Healthgrades Reviews: A Guide for Doctors and Practices

Healthgrades reviews are patient ratings and comments shown on doctors’ and other providers’ Healthgrades profiles, which often rank on the first page of Google for a provider’s name. To manage them, claim your free provider profile, correct your details, ask all patients for honest feedback as part of routine follow-up, respond (where the site allows) without confirming anyone is a patient, and report reviews that break Healthgrades’ guidelines. Negative reviews that reflect a genuine patient’s opinion generally stay up.

This guide is for physicians, dentists, therapists and practice managers who want their Healthgrades presence to be accurate and fair. Therapists face extra limits, covered in our guide to therapist reviews.

Why Healthgrades matters

Healthgrades is one of the largest doctor review sites in the US. It creates profiles for a very large number of providers using public data, such as professional directories and licensing information, whether or not the provider has ever signed up. That means you probably already have a profile, and patients may be reading it.

Because Healthgrades profiles often appear near the top of search results for a doctor’s name, they shape first impressions. A patient searching for “Dr. Lee cardiologist” may see your Healthgrades star rating before your practice website. If that profile shows the wrong address, an old insurance list or a handful of dated reviews, it can cost you appointments.

Healthgrades is one of several sites patients use. Our guide to doctor review sites compares it with Google, Vitals, WebMD, Zocdoc and others.

How Healthgrades reviews work

Patients can leave a star rating and written comments on a provider’s profile. Healthgrades asks reviewers about aspects of the experience, which have included things like how well the provider explains conditions, whether they listen and answer questions, how much time they spend, trustworthiness, and whether the reviewer would recommend them. Some questions cover the office, such as scheduling, wait times and staff friendliness.

Healthgrades moderates reviews against its own guidelines. In general, those guidelines prohibit content such as profanity, threats, personal information about others and content unrelated to the patient experience. Reviews are shown without the patient’s full name. Because the exact rules and features change, check Healthgrades’ current guidelines and provider help pages before reporting a review or planning a campaign.

Step 1: Claim and correct your Healthgrades profile

Claiming your profile lets you update the information patients see. The basic steps:

1. Find your profile. Search Healthgrades for your name and specialty. Check for duplicates, for example under a maiden name or a previous practice address.
2. Use the provider sign-up or claim option. Healthgrades offers a free way for providers to claim and update their profiles. You’ll usually need to verify your identity, often using professional details such as your NPI number.
3. Correct the basics. Practice locations, phone numbers, specialties, hospital affiliations, accepted insurance, languages spoken and whether you’re taking new patients.
4. Add a photo and short bio. A clear professional headshot and a plain bio covering your training, interests and approach help patients choose.
5. Fix errors at the source too. Some Healthgrades data comes from public directories. If wrong information keeps reappearing, update your records with the relevant directories as well. Our guide to fixing wrong information on Google covers the same principle for search results.
6. Give access to a practice manager if Healthgrades allows it, so updates don’t depend on the provider’s time.

Healthgrades also sells paid marketing products to practices and health systems. You don’t need them to claim your profile, keep it accurate or receive reviews.

Step 2: Get more genuine Healthgrades reviews

Most profiles have too few reviews. When a provider sees a large number of patients each year but has five reviews, one unhappy patient can define the profile. The fix is to make leaving feedback a normal, low-effort part of every visit, for every patient.

• Include a review link in post-visit communications. A short line in the follow-up email or text, sent to all patients, is usually enough.
• Put a sign or card at checkout. A simple “We welcome your feedback on Healthgrades” with a QR code works well.
• Ask every patient, not just happy ones. Filtering patients by satisfaction survey before inviting reviews is review gating, which Google and other review platforms prohibit and which skews the picture patients see.
• Don’t offer incentives. The FTC’s 2024 rule on consumer reviews bans incentives conditioned on positive reviews, and even neutral incentives can conflict with site rules.
• Protect privacy in requests. Don’t mention diagnoses or treatments in review requests, and use communication channels that meet your HIPAA obligations.

Here’s a short request you can adapt:

Thank you for visiting Riverside Family Medicine. We’re always working to improve, and we’d welcome your honest feedback about your visit on Healthgrades: [link]. If you have a concern you’d like us to address directly, please call our office manager at the number below.

