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

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

#61

Post by dfsegoat »

mynameisvlad wrote: post #41
hycaria wrote: post #19

Patients are by far the worst kind of customer to deal with. So maybe if the costs were disclosed upfront ("I can perform an ultrasound if you have pelvic pain, but it will cost you/your insurance xxx") we wouldn't come to such he-said-she-said extremities. But I guess it's pure fantasy in the USA where I've heard medical costs can be negotiated... How could they announce full price / insurance coverage when you're a…

Why can't the costs be disclosed upfront? Whenever I go to the dentist and I need to have some work done, I get an estimate telling me how much it costs and how much they expect the insurance company to cover. This isn't rocket science, it can easily be calculated, and should be, as you said, for the benefit of everyone.

I too wonder why the MD side of healthcare doesn't work more like this in the US.

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.

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

#62

Post by danans »

ssijak wrote: post #45

One thing that sticks to me when I read such articles (I am not from US) is how ridiculously pricey medical services are. Common, 1k$ for a regular exam that costs like 20euros in my country in private clinics?! And I read about this ridiculous prices US so often that I am dumbstruck that people are cool with it. Another thing that struck me is that if you don`t have money, evil people can just silence you by suing y…

> am dumbstruck that people are cool with it.

Huge numbers, perhaps a majority, are not cool with it. We've had national elections fueled by the discontent. But at least so far the political configuration of that discontent, not the magnitude of it, has prevented progress on lowering the cost of health care.

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

#63

Post by hycaria »

tabtab wrote: post #51
hycaria wrote: post #19

Patients are by far the worst kind of customer to deal with. So maybe if the costs were disclosed upfront ("I can perform an ultrasound if you have pelvic pain, but it will cost you/your insurance xxx") we wouldn't come to such he-said-she-said extremities. But I guess it's pure fantasy in the USA where I've heard medical costs can be negotiated... How could they announce full price / insurance coverage when you're a…

Re: Patients are by far the worst kind of customer to deal with. Sorry, but if your org has no patience for patients (pun intended), then you are in the wrong biz. It comes across as, "Our business would be smooth if not for pesky humans."

You are obviously overinterpretating what I've written. For many very comprehensible reasons, the patient/caregiver relationship is difficult. Why wouldn't they ease it with reasonable "contract" (prices, procedure you'll go under) both parties agree upon, and why everything in this story seems unexpected is beyond me. Agreeing to an exam and discovering you're due money for it afterwards is annoying. This should be clear from the get-go, otherwise you're exposing yourself to trouble considering you're already working in a tensed environment.

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

#64

Post by eggy »

I believe in free speech online, Yelp included, however, I would be factual and concise when writing a review. The article quotes she wrote "crooked", which means dishonest, or illegal. I am not saying there are not scammers and bad doctors, but it's best to keep your language objective and answer after you have emoted offline, or the legal issues have been resolved. She could have stated that she was billed for X, but thinks she did not receive X as defined, and did not receive sufficient clarification or verification from the doctor. She states the doctor's office were aggressive on the phone when she called. Per her allegation they stated she complained of pelvic pain and this required an ultrasound. Did she complain of having pelvic pain and was given an ultrasound? Is this covered in the annual checkup for free?

I have a bill from my daughter's pediatrician, which on first look appears to be a double charge for a developmental evaluation (filling out 3 pages of questions on her). I am not going to jump on Yelp and write the pediatrician is crooked or otherwise, until I am convinced it is either a clerical error, includes another form she had us fill out that I am unaware of is a separate, standard billable practice, or is plain dishonest, and trying to get more money out of my insurance company. I will admit my first reaction upon opening the bill, hungry, late, and overworked was "This is bullshit! They are trying to rob me!" I have been overseas for the past 8 out of 9-1/2 years, so I am going to tread lightly until I can ascertain the doctor's intentions. I think many people use Yelp or other online reviews as a forum for knee-jerk, emotional reactions.

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

#65

Post by mcguire »

yani wrote: post #29

It is good to hear the other side of the story. I find it impossible for a lawyer company to post medical records of someone else publicly since they are supposed to know what they are doing. I am all for give power to the people but I have seen this being abused a lot nowadays.

This, I hope, is the list of documents filed in the case. No. 36 records a motion sealing some for containing her confidential information. I can't cut and paste here, but it says that in one of her affidavits, she included private information and in a response the plaintiff also included private information. There are charitable interpretations on either side.

https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/webcivil/FCASeFiledDocsDeta...

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

#66

Post by OscarCunningham »

ssijak wrote: post #45

One thing that sticks to me when I read such articles (I am not from US) is how ridiculously pricey medical services are. Common, 1k$ for a regular exam that costs like 20euros in my country in private clinics?! And I read about this ridiculous prices US so often that I am dumbstruck that people are cool with it. Another thing that struck me is that if you don`t have money, evil people can just silence you by suing y…

The "prices" are moves in a game played between hospitals and insurance providers, and don't correspond to anything real or to the amount that gets paid. If a hospital discovers that the patient doesn't have insurance they'll be charged the real (more reasonable) prices instead.

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

#68

Post by benburleson »

eggy wrote: post #64

I believe in free speech online, Yelp included, however, I would be factual and concise when writing a review. The article quotes she wrote "crooked", which means dishonest, or illegal. I am not saying there are not scammers and bad doctors, but it's best to keep your language objective and answer after you have emoted offline, or the legal issues have been resolved. She could have stated that she was billed for X, b…

It might be a case of the current American President devaluing the word. Seems like it would be easy to explain away the use of "crooked" in court these days.

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

#69

Post by turc1656 »

forgot-my-pw wrote: post #53
wccrawford wrote: post #40

I know someone who left a bad review and the owner of the restaurant stalked her for years afterwards. She ended up leaving Yelp because of it. Yelp doesn't do nearly as much as they should to protect their users.

Didn't Yelp use to coerce businesses too to pay to get their bad reviews "hidden"?

Yes, yes they did/do. It's a move straight out of the mobster playbook. It's the modern day equivalent of paying for "protection".

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.

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

#70

Post by brightball »

jastanton wrote: post #6

I was nodding along until this: > They posted my entire medical record, including notes about my mental health, my bills, my insurance info, my driver’s license, birth date and home address,” she said. wow. That violates HIPAA law. The counter-sue is going to be huge. Also, I had a related issue where a doctor threatened to sue based on my yelp review. I cut the review back to verifiable facts instead of opinion and…

My question around reviews in medical is always around how a physician is supposed to be able to respond because of HIPAA? It almost seems unfair to be able to review them since there is very little they can do to refute anything without violating it.

It seems like there should be some special set of rules around medical reviews, in my opinion at least.

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