive claimedSo as an individual she had her name removedIf one physician had her name removed, what prevents another from having that done? [redacted] If we could do a thought experiment [redacted] works for HealthgradesShe is a private person but her work involves interacting with the publicWhat if I start a webpage dedicated to any anonymous physician who has an issue with healthgrades to write what they thought about [redacted] ***? Would you appreciate this? The next time you seek employment, your prospective employer does an internet search and finds all this cant written about youIts the first thing that pops up in a name searchAbove your linked in profile etcI am assuming you have one of thoseHow would you feel? When you try to respond on the webpage, I will tell you that I cannot allow your response in the form you wish but I will send you a sample of the response you should giveI am protecting the public and potential employers from hiring a bad employee We have never met and I have no idea what the emotional turmoil you are undergoing is doing to you and your familyIf you have just recoiled in horror at the personal attack I have just made on you, consider my feelingsI am sure, Revdex.com will now remove your name from this complaint to give you anonymityIf the office staff is being evaluated and posted under my name and evaluating them is a right, why did you anonymize my office manager's name? Should you not also publish that? The complaint was about her I would like a senior executive from your company to respond to my complaintsNot a midlevel person, but someone who can actually effect changeAlso, as evidence, there were complaints on consumer affairs about your loose practicesI, like all the physicians, accept that we will have our data published [redacted] There is nothing we can do to prevent thatIts the rubric of our professionWhat we object to is the reviewsI work not as a small business tht is in my name therefore evaluating [redacted] is fair gameI am employedMy health system has a patient affairs departmentWe actively solicit reviews from our patientsThe state has a physician complaint armPhysician malpractice data, physician discipline records is public dataWhat meaningful data are you adding to that? Your current review system as it operates is immoral [redacted] ***

Dear [redacted] I am sorry you are dissatisfied however Healthgrades conclusions remain the same ~ because you are a practicing provider and the published information regarding your practice is publicly available and of interest to the general public, Healthgrades’ policies prohibit me from completely removing this information from our website And finally, your initial complaint stated that you allege that your ex-husband was cyber bulling you via Healthgrades surveyI could be incorrect, however I do believe that under those alleged circumstances, this would not be covered by HIPAA which is why I asked for further information If you chose to give further information about this, you may contact Healthgrades as [redacted] and we will re-open the investigation As it stands, without further information, our investigation is completeRespectfully, [redacted] ***Healthgrades Operating Company, Inc

Thank you for contacting Healthgrades via the Revdex.com Healthgrades provides information on healthcare providers as a free service to consumers, patients and other healthcare professionals In its provision of this service, Healthgrades aggregates information related to provider practices from publicly available sources Because you are a practicing provider and the published information regarding your practice is publicly available and of interest to the general public, Healthgrades’ policies prohibit me from completely removing this information from our website However, while we collect information that is in the public domain for licensed healthcare providers, many providers elect to manage their own profiles for free on our website and update them with their most current information To the extent you provide me with an updated business address for yourself, I am happy to complete that update for you Regards, [redacted] ***Healthgrades Operating Company, Inc

Thank you for your inquiry via the Revdex.com I apologize for the lack of customer service when calling When you dialed the number on healthgrades.com, you called a hospital referral service for which Healthgrades provides call center services As a provider of call center services, individuals within the call center answer and respond to calls as the hospital referral service The referral service is provided by hospitals as a public service to facilitate the making of appointments with their physicians who are part of their referral service program Information you provide is passed to the physician’s office for the purpose of scheduling appointments In some cases, the physician’s office may request the same information again, or additional informationRegards, [redacted]

Dear [redacted] , Thank you for contacting Healthgrades via the Revdex.com I have reviewed your complaint and the case that you sent directly to Healthgrades We are suppressing any comments and stars on the profile Additionally, we are removing the survey functionality so that no one can post a survey in the future We appreciate you bringing this to our attention These changes will be replicated to our consumer site within 24-business hours.Regards, [redacted] ***Healthgrades Operating Company, Inc