Why is a rating removed or not published?

Why do we remove ratings?

Your trust is our top priority. To honour that commitment, no provider or staff member can pay to edit, delete, hide or manipulate ratings in any way. RateMDs does not work with any rating removal companies and any claims made by the companies are false.

Ratings can be flagged by anyone. If you see a rating that may be in violation of our Terms of Use, we encourage you to flag it. Flagged ratings are reviewed and may be removed due to a number of reasons such as, but not limited to, the following:

• Inappropriate/hateful/threatening language
• Astroturfing (flooding a profile with positive ratings)
• Spamming (flooding a profile with negative ratings)
• Repeated posts
• Hearsay/other patients' experiences
• Soliciting
• Privacy reasons (such as including phone numbers and/or email addresses as a part of your rating; staff members mentioned by name)
• Generalizations
• Without personal medical experiences
• Other healthcare providers mentioned by name
• Accusations of unlawful activities

Ratings should only be about the facts of your medical visit experience with the specific provider you are reviewing. Ratings that are of court-appointed assessments or Independent Medical Examinations may also lead to removal as they do not involve a doctor-patient relationship. Some common examples of Independent Medical Examinations are:

• Workers' compensation assessments
• Insurance-related assessments
• Disability claims assessments
• Personal injury litigation assessments

Please note that RateMDs does not accept any fees for rating removal, ratings are only removed if they violate our Terms of Use. Please refer to our FAQ and Terms of Use for more details.

Why a rating may be delayed in publishing?

Most ratings are posted immediately after submission, you may need to refresh the webpage or clear the cache & cookies on your web browser to see your rating.

In some circumstances, rating publication may be delayed so our staff can review the contents of the rating against our Terms of Use. One reason we might do this is when a profile shows irregular posting patterns suggesting spamming or astroturfing. 

Healthcare providers can subscribe to be notified of new ratings and be given a short window to appeal or post a response to the rating. This may also result in a delay of up to 7 days between the rating submission and publication.

We recommend that you create a user account and log in when you submit a rating. This will help us field questions you may have about your rating's status and provide you with options to manage your rating.

Please contact us if you have further questions.