Healthgrades

Dear [redacted], **Thank you for contacting Healthgrades via the Revdex.com.On 3/3/17, you requested that Healthgrades remove the age from the profile which was completed and an email was sent from Healthgrades to you for confirmation.  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.  If you’d like, I’m happy to change the ‘accepting new patients’ to NO?  Please let me know if that is what you’d like me to do.Respectfully,[redacted]Healthgrades

Complaint: 11429643
I am rejecting this response because:
They still are reviewing before they remove the post. I really hope that this can be handled at this level and not escalated. 
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Dear [redacted],Thank you for contacting Healthgrades via the Revdex.com.  Your complaint with the Revdex.com was filed on 2/25/17.  We did receive your correspondences dated 3/5/17, 3/6/17 and 3/7/17 (phone call).  We have responded to your email correspondences as well as we spoke to...

you on the phone.  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.  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 3rdparties. Upon review of the survey data we have determined that the survey comment meets Healthgrades criteria for display. Accordingly, 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.   Additionally through the course of the investigation Healthgrades discovered some questionable activity with 3 comments/opinions and will be suppressing those.  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 YOURobligation. You 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 right. Replies will go through an audit process and will not be available on our consumer site immediately. If you have questions, please use our ‘contact us’, located at the bottom of the provider portal page. Regards,[redacted]Healthgrades

Tell us why here.. 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, we display this information on our website. However, due to your concerns for your safety, we have suppressed your HG profile.  Respectfully, Healthgrades

Thank you for contacting Healthgrades.I apologize that you have been dissatisfied with our services.  I do show that you emailed Healthgrades in September 2015.  We did not have open comments in Sept of 2015 however, we did do an investigation into the star ratings and did respond to...

your email on 10/22/15. In that response we let you know that we suppressed a survey that did not meet our criteria. I am happy to open up a second investigation into ALL surveys and comments to make sure there is no alleged fraudulent activity. You will be hearing from our survey department in the next few days regarding the second investigation.We do allow providers to post a response to surveys.  This can be done through our free provider portal:  https://update.healthgrades.com/account/register  Once you are logged in, you can click on ‘Your Voice’ in the left hand rail.  Then select ‘Response to Patient Satisfaction Surveys’.I am happy to update your address, if you will send me the information.  The Texas Optometry Board only lists El Paso, Tx as your address.  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 the profile information from our website.  And finally, I could not locate another [redacted] that is a healthcare provider in Texas.  Would you please provide more information regarding this?  What type of provider is he?  Where in Texas does he practice?  Regards,[redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:I appreciate your help in trying to resolve our current issue with this review.  However, I feel like this review is grossly insensitive and disrespectful to the provider.  The review is stating that [redacted] will be a better doctor once she has children of her own, which is completely inaccurate.  Heather is well qualified for her position and her child status does not affect her professional skills.  This review is a personal attack based on a personal decision to have children.  I would think that this would go against your business practices and company morals of what would be an acceptable post.  I request that you please take another look into this case for the removal of this review on your site.  I do respect your current decision; however it would be much appreciated if you would give this a second look.  Thank you for your help.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Dear [redacted] Thank you for contacting Healthgrades via the Revdex.com. The reason the free form response was rejected (along with most of the other data you supplied) is because you were trying to change your name to NA NIL.  This is a violation of the physician user agreement that...

states…”you agree to provide only true and accurate information regarding your identity and healthcare provider status…. You represent any physician provided material submitted by you will not contain material that is false, factually inaccurate or misleading.” I am unable to grant your request to have the review and grading portion removed. I have suppressed the age from the profile.  This will replicate to the consumer site within 24-48 business hours. Regards,[redacted]

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.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

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.  On the same day the complaint was filed, you also contacted Healthgrades regarding your concern.  We were able to confirm that you were in residency so we removed the surveys that were in the timeframe of your schooling.  Today there should have been zero surveys however another poor one was submitted last evening.  We are in the process of removing that last survey and have turned off the survey functionality to dissuade whoever is doing this.  We have temporarily suspended the functionality for 3 months and then will turn back on the functionality.   This will replicate to our consumer site within 24-48 business hours, most likely it will occur overnight barring any unforeseen server issues, etc.   Additionally, we have marked the status of the profile as STUDENT, seeing patients with supervision.  If you have questions, please feel free to reach out directly to me at the following email address: [redacted] Regards, [redacted]

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID 11184425, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Dear [redacted], You stated that you only have one patient from [redacted].  Could the comment/opinion be from a family member of this [redacted]n patient?  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.  In any event, I apologize that you are dissatisfied however our conclusions remain the same.  Respectfully, [redacted] Healthgrades

