I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare

I would suggest using a pseudonym and VPN for any review written on a potentially litigious business unless you have the funds to litigate. Problem is Yelp is much more likely to mark the review as spam.

I was sued and I pro-se to defend myself. Although the plaintiffs know the lawsuit is frivolous but that doesn’t matter. He said if I don’t apologize and I win the case, he will just spend more money appeal the case and make my life miserable. I apologized and he dismissed the case.

It probably caused him some money, but it had caused me a lot of distress and time reading up the laws.

I was really confused. Wasn't this a HIPAA violation? If yes, what do you even do about it? Feels like a cause for concern if your doctor is also trying to play cupid? What should I do/have done?

I had a friend of mine who refused a request by a patient out of the country, while on-call one weekend. I'll leave out the details apart from it involved shipping a large quantity of a very expensive medication to another country - as the hospital did not have this medication available. He had already sent enough of this medication to cover for at least a week (at huge cost to the NHS, as the medication had to be couriered by plane) when a second request was received 2 days later. A huge internet hate-mob appeared on Facebook saying all sorts of things about this doctor by name, to which he had no ability to respond.

I'm for making healthcare more transparent, but I wonder if, as a doctor, we'd be pressurised into pleasing the patient more than treating the patients correctly, with the threat of negative yelp reviews, though that's obviously a risk with any sort of profession and review system.

Though I guess if a phone call had protected HIPAA information and you could tell who it was through their voice it might be a violation?

Even if the patient reveals PHI you should avoid confirming or acknowledging it as the "covered entity" under HIPAA. A confirmation of a diagnosis is different than a person discussing symptoms. I would argue that you probably should avoid even acknowledging that the person is a patient or has been seen in the office. The approach will reinforce to others how seriously you take privacy and you can taut your customer service policies, etc.

I wouldn't call this unfair since all providers are in the same situation.

(This isn't legal advice, obviously.)

And to be scrupulously neutral, 3 stars if that's an option.

That's exactly the sort of "true but out of context" thing a tabloid like this site would use.

People freak out the moment they hear privacy violation. They get angry and stop thinking. The comment above from AdmiralAsshat already says "the practice should be shut down". Some comments above say "it's an open and shut case" without even knowing the details of the proceedings.

Can you imagine if as a doctor, you kept your patient's info private, but a patients says you "posted her medical record" even though it was sealed for her court proceedings? Wow

It might happen to many others, but her accusation is baseless and she is responsible for it. Suing for libel is an appropriate right.

Aren't designed to correspond to real payments. But like a sumo wrestling match in a kindergarten, sometimes the little guy gets squashed by accident. And you wind up with people getting $20k bills that don't necessarily know how to get out from under them.

It's

I've gotten so I just ask what the out of pocket cost is to pay cheaper (usually 1/2 price), and they still manage to hose me with extra services.

It's a racket.

Totally not true. Often they'll send a collection agency.

The discount is not guaranteed.

Health insurance in this country suffers from kind of a legacy situation. It is sort of like how the qwerty keyboard is terribly inefficient, but most people continue to use it.

From what I have read, at some point health insurance was offered as a means to beef up compensation in a way that was tax friendly for employees, thus helping to entice better employees to come work for your company. This became kind of the standard default and typically covered the family, not just the employee.

This was considered a perk in a situation where most people whipped out their check book to pay for medical care because it was relatively reasonably priced. Then health insurance became kind of the default and it adds overhead and complexity. Obomacare was passed as the only politically viable solution and it's a terrible solution.

Health insurance coverage for basic services doesn't really make sense. Insurance only makes sense as a bet to defray unexpected expenses. When you use it cover annual exams and other basics that you know are guaranteed to happen, it essentially creates an unnecessary middleman, pushing prices higher without providing any real benefit for the cost involved.

This is where we are now and most people don't know how to get out of this mess. It doesn't help that Obamacare puts a gun to your head and insists that most people participate in this charade or be fined at tax time, in essence. Ugh.

> The amount I pay, as a patient, is $10.

This is Shkreli math. "Oh, insurance companies pay larger amounts, most people will get this drug for a $10 copay!"

Oh yes, the insurance companies, those philanthropists magicking money out of ... somewhere other than your pocket, be it directly or indirectly.

As a sibling poster to you said, the ridiculous pricing is part of a game between insurers and care providers. Throwing more money at insurers might not be the ideal answer.

The problem is that you've got a two party system where groups that don't share much in common are lumped together and people are voting for the 'least worst' option. There's no reason the social and economic positions of the Democrats/Republicans have to be linked together like they are.

If they weren't, people may vote differently.

Aside from that we are all covered by the state and are not billed for anything apart from some medications. Yeah, hospitals are not that great of a place and there is a lot to be improved, but at least you know that even if you are very poor, you will not be left to die (or with some ridiculous bills) if you are very ill.

And before someone asks, why to pay for private if you have state coverage.. It is a job perk, and in any case, you pay for your time. Service is much faster and more convenient for the basic stuff/illnesses.

Now, I understand I pay taxes to cover health care. This isn't really any worse than I was paying in the states in my monthly premiums. The thing is that it creates a wonderful sort of stability in life. I can plan on taxes, I can plan on the out-of-pocket costs for a year. I won't go bankrupt. I no longer feel I'm getting ripped off for something I might have little to no control over.

Their coverage is not uniform across different countries (Germany is not bad but still occasionally spotty) but it's a great filter of the crap restaurants.

Yes, yes it does!

Yelp has also been sued by investor's for allegedly misleading them into believing that Yelp was filtering out everything that wasn't reliable, first-hand reviews from people who actually went to those businesses and paid for services.

On a similar note, I believe business owners have alleged numerous times that when they refuse to pay the extortion fees to have bad reviews removed, they suddenly get a bunch of bad reviews all at once. Also, Yelp has seemingly had a habit of allowing competitor's post bullshit reviews on businesses who haven't paid them for that "service".

I don't what currently goes on, though. Maybe they have cleaned it up? But I doubt it.

I was actually very taken aback recently when I needed to get dental work and was presented with costing info about 10 mins after my visit started.

It did feel a bit greasy, I must admit - but I get that the point is for everyone to be on the same page before the procedure.

edit: I now recall that I did use Urgent Care for awhile for healthcare while uninsured - in the US - these are basically "fixed menu" clinics. They have a menu of services / costs for cash.

And also, each insurance pays differently for the same service.

You can always go as a patient to an all cash-clinic, which will have fixed pricing, but then you throw away the benefit of your insurance.