We use them all the time — Yelp, Tripadvisor, the BBB — websites that post reviews by customers, clients and patients of all sorts of companies and health care providers. But can we trust these reviews? Are the websites that post them taking steps to assure they are legit?
“No and no,” says Kay Dean of San Jose, Calif., a former criminal investigator in the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General. Dean’s bad experience with a health care provider with glowing reviews led her on a journey into the expansive realm of fake online reviews. “I no longer put an ounce of trust in any online review site,” she says.
