Hospitals Pay U.S. News to Promote Their Rankings

Amid pushback relating to a number of of the U.S. News & World Report rankings, together with these for medical colleges and hospitals, the query of cost to be used of the corporate’s brand has resurfaced.

A recent report from the New York Times entitled “U.S. News Makes Money From Some of Its Biggest Critics: Colleges,” detailed how the corporate sells “badges” to high schools, “to allow them to promote their rankings.”

Exactly what number of hospitals proceed to make use of the U.S. News brand on their web sites and different advertising and marketing supplies — and the way a lot they pay to take action — stays largely unclear.

Of greater than 20 hospitals contacted by MedPage Today — together with these comprising this yr’s U.S. News Honor Roll — few supplied any info relating to whether or not they at present pay to make use of the the corporate’s brand. None of the hospitals supplied any info relating to the worth to take action; neither did U.S. News.

“We do buy the badge from U.S. News as a result of we have realized from customers that it’s efficient in promoting,” a spokesperson for Houston Methodist informed MedPage Today in an electronic mail. “[I]n a aggressive metropolis like Houston, it helps validate our credentials as being on the prime in high quality and affected person care.”

A spokesperson for Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles additionally confirmed in an electronic mail that it bought a license to make use of the U.S. News badge this yr.

Christine Clay, senior director of system advertising and marketing for Scripps Health in San Diego, informed MedPage Today in an electronic mail, “There was a time after we did buy the license to make use of the badge for U.S. News & World Report; nevertheless, we not do this.”

Clay additional famous that Scripps doesn’t buy the license for badges from different rating entities both. “For a lot of the rankings, we are able to promote them; nevertheless, should not in a position to make use of the badge internally or externally with out the license,” she stated.

“Over time, we have discovered that we are able to efficiently convey the messages about our rankings with out including within the visible id/badge,” Clay added.

The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, additionally doesn’t buy or use the U.S. News badge, a spokesperson confirmed in an electronic mail.

And a spokesperson for Cleveland Clinic emailed the next response: “Many ranking and rating organizations require cost to make use of a ranking/rating badge, however buy shouldn’t be required to be included within the itemizing. We make that call on a case-by-case foundation decided by a number of components.”

The problem has made it onto the radar of public officers in not less than one place.

San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu, JD, stated in June that he had despatched a letter to U.S. News in search of info on the rankings. The letter urged the outlet to “publicly disclose the funds it receives from the hospitals it endorses, as required by federal laws,” Chiu stated in an announcement.

“U.S. News receives revenues from hospitals via licensing charges to make use of its ‘finest hospitals’ badge, subscriptions to access the granular information underpinning the rankings, and promoting on U.S. News‘s web site and within the Best Hospitals Guidebook,” Chiu added partially. “This funding is critical, with one hospital in Kansas acknowledging that it paid U.S. News $42,000 to make use of the ‘finest hospitals’ badge for one yr.”

Some 10 years in the past, FOX 4 in Kansas City, Missouri, had reported that Children’s Mercy paid $42,000 for 1 yr’s use of the U.S. News brand, citing a hospital spokesperson.

In response to Chiu’s letter, a spokesperson for U.S. News informed MedPage Today in an emailed assertion that it “categorically disagrees with the assumptions and conclusions within the City Attorney’s letter.”

Regarding MedPage Today’s present inquiry on hospital cost to be used of the corporate’s brand, a spokesperson for U.S. News declined to touch upon what number of hospitals at present pay to make use of the emblem, whether or not any hospitals that not submit information to or take part within the rankings proceed to pay to make use of the emblem, and the way a lot it prices to make use of the emblem.

U.S. News has additionally confronted criticism from hospitals over its rating strategies.

St. Luke’s University Health Network introduced in May 2023 that its system of hospitals in Pennsylvania and New Jersey would not reply to requests for information from U.S. News.

Then in June, the University of Pennsylvania Health System, a part of Penn Medicine, introduced that it will not actively take part within the rankings.

“While Penn Medicine has all the time ranked nicely, and this yr’s numbers are higher than ever, we stay involved that the [underlying] methodology used to find out the yearly rankings doesn’t account for the total and numerous settings the place healthcare is delivered,” Kevin Mahoney, MBA, CEO of the University of Pennsylvania Health System, stated in an announcement on the time.

“The methodology excludes most care supplied in outpatient settings, care at home, or by telemedicine, for instance, and it doesn’t place worth on innovation, life-saving analysis, or educating and coaching our nation’s future healthcare professionals, that are foundational to Penn Medicine’s mission,” Mahoney added.

In response to such issues, U.S. News publicly introduced vital adjustments to its hospital rankings themselves.

“Specifically, there will likely be no ordinal rating for hospitals chosen for this yr’s Honor Roll when that listing is in the end revealed,” the corporate said in July, forward of releasing its latest listing. “U.S. News will proceed to publish ordinal rankings for 15 specialties and in every area the place we’ve got beforehand revealed rankings.”

Other modifications embrace the introduction of outpatient outcomes in sure specialty and surgical scores, the expanded inclusion of different outpatient information, an elevated weight on goal high quality measures, and a diminished weight on knowledgeable opinion.

Cheryl Clark contributed reporting to this story.