With more than 30 websites dedicated to patient reviews, physicians are taking measures to protect themselves from anonymous online postings with waivers. The documents are often called “Mutual Agreement to Maintain Privacy” and can be found among other routine patient paperwork, such as HIPAA agreements.
Many consumer advocates are calling it a medical gag order, criticizing the physicians who use the form as distrusting of patients. Also, in an effort to reduce online defamation, the use of the waiver has sparked it in other forms. Website RateMDs.com, for instance, is posting the names of physicians who require waivers on its “Wall of Shame.”
Medical Justice, an organization aimed to protect physicians from frivolous lawsuits, supports the use of such waivers and says anonymous web postings by disgruntled patients can threaten a good name and practice. “Mutual Agreements to not create a choice between healthcare and one’s right to free speech (as some have erroneously claimed),” the group says on its website. “There are existing processes and viable venues where patients can report bad experiences with physicians.”
