Grading doctors online. It’s not easy to comparison shop for doctors. More reliable tools to help patients evaluate clinical competence and improve pricing “transparency” are needed. But communication skills and accessibility matter, too, and other patients may be the best sources for those details, which is in part why there’s a growing crop of websites that invite patients to post online ratings and comments about their physicians.
In January, the insurer WellPoint announced that it has teamed up with restaurant-rating company Zagat to launch a new physician rating service for all plan members in four states by the end of this month. The tool lets people assign their physicians points for trustworthiness, communication skills, availability and office environment. It will join other sites like the recently launched and . RateMDs is the heavy hitter in this arena, with ratings of more than 125,000 doctors. Just know what you’re reading. Such sites “add nothing to the quality of patient-physician communication and understanding,” said the American Medical Association’s president-elect, Nancy Nielsen, in a statement. “There is no guarantee that the opinions about a physician even come from that physician’s patient — anonymous opinions can come from anyone.”
U.S. News and World Report
