What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? New York
I am a licensed clinical psychologist in private practice who also works in a hospital outpatient psychiatric clinic. A few years ago, I noticed that when I google myself my name is listed with several health care rating companies where people can rate my services using one to five stars (five stars being the best rating). I never signed up with any of these sites and never gave it much thought. Then, a few weeks ago, I had an encounter with a difficult patient in my clinic; the patient had to be removed by hospital police from my clinic against his will and he was not happy. A few days after this event, I noticed that there were several "one star" ratings on one of the health care rating sites. I can't prove that it was the difficult patient who had given me these ratings, but ultimately it doesn't matter. The point is I should not have been listed as a provider since I never asked for this to happen. I emailed customer service of the site in question and was told I should edit my provider profile. Keep in mind, I never signed up with them and never created a profile; now I am asked to come up with a user name and password to edit my profile! I emailed them back several times, getting increasingly frustrated, and only getting generic emails back suggesting I edit my profile. Finally, I threatened legal action and this was then the email that was sent back to me: "If you are aware of any information that is inaccurate or is not publicly available in your profile, please let us know so we can investigate further. However, we will not remove accurate, publicly available information from our website. Such information is provided as a service to consumers." I really don't know what my next step should be at this point. I am not happy about the fact that there is a public domain that lists me as having several "one star" ratings, but I am even more frustrated by the fact that the site is using my name and information even though I have not given them permission to do so. Any suggestions how to resolve this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
I am a licensed clinical psychologist in private practice who also works in a hospital outpatient psychiatric clinic. A few years ago, I noticed that when I google myself my name is listed with several health care rating companies where people can rate my services using one to five stars (five stars being the best rating). I never signed up with any of these sites and never gave it much thought. Then, a few weeks ago, I had an encounter with a difficult patient in my clinic; the patient had to be removed by hospital police from my clinic against his will and he was not happy. A few days after this event, I noticed that there were several "one star" ratings on one of the health care rating sites. I can't prove that it was the difficult patient who had given me these ratings, but ultimately it doesn't matter. The point is I should not have been listed as a provider since I never asked for this to happen. I emailed customer service of the site in question and was told I should edit my provider profile. Keep in mind, I never signed up with them and never created a profile; now I am asked to come up with a user name and password to edit my profile! I emailed them back several times, getting increasingly frustrated, and only getting generic emails back suggesting I edit my profile. Finally, I threatened legal action and this was then the email that was sent back to me: "If you are aware of any information that is inaccurate or is not publicly available in your profile, please let us know so we can investigate further. However, we will not remove accurate, publicly available information from our website. Such information is provided as a service to consumers." I really don't know what my next step should be at this point. I am not happy about the fact that there is a public domain that lists me as having several "one star" ratings, but I am even more frustrated by the fact that the site is using my name and information even though I have not given them permission to do so. Any suggestions how to resolve this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
