Medical Justice “Retires” its Gag Orders
I’ve written before about the appalling practices of Medical Justice, an outfit that sells a perverse form of “reputation management” to physicians and dentists. Core to this “service” is a form agreement, apparently used by several thousand practitioners, that attempts to prevent patients from leaving online reviews. The agreements have taken several forms over the years, from a blunt contractual prohibition on commenting to a more nuanced attempt to transfer copyright in any future reviews automatically to the doctor. In the latter case, the doctor can then use a DMCA takedown notice to attempt to have any online reviews removed.
Not that Avvo or any reputable review site would honor such a takedown notice, but points for creativity, right?
It’s an understatement to call such agreements unconscionable. They’re also wrong on the law and revealing of both a deplorable thin-skinnedness and distrust of one’s patients amongst those practitioners who use them.
However, Medical Justice appears to have finally taken its lumps. In addition to Avvo’s numerous call-outs over the years, 2011 has seen the launch of the excellent DoctoredReviews site, a petition to the FTC by Center for Democracy and Technology to investigate MJ (the petition [pdf] is well worth a read for a detailed review of the MJ contracts) and a Public Citizen suit brought to get a declaratory ruling that the MJ agreements are unenforceable. According to MSNBC, Medical Justice has now decided to “retire” the agreements and urge its doctor members to stop using them.
That’s a great development, but patients must remain wary. There’s no telling how many of MJ’s clients will continue using these agreements. And there is no guarantee that Medical Justice won’t come out with a new twist or technique for doctors to use to try and control online commentary.
For doctors, here’s another approach to consider: Provide excellent service, listen to your patients, and don’t be afraid of what they’ve got to say about you online. It’s going to happen whether you like it or not. And for the vast majority of practitioners, the benefits of enhanced engagement with patients far outweighs the risks posed by online commentary.
December 2nd, 2011 at 3:24 pm
I recently learned a bunch about this issue when I stumbled upon the Safe Patient Project. But my first experience with the lack of transparency and questionable connections to medical device and product providers that doctors can have came in a social setting. It really is strange that one community, the one that we need to have full transparency, is allowed to get away with protecting consumer from important information.