Rigorous hospital data next to doctor pages where the top slots are paid ads.
What it's really for Solid hospital ratings from Medicare data, attached to a doctor directory where the top slots are paid ads.
What our grade covers The grade on this page is about its hospital quality star ratings and doctor-finder listings, not everything the site does.
High Scoring Confidence Checked against primary sources. We are confident in the facts and the grade here.
The parties it ranks pay it the most: hospitals and physicians buy advertising, Sponsored/Featured listings that appear above organic results, premium profiles (~$199/mo for an MD), and lead-gen at roughly $100 per booked appointment, while highly-rated hospitals separately license Healthgrades' award badges and trademarks for marketing — so the entities being rated well are exactly the ones funding the platform, even though Healthgrades says paid participation does not change the core algorithmic search ranking.
Source →- Operating since
- 1998 (28 years) · source
- What it costs you
- Free to read The reviews are free to read.
- How they make money
- It makes money by selling advertising, "Featured"/Sponsored listings, premium provider profiles, lead-generation (per-call/per-appointment) packages, and award-badge licensing to the doctors and hospitals it rates.
- What they do
- It publishes algorithmic hospital quality star ratings derived from Medicare claims data alongside a consumer doctor-finder directory with patient star reviews.
- What to watch for
- A normal user won't easily tell the difference between the rigorous claims-based hospital ratings and the doctor pages, where top placements can be paid "Featured" ads, patient reviews are self-attested (you just check a box saying you were a patient), and many providers actively solicit the reviews you see.
- Composite score
- 2.80 / 5.00 → grade C+
How the grade was reached
Does the site take money from the very entities it ranks? Pay-for-placement, vendor-funded data, and affiliate commissions all pull this down. The less the ranking can be bought, the higher the score.
What is the ranking actually built on? Hands-on testing scores highest, then verified first-hand reviews, then opinion or popularity surveys and self-reported figures, then pay-to-rank, which scores lowest.
Is the methodology published, specific, and reproducible? Can a reader see how a given rank was reached, or is it a black box?
Are commercial relationships, sponsorships, and affiliate arrangements disclosed clearly and near the rankings themselves, rather than buried?
How hard is it to game? Controls against fake reviews, solicited reviews, and vendor gaming raise this; an open box anyone can stuff lowers it.
Evidence
- Healthgrades was founded in 1998 by Kerry Hicks and others in Denver; Vestar Capital bought it in 2010, Red Ventures acquired the consumer marketplace in 2021, and in 2022 it became part of RVO Health, a joint venture between Red Ventures and Optum (UnitedHealth Group). The company earns revenue by letting highly-rated hospitals license its ratings and trademarks for marketing and through lead-generation partnerships; documented criticism includes a 2002 JAMA finding that individual hospital ratings 'could not reliably discriminate between individual hospitals,' lack of algorithm transparency, and guidance encouraging providers to solicit patient satisfaction surveys. Source: Wikipedia – Healthgrades →
- Hospital quality star ratings are based on 45+ million Medicare claims (MedPAR) over a three-year period across ~4,500 hospitals; hospitals can neither opt in nor opt out, nor submit their own data, and ratings come from risk-adjusted multivariate logistic regressions of patient outcomes — a claims-based methodology that cannot be bought. Source: Healthgrades Hospital Quality Methodology →
- Healthgrades sells provider advertising: 'Featured' listings let partner health systems' and practices' doctors appear as paid listings above organic search results (clearly marked 'Featured'); patient reviewers only check a box stating they were a patient with no proof required; and practices openly solicit reviews via feedback postcards and follow-up emails. Provider pricing includes roughly $199/month basic MD profiles and ~$100 per booked appointment via lead-gen. Source: rater8 – Healthgrades for Doctors / advertising & pricing →