Business Opportunities Weblog

Why There’s No Review Site for Doctors

By on March 14, 2013 in Ideas

Doctor

NY Times:

For all the debate about which Web sites have the best model for reliable reviews — paid or unpaid, anonymous or real name, Angie’s List or Yelp or TripAdvisor — one thing is certain: a robust ecosystem exists online for restaurant and hotel reviews that has changed those industries for the better.

So it is puzzling that there is no such authoritative collection of reviews for physicians, the highest-stakes choice of service provider that most people make.

Sure, various Web sites like HealthGrades and RateMDs have taken their shots, and Yelp and Angie’s List have made a go of it, too. But the listings are often sparse, with few contributors and little of substance.

What we have here is a demand and supply problem: many people want this information, and more consumers would trust it if the sites had more robust offerings. But not enough people take the time to review their doctors. And fixing that problem means figuring out why.

I’ll tell you why no one rates their doctor: People don’t chose their doctors with their checkbooks. Insurance companies, paid for via money deducted from paychecks, chose doctors. By separating the person paying for the the service (the patient) from the person providing the service (the doctor), medical care won’t get better. The insurance companies and patients have different criteria for determining who’s a better doctor, and as long as that distance remains, no matter who funds the doctors, be it insurance companies or the government, medical care will suffer.

Photo by haveseen/ShutterStock.

doctors ratings

Business Opportunities Weblog editor and publisher Dane Carlson lives in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, just 15 miles from Yosemite National Park. He accidentally became a professional blogger in 2001. He has added 12,203 posts to the site.

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  • http://n.a. cindy hawkins

    And who among us has NOT bumpedinto a really bad Doctor? I mean, one with good medical skills, but bad bedside manners, or worse, a lack of sensitivity to the patient’s needs and concerns? My Mom, still active at 89, went to a Doctor awhile ago, and she happened to tell him that she believes in natural remedies, and takes no drugs. Luckily, she does not have high blood pressure, diabetes or heart trouble, so her need for medication is zilch. ANyway, the Doctor, when he heard her say that she preferred a more holistic approach, dismissed her, saying, “If you won’t take prescription medications…we can’t work together!” Clearly, a stupid way to address Mother’s real issues about medications, although luckily enough, she does not actually need them. But I sometimes think many Doctors work hand in latex glove with drug companies, else why would he have said something as dumb and self serving as that? Needless to say my Mom took her tote bag and left. And disturbingly, I hear this often from seniors especially: that Doctors do not make time to explain in language they can understand, what will be done, or simply acknowledge their worries and fears regarding medical treatments and tests. Bad manners, and bad medical practice as well!

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