Step 3: Respond to reviews without breaking HIPAA

Healthgrades’ options for public replies have varied over time and may depend on your account type, so check your provider dashboard. Wherever you respond, on Healthgrades or any other site, the same rule applies: HIPAA prohibits healthcare providers from disclosing protected health information, and that includes confirming that the reviewer is your patient.

The HHS Office for Civil Rights has taken enforcement action against practices whose replies to online reviews disclosed patient information. A reply that says “As we discussed at your appointment on March 3…” can be a violation even if the patient disclosed the visit first.

Safe replies are general, focused on your policies, and move the conversation offline:

We take all feedback seriously and are committed to clear communication and respectful care for every patient. Because of privacy laws, we can’t discuss any individual’s care online. We’d welcome the chance to talk; please contact our practice manager directly at the office.

For positive reviews, a simple thanks without any reference to treatment is fine:

Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. We appreciate it.

Step 4: Report reviews that break Healthgrades’ guidelines

You can’t delete reviews yourself, but you can report ones that break the rules through your provider account or the report option on the review. Reviews that may qualify include those that:

• Contain profanity, threats or discriminatory language.
• Include personal information about staff or other patients.
• Are clearly about a different provider or practice.
• Appear to come from a competitor, a former employee writing as a patient, or someone with a conflict of interest.
• Are spam or duplicates.

When reporting, be careful not to disclose patient information to the platform in your explanation beyond what’s needed. A review that’s harsh or that you believe is unfair usually won’t be removed if it describes a genuine experience. Section 230 generally shields sites like Healthgrades from liability for user reviews, which is why they rarely take down content just because a provider objects.

A worked example: a solo dermatology practice

This is an illustrative scenario. A dermatologist has a Healthgrades profile with an old address, no photo and six reviews, two of them critical about long wait times. New patients mention the wait-time reviews at their first appointments.

1. The practice manager claims the profile, updates the address, insurance list and bio, and adds a photo.
2. She reports one review that names a staff member and describes her appearance, citing the personal information rule. Healthgrades removes it. The other critical review stays.
3. The practice adds a Healthgrades link to its standard post-visit text, sent to every patient.
4. It adjusts scheduling to reduce overbooking, and where replies are possible, responds to wait-time reviews with a general note about the change, without confirming the reviewer was a patient.

Over several months, the profile gains a steady stream of reviews. Most are positive, a few mention waits, and the overall picture reflects the practice as it is now rather than one bad week.

Common mistakes

• Ignoring the profile because you didn’t create it. Patients still see it.
• Replying with clinical details. Even a well-meant explanation can be a HIPAA violation.
• Threatening reviewers with legal action. It rarely works, draws attention to the review, and can become its own story.
• Asking staff or family to post reviews. These are fake reviews under the FTC rule and break Healthgrades’ guidelines.
• Only asking after good visits. Selective asking is review gating.

For practices managing several providers and review sites, our healthcare reputation management page explains how we help, and our review management service covers compliant request systems and reply drafting.

Frequently asked questions

Can I remove my Healthgrades profile?

Healthgrades builds profiles from public provider data, and in most cases it doesn’t remove a practicing provider’s profile on request. You can claim it and correct the information. If you’ve retired or the profile belongs to someone else, contact Healthgrades support to update or correct it.

Can a doctor delete bad Healthgrades reviews?

No. Providers can’t delete reviews. You can report a review that breaks Healthgrades’ guidelines, such as one containing personal information or threats, and Healthgrades decides whether to remove it. Genuine negative reviews generally stay.

Are Healthgrades reviews anonymous?

Reviews are displayed without the patient’s full name, and Healthgrades doesn’t share reviewers’ identities with providers. Even if you think you know who wrote a review, don’t say so publicly; confirming someone is a patient can breach HIPAA.

How do I update my information on my Healthgrades profile?

Claim your free Healthgrades profile through the provider sign-up option, verify your identity, then edit locations, insurance, specialties and your bio. If incorrect details keep coming back, update the public directories Healthgrades draws on as well.