On Friday, March 6, a federal judge in Florida issued an injunction under the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, sought by five Florida for-profit hospitals operated by Tenet Healthcare. The injunction bars Leapfrog from issuing Safety Grades to those five hospitals and orders us to remove their Safety Grades from Fall 2024, Spring 2025 and Fall 2025.
We vehemently disagree with this decision, as we believe it threatens the First Amendment rights of every American. We will appeal it immediately.
We cannot accept the decision’s main conclusion, that Florida citizens—and all Americans—don’t have a right to hear Leapfrog’s expert perspective on how well these five for-profit Tenet-owned hospitals care for patients.
If this decision was allowed to stand, the implications would seriously undermine all published ratings and reviews in all industries, not just Leapfrog’s ratings of the safety of hospitals. The decision gives businesses in Florida the right to sue ratings organizations if they feel harmed by a rating of their product. Ratings everywhere are potentially at risk now, from Amazon to Experian to Moody’s to Yelp.
Leapfrog is the most transparent ratings system anywhere in the country, with every element of its methodology made public and accessible to a lay audience, with nothing hidden from the public as proprietary or otherwise unavailable. If Leapfrog’s gold-standard transparency is considered “deceptive” in Florida, no ratings system is safe from court intervention.
While we intend to appeal, we will comply with the injunction in the meantime. The Spring 2026 update of the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade will continue as planned, with some modifications based on the injunction which will be shared in the coming days.
Leapfrog has fought for over 25 years for health care transparency, which saves lives from errors, accidents, injuries, and infections in hospitals. Make no mistake, that battle continues in full force—for South Florida and every community in America. We will never stop fighting for patients.