By Ron Harman King, M.S., J.D., CEO
It’s that time of year again – you know, when city magazines flood physicians’ waiting rooms featuring the latest award winners for Top Doctors, Super Doctors, Best in Medicine, Doctors Choice Awards, and so on.
Accordingly, on my latest dermatology visit days ago, two well-worn copies of the local city magazine prominently lay on the waiting-room coffee table. Each cover featured the portrait of a local, lab-coated, award winning doctor. And each bore a handwritten note taped to the cover highlighting the practice’s own awarded physicians. Around the edges were Post It notes stuck to the referenced pages within.
Of course, recipients of these awards love to promote the accolades on their websites, on social media and through press releases. Yet the annual ritual raises evergreen questions about the reliability of any kind of ranking system, whether it’s of healthcare providers, hospitals, medical and law schools, or colleges and universities.
Journalist becomes a “Top Doctor”
In 2019, ProPublica journalist and healthcare muckraker Marshall Allen wrote a revealing article about the industry revolving around these awards.
In summary, Allen – who did not go to medical school – was unexpectedly nominated for the Top Doctors award, despite his full-time occupation as a reporter. Even after calling the company presenting the awards and telling them that he had no medical license, the company rep said he could still be listed as a top doctor so long as he paid a $289 fee.
If he wanted a plaque to prove it, that’d be another 99 bucks. Incidentally, that company, Castle Connolly, announced its sale to a new owner the same month of Allen’s Politico report.
In any case, Allen paid the $388 total, displayed the plaque in his office, and contacted another company that runs the “Super Doctors” awards. Like the company that sold Allen the plaque, the second organization told him that they use a physician-nomination and credential-checking method for the awards.
I was able to verify that today, the Super Doctors website describes a rigorous process of assessing nominees based on ten factors, including years of experience, board certifications, publications and lectures. Sounds legit, right?
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Transparency—or the lack thereof
Then there’s the very fine print at the bottom of the web page stating that, “Information in this Web site is not medical advice, nor is Super Doctors a physician referral service.” In addition, “we make no claim, promise or guarantee about the accuracy, or adequacy of the information contained in, or linked to SuperDoctors.com.”
Sounds a bit like the teeny-tiny disclaimer print on the labels of bottles of nutritional supplements.
A check of the website of other award companies proved no more assuring. America’s Best Physicians claims to “insure (sic) the highest level of credibility” by analyzing award candidates in a four-step process.
The first step is a nomination by another doctor, a patient, a healthcare colleague, or by an internal selection committee. Nominees then are purportedly screened against seven criteria.
The Best in Medicine award website provides no readily available information about its selection process, just that the awards are presented by the American Health Council. A bit more internet sleuthing unearthed a New York corporation by that name registered in 2017 with the New York secretary of state.
I otherwise could locate no details about its revenues other than a brief website statement that, “we are 100% funded by the services we provide to our affiliates.” The website for Doctors’ Choice Awards is likewise rather opaque about its selection methodology.
I soon realized that I could spend days rooting around the internet for transparency about doctor awards that, frankly, should be quickly accessible – that is, if the award presenters made transparency and reliability their top priority.
I want to believe there are indeed fair and deserved awards, such as the American Medical Association’s award program, in which the AMA board of trustees recognizes physicians for the betterment of public health, scientific achievements, and “extraordinary patient care in austere and hostile situation(s).”
When the licensing fee says it all
Otherwise, it’s hard to avoid concluding that doctor awards are primarily a plaque and trophy business. The award companies usually state firmly that there’s no fee for the awards. However, the ability of recipients to publicize the honor generally incurs a “licensing fee.”
For example, two clients of Vanguard Communications recently forwarded email announcements that Newsweek magazine had cited their practices as among 125 of “America’s Best Fertility Clinics 2025.” The email reported four criteria for determining winners: CDC data, a national survey of healthcare providers and administrators, accreditation data and patients’ Google reviews.
The email said nothing about any costs to the awardees other than an invitation to inquire about “licensing options.” Well, we did inquire. The cost is $11,500 for a Newsweek license fee for permission to promote the accolade publicly for a single year, or $24,500 for a two-year license.
I’m hardly the first to question whether physicians should participate in these kinds of awards. Aside from the commercialization aspect, I would like to ask physicians if they’ve ever been patients of any fellow doctors they nominate for the honors.
Granted, patients often report back to referring doctors on their experiences with referred specialists. Plus, referring physicians usually receive clinical reports after the referrals.
Even so, at what rate do referring providers get first-hand reports from patients on their experiences? Does it occur frequently enough to approach a scientific sampling? This is important, as Vanguard’s own research has shown that customer service in healthcare actually matters far more to patients than clinical outcomes – by a factor of 19 to 1.
Marshall Allen’s legacy and lasting message
A sad postscript: Marshall Allen, author of the ProPublica article who erroneously became a “Top Doctor,” later wrote a terrific book, “Never Pay the First Bill: And Other Ways to Fight the Healthcare System and Win.” Tragically, last May, Marshall died suddenly of a heart attack at age 52.
As we approach the first anniversary of his passing, I for one would hope he is remembered for his career-long advocacy for better care and patient well-being. In this spirit, I would ask – in his memory – if healthcare providers generally regard clinically unproven health claims with heavy and sometimes scornful skepticism, shouldn’t they do the same for doctor awards?