MD Reviews: With The Good Comes The Bad

Not that long ago, if you asked someone how to find a good doctor in the city, you would likely get a half hearted shrug while the person looked for the nearest phone book. The fact is, there wasn’t any good way to shuffle through the many doctors in a given area. Because of this information gap, it was only a matter of time before websites started popping up in an attempt to fill that void. Today, there are several such sites, all providing MD reviews as posted by patients. These sites can be a tremendous research if you’re looking for a doctor, but they haven’t come about without a fair share of controversy.

Of course, the internet isn’t the only place you can go for MD reviews. Perhaps even more controversial than those sites is the program set up by several insurance companies to rank in-network doctors according to a host of factors. To say that medical groups are opposed to such ranking would be an understatement. They see the insurance companies at necessary odds with what they aim to do in their practice. Insurance companies are all about the bottom line. Maximizing efficiency. Exploiting the race to the bottom when it comes to costs. No one wants to see the health care industry become a place where work goes to the lowest bidder.

But while there may be controversy surrounding MD reviews, both online and off, there is no question that the average consumer has many more opportunities for information now than ever before. Could some of that information be tainted? Of course. Since 1995, people have been warned again and again not to believe everything they read on the internet. There are numerous reasons why a person would lie on one of these sites. However, the same can be said for any online reviews, and the fact is that shopping sites, movie critics, and online auctions have thrived off using the opinion of the customer to inform the base. Why should the field of medicine be any different?

Choosing a doctor can be a difficult process, and the average person can use all the help they can get to cut through the cobwebs. If you choose to use online MD reviews to find a doctor, just remember to get back online after your appointment and write up your own opinion. These sites work best when a lot of people participate.