Healthgrades

Kerry Hicks founded Healthgrades in 1998. Healthcare providers could display their business information on the website for the community to view. In 2009, Healthgrades worked with over 400 hospitals in the United States. Healthgrades merged with CPM Marketing Group, a Madison, Wisconsin based company that provides customer relationship management solutions to hospitals. The merger created a single online company with more than 200 million visitors annually. In October 2014, Healthgrades launched the first comprehensive physician rating and comparison database in the United States. In 2022, RV Health, a Red Ventures business consisting of Healthgrades, Healthline Media (Healthline, Medical News Today, Greatist, Psych Central, Bezzy), and PlateJoy, became a new company in partnership with UnitedHealth Group's Optum. The new company, RVO Health, combines RV Health's content, chronic condition communities, and tools with Optum Perks, Optum Store, and Rally Coach. ==Ratings==

Healthgrades evaluates hospitals solely on risk-adjusted mortality and in-hospital complications. Its website evaluates roughly 500 million claims from federal and private reviews and data to rate and rank doctors based on complication rates at the hospitals where they practice, experience, and patient satisfaction. Its analysis is based on approximately 40 million Medicare discharges for the most recent three-year time period available. Some critics argue that claim data is not adequate to make determinations about the quality of care and that conclusions should be drawn from medical records. Healthgrades develops objective ratings based on data and information from several publicly available sources. Specifically, most ratings are determined from multivariate logistic regressions of medical outcomes at a given healthcare provider to risk-adjust the patients and 1-, 3- and 5-star awards are given to providers whose negative outcomes are worse than expected, near predicted levels, and better than expected, respectively. The ratings have been criticized for oversights in the methodology that may penalize some institutions with ideal medical outcomes. Nash et al. have expressed "concern about the reliability and validity of such 'black box' rating scales." In addition to star ratings, Healthgrades recognizes facilities for ''America's 50, 100, and 250 Best Hospitals, Specialty Excellence Awards, Outstanding Patient Experience, and Patient Safety''. The hospital quality awards bestowed by Healthgrades are intended to help patients make an informed choice about where to get treated. ==Products==

Website Time listed the Healthgrades website as one of its 50 best websites of 2011. The information Healthgrades provides includes information on doctors' board certifications, types of procedures offered, and which insurance plans offices accept. However, information such as healthcare provider degrees is often inaccurate on the site, significantly limiting its use and raising concern that other information on the site may also be incorrect. It also lists a doctor's hospital affiliations and information on hospital performance collected from government data. Web visitors can input their opinions in a survey based on their experience with an individual healthcare professional and view provider ratings at no charge. The survey evaluates a doctor's communication skills, the friendliness of the office staff, and whether it's easy to get an urgent appointment. The study confirmed that although physician's feelings toward the presence of online rating websites tend to be negative, the awareness of and the use of them by patients has increased and may help physicians manage their online reputation. Many companies and health plans make Healthgrades information available to their participants. Licensing Hospitals that are highly rated providers will license Healthgrades' ratings and trademarks for marketing promotions. The company uses litigation to protect its name and ratings. Healthgrades sued the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in 2006 for copyright and trademark infringement after the hospital used Healthgrades' ratings and logo in promotional publications without paying licensing fees. ==Independent evaluation==

Medical experts have questioned the reliability of the 1-, 3- and 5-star ratings given to healthcare providers, criticizing the lack of transparency and perceived oversights in Healthgrades' methodology. To illustrate: for any pair of hospitals rated to two different rating groups (1-, 3- or 5-star) by Healthgrades, the researchers determined that standardized mortality rates were "comparable or even better in the lower-rated hospital in more than 90% of the comparisons." The report also detailed the complaints of former Healthgrades employees and physicians that pursued legal actions after inaccurate reports. Risk-adjusted mortality was found to be statistically significantly lower in the Healthgrades' "Best Hospitals" for coronary artery bypass and aortic valve repair. The authors determined that both ratings systems had substantive flaws in the evaluation of mortality following pancreatectomy, esophagectomy or colectomy; only the top rated hospitals for colectomy in the U.S. News & World Report ratings had a statistically significant lower mortality than national averages—mortality rates at Healthgrades' best hospitals were not significantly lower for any of the three procedures. and Best Provider Directory, Consumer General Health in 2023. ==Criticism==

In 2010, AOL criticized the company for its use of "automatic renewal" subscription charges to customers who purchased physician reports. Healthgrades discontinued all consumer-based credit card product offerings in 2011. In addition, ConsumerAffairs.com shows an unfavorable rating of Healthgrades.com, listing allegations of inaccurate healthcare provider information, modified or falsified reviews left by consumers, and an inability to validate reviews properly before being posted. A 2016 article published in Consumer Reports identified a case where Healthgrades failed to divulge 18 malpractice suits against Leonard Kurian, a physician reviewed on its site, bringing into question the quality of reviews it provides. Healthgrades will disable and remove therapy and psychology accounts if requested. Healthgrades Help Center FAQs states providers who have received an unsatisfactory patient survey may improve their overall survey score: “The best strategy to improve your overall survey score is to encourage more of your patients to complete Patient Satisfaction Surveys. The more patient surveys you have, the less impact a few bad scores have on your overall survey score. Use our Patient Engagement Resources to help you encourage patients to complete surveys.” This suggestion to providers from Healthgrades violates both National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics and American Psychological Code of Ethics: The Code of Ethics of the National Association of Social Workers, Section 4.07, states that it is unethical for social workers to solicit testimonials: "(b) Social workers should not engage in solicitation of testimonial endorsements (including solicitation of consent to use a client's prior statement as a testimonial endorsement) from current clients or other persons who, because of their particular circumstances are vulnerable to undue influence." Also, The American Psychological Association's Ethics Code states that it is unethical for psychologists to solicit testimonials: Principle 5.05 "Psychologists do not solicit testimonials from current therapy clients/patients or other persons who because of their particular circumstances are vulnerable." ==References==

• WebMD.com • Vitals.com • Arztadressen (in German)