New ACA regulations around Doctor Reviews

[Jake Jordan]

Has anyone had experience with challenges regarding encouraging reviews of doctors and physicians? We work with a big healthcare network and have been told that we cannot pursue reviews in anyway, shape or form b/c of ACA.

I know there are probably some restrictions, but wanted to see if anyone is dealing with this. I have requested the actual regulation language and name of the forms that are "replacing" reviews for physicians to look at for them.

Thanks!

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Jake, great question. I just Googled and didn't find anything, so if anyone has more info please share!

 

[Phil Rozek]

I'll echo what Linda said: Great question, Jake. Thanks for bringing that one up.

Wish I had an answer. Although I would guess it's a state regulation at work, rather than the ACA.

 

[Jon Hall]

A juicy one, indeed! Thanks, Jake. I can offer an educated guess based on the info provided.

I'm not aware of any such "regulation" in the ACA that would prevent docs from seeking patient reviews. BUT the new legislation does mandate that large physician groups and hospitals will be increasingly compensated in accordance with certain performance measures, including patient satisfaction.

I suspect that this group is mindful that they need to seek patient satisfaction survey responses from patients using official instruments (e.g. Hospital Patients? Survey Data), so perhaps they feel other efforts at getting patient feedback would "squander" those patients or otherwise confuse them.

Just a guess. Please post back what you learn--it will certainly help the rest of us better counsel and serve our healthcare clients!