Verification confirms who controls a profile. Nothing more, and nothing less.

The three tiers

How a profile becomes Claimed

1. A matched work address (most providers). Guide.md compares the address an account was created with against the record: the name in the address, a practice, hospital, school or residency domain we have verified, the domain of the practice's own website, a colleague at the same address already verified on that domain, and the specialty or city. The address must also be proven: Guide.md emails a single-use link to it, and nothing happens until that link is clicked, so a matching domain on its own is never enough. A strong match then means the person confirms their name as it appears on the record, accepts the terms, and the profile is theirs — no document, no card. A partial match, and any strong match where nothing in the address carries the provider's own name, is reviewed by hand, usually the same business day. Everything relied on is recorded on the claim, and a limit stops any one account taking over profile after profile.

2. The review. For addresses that cannot be matched, and for taking a profile back from someone else: the person confirms their name, adds anything that shows it is them, and Guide.md checks it against the record and the confirmation log, usually within a few days. Described below.

3. Proof read by a person. For an address we cannot match where the provider would rather not pay or upload a document: a public page that shows them — a hospital or practice biography, a university or residency page, a professional profile, a journal author page, a state licence lookup — plus anything else they want to send. No charge and no identity document, read by a person, usually within one business day. If we cannot tell from what was sent we write and ask rather than refuse.

4. The provider's own approval. An agency or the practice's staff asks; the provider clicks Approve in an email sent to their address, then confirms their own name on one short page. Described further down.

What is recorded, and why that is the control

Guide.md does not ask most providers for a government document, so the record of the confirmation has to carry the weight instead. Every confirmation — a provider taking over their own profile, a provider handing an agency access, an agency asking, or a grant made by a Guide.md administrator — writes one row that is never edited and never deleted: the email address, proved by clicking a link sent to it; the name the person typed; their IP address and browser; the wording they accepted, by version; and the evidence the system relied on.

That is said plainly on every screen before the button. A profile whose ownership is questioned is settled from those rows, and a reclaim by the provider, once reviewed, always outranks an earlier confirmation.

How the review works

1. The person types their name as it appears on the record, accepts the terms, and may add a link, a note, or a photo of a badge or licence. Nothing is required beyond the name.
2. A person at Guide.md compares it with the NPI record, the sign-up address and the confirmation log, usually within a few days, and writes back if anything is unclear rather than refusing.
3. Guide.md records what was checked, the account email and the time on the claim, so a later dispute can be settled from our own records. No identity document is ever requested or stored.
4. The profile becomes Claimed. Statements the provider then makes — accepting new patients, telehealth, expert witness, treats on lien, industry consulting, appointment requests — are labeled "stated by the provider on a verified profile".

Profiles claimed through an agency or practice staff

A marketing agency or the practice's own staff may claim on a provider's behalf. The provider receives one email naming who asked. Opening it proves the address; the button then opens one page where the provider types their own name as it appears on the record and confirms two things — that the address is theirs, and that they are giving that agency access. Only then is the account created on their own address, the profile claimed to them and the manager seat given. Such claims are recorded as "approved by email via ", with the typed name and the IP address, and are visible to Guide.md and to the provider. The provider can take the profile over themselves at any time, remove the seat at any time, and always keeps ownership. Reclaiming a profile.

Verified status lasts twelve months and is renewed free

Claimed status runs twelve months from the claim. It is renewed at no cost by confirming from the account page that the profile is still current (offered from 60 days before expiry), or automatically by any payment. If it lapses, the profile keeps everything written on it and the owner keeps editing rights, but it is shown and ordered as Enriched until renewed. Ordering follows verification, never payment: how search works.

What verification does not do

• It does not confirm licensure or board certification; licence numbers are shown as reported to NPPES.
• It does not rate clinical quality, safety or outcomes.
• It does not verify each sentence a provider writes; it verifies who wrote it.
• It does not endorse a provider; Guide.md does not recommend providers.

Reporting a problem

Wrong ownership, an impersonation, or a fact that needs correcting: use the correction form on the profile or contact us. Ownership disputes are settled against the identity records described above.