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because I believe a healthcare website has the responsibility not to encourage slander .there is no proof that the person posting is a patient .I tried to explain to Health Grades that what the person posted doesn't make any logical sense but to no avail .tomorrow anyone can post anything about anyone I suppose whether true or not and Health Grades will post it .Worst of all when my name is googled now that review on Health Grades pops up first , not on opening the Health Grades web site but simply on googling my name .I have given up on this issue .My name is slandered already for everyone to see and trying to reason with Health Grades just made the whole thing worse .Thanks for the response Revdex.com .
Sincerely,
[redacted]

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.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 6, 2015/06/05) */
[redacted]'s office administrator notified Healthgrades of the address issue on 5/27/15. We appreciated her letting us know of the error in the data. We are sorry and never intended to publish a residential
address. One of the public data...

sources that Healthgrades uses lists this residential address as your business practice address. Healthgrades' intent is to collect the most accurate and complete information for all provider profiles. On 5/28/15 Healthgrades updated the profile and emailed his office administrator that the profile had been updated on our consumer site. Please let us know if we may further assist.
Regards,
[redacted]
Healthgrades Operating Company, Inc

Dear [redacted]Thank you for contacting Healthgrades via the Revdex.com.As you are aware, 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 responses to a standard multiple choice survey.  Our patient experience survey offers consumers the ability to access actual user responses to a predefined set of questions, and provides them with an aggregated patient satisfaction score based upon such users’ own experiences. The Healthgrades’ Patient Experience Survey is unique in that we display the number of responses for every question so that consumers can determine whether to take the score into consideration in their decision making or not. Each category under survey details for a provider depicts the average for all responses within that category.  The "Likelihood to recommend" question and score is a separate measure and is not related or a compilation of the other category scores.  At Healthgrades we believe that patient experience scores are one of three important considerations for consumers when selecting a physician next to a physician’s experience and their hospital affiliation.  In addition to these scores, we publish information on physicians’ board certification, education and training, malpractice and sanction information to help consumers make a well-rounded decision.   In order to target areas for improvement, a provider can view the breakdown of their scores on their profile page. Also, Healthgrades has recently launched patient reviews which allow patients to leave an open comment (opinion) regarding their experience with the provider.  We have reviewed the surveys submitted regarding your practice and have found no indication that they were illegitimately submitted.  It is important to note that Healthgrades does not rate doctors and the scores solely reflect the opinions of patients.  As opinions, the responses to the surveys are protected statements under the law. As more consumers are looking to the internet, and Healthgrades specifically, when searching for a new provider, we recommend that healthcare providers manage their profiles at healthgrades.com and encourage satisfied patients to complete surveys. Healthgrades offers advice and tools on its site to all providers in order to help boost feedback.  Healthgrades does not charge any fees to manage your profile unless you expressly agree to those fees. For instance, Healthgrades offers additional services, subject to separate agreement, that providers utilize to allow consumers to schedule appointments directly through our website.  Given you have registered a user account and submitted changes to your profile via Healthgrades provider portal, you are aware and acknowledge that this is a free service that you have never been charged for.  Your request for Healthgrades to release the identity of individuals who submitted surveys on Healthgrades.com is covered in our user agreement posted on our website. Regards,[redacted]Healthgrades Operating Company, Inc

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]

Complaint: 11093393
I am rejecting this response because: Is not what I'm requesting and Health grades policy don't apply to my decision.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Dr. [redacted],Thank you for your response.  I apologize you are unsatisfied however Healthgrades conclusion remains the same.  Healthgrades considers this matter closed. Regards,[redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]
Thank you,
[redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:The complaint was not to say that the website wasn't violating HIPPA. It was to point out that HIPPA protects patients and healthgrades is a health related company and is claiming to assist those in the medical community but is not.I will be taking up my issue with another member of the healthgrades community from this point on since my concerns have not only been ignored but have not been responded to. You continually harp on one point and ignore the anonymous false information posted.No one truly reviewing a complaint by a professional stating that an unfair complaint was made against that professional would disagree with me. The one star review hasn't been removed and is completely ludicrous. Especially being anonymous and especially given the explanation in regards to statements made by my ex-husband in the past. You have in no way verified that the anonymous complaint is a patient of mine and even if you had giving a one star rating and stating deserves no stars for rudeness is absurd and should be taken down because it is clearly a libelous statement by someone who will not even stand by their word.This is not the last time I will be contacting the company. I plan on making further inquiries and am again disappaointed in the lack of care in the response towards me and the lack of caring of the professionals you glutinoisly publish about online. 
Sincerely,
[redacted]