Doctors and their allies are taking aim squarely at their patients. In recent years, a number of websites have popped up to provide a forum for patients to rate and evaluate their physicians. These sites include RateMDs.com, HealthGrades.com, DrScore.com, DoctorScoreCard.com, Healthcarereviews.com, and on and on and on. Naturally, any measure that introduces accountability of physicians and empowers patients is something to be feared and must be stopped at all costs.
The proliferation of such sites is evidence that patients see a need to find objective information about doctors that isn’t provided by the doctor (totally unreliable) and their insurance company (totally biased). Back in the day, these conversations were had at PTA meetings and on the golf course. But in this era of technology, it’s all online and out in the open.
The word is out in the physician community and Dr. Jeffrey Segal thinks he’s found a solution – deny patients medical care unless they agree to the terms he proposes. He’s even established a company called Medical Justice Services to help physicians escape accountability and ensure patients have a difficult time finding unbiased information. Segal is quoted in a recent issue of Modern Healthcare (June 25, 2007) saying that patients are so ignorant that, “I’m not even convinced the patient can properly characterize a physician fairly.” Yup, it’s the Physician-as-God complex again.
Dr. Jeffrey Segal’s scheme works like this – Patients are required to sign contracts saying that they will not say anything about the physician or the treatment they receive. In exchange for which, the doctor will actually treat the patient. There’s an interesting twist in the contract in which, if the patient signs, the doctor also agrees to abide by HIPAA regulations and not sell the patient’s personal medication information to marketers. (Segal “sells” this to patients by claiming he’s “giving” the patients additional privacy protection above the law.)
If a patient signs the contract and says anything about their care to anyone, the wealthy physician can go after the patient for damages. If the patient does not sign, the physician denies medical care. Simple as that.
What new scheme will doctors think of next?
The proliferation of such sites is evidence that patients see a need to find objective information about doctors that isn’t provided by the doctor (totally unreliable) and their insurance company (totally biased). Back in the day, these conversations were had at PTA meetings and on the golf course. But in this era of technology, it’s all online and out in the open.
The word is out in the physician community and Dr. Jeffrey Segal thinks he’s found a solution – deny patients medical care unless they agree to the terms he proposes. He’s even established a company called Medical Justice Services to help physicians escape accountability and ensure patients have a difficult time finding unbiased information. Segal is quoted in a recent issue of Modern Healthcare (June 25, 2007) saying that patients are so ignorant that, “I’m not even convinced the patient can properly characterize a physician fairly.” Yup, it’s the Physician-as-God complex again.
Dr. Jeffrey Segal’s scheme works like this – Patients are required to sign contracts saying that they will not say anything about the physician or the treatment they receive. In exchange for which, the doctor will actually treat the patient. There’s an interesting twist in the contract in which, if the patient signs, the doctor also agrees to abide by HIPAA regulations and not sell the patient’s personal medication information to marketers. (Segal “sells” this to patients by claiming he’s “giving” the patients additional privacy protection above the law.)
If a patient signs the contract and says anything about their care to anyone, the wealthy physician can go after the patient for damages. If the patient does not sign, the physician denies medical care. Simple as that.
What new scheme will doctors think of next?
4 comments:
I guess there is a wide range of opinion among doctors. At DrScore, revenue comes from doctors who ask their patients to do the ratings! It's a great way for doctors to get feedback from their patients.
I think that nearly all doctors want to be the best doctor they can be and want to give their patients the best care possible. DrScore gives them a way to find out from patients what they can do to be the best they can be.
Steve, Thanks for your comment. That is a very enlighted view - a physician actually wanting feedback on their performance. It makes perfect sense, and both the physician and the patients benefit.
Makes me wonder what Dr. Jeffrey Segal and the clients of Medical Justice Services are trying to hide.
I would hope that physicians would want to be the best doctor they can be. However, I've been in this business long enough to know that there are many physicians that will do anything to make a buck and ensure healthy profits.
Being on the medical side, I hear some of what doctors are thinking about the rating business. The objection I hear is that there may be a dissatisfied patient who will say things about the doctor that the doctor feels aren't true and not representative and that the doctor has no recourse to set the record straight.
I think the truth is that most patients are extremely happy with their medical care. If you look at the doctors with 20 or more ratings at DrScore, you find that 98% of them have average patient satisfaction scores of 8 out of 10 or higher. My average score is 9 out of 10, and that puts me in the BOTTOM 25% of the doctors.
Maybe I'm wrong, but my impression is that all too often we hear about bad things and don't hear the good. Even among doctors, it is more common to see a colleague's failure than one of their successes. To make that clearer, I'm a dermatologist. I have NEVER seen a patient for a skin disease that had been effectively managed by the patient's primary care doctor. Of course, if the patient's primary care doctor did effectively manage the skin condition, the patient wouldn't come to see me. It's easy to get a negative impression of things.
I started DrScore because I agree with you that physician accountability is good and empowering patients is good, too. I think letting the public see how good doctors are doing on a day to day basis will help people's impressions of doctors.
If what you say of Dr. Segal is true, I hope that it is an aberration and not the rule.
Again, I want to congratulate you on your service. I think this is a really good idea. Physicians should be encouraging patients into the dialogue of their care. Not withholding medical care unless they sign contracts.
It is human nature to focus on the negative. But there is also a tendency for things to wash out in the end. If a book gets a bad review on Amazon, others will swoop in and write a positive one. And, in the end, patients will make up their own minds. People are not as ignorant as some physicians would assume them to be (or want them to be).
Thanks for bringing your service to my attention.
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