Claiming vs. registering
June 21, 2012
We've noticed some confusion when providers claim and update their profiles. In particular, the confusion seems to arise when a provider first registers and then tries to update a profile. We regret the confusion and would just like to take a moment to clear things up.
Registering and claiming a profile are two entirely separate processes -- they should not be mixed. When someone registers, the system creates an account. When we display information for a provider, an account already exists -- it's just that no one has control of it until someone claims it. Thus, if a doctor wants to claim his account and first registers for one, he is creating another separate account that is unrelated to his profile. That newly registered account will not enable him to update his profile, and will probably use up his preferred username (maybe along with displaying a warning about a duplicate e-mail address being used).
So, if a provider would like to update a profile, the provider should skip the registration process. Instead, the provider should go directly to the appropriate profile and start the claim process. To help clarify this on the website, we have added a checkbox in the registration process, asking people to explicitly confirm that they are not a provider trying to claim or create a profile.
(Unfortunately, we don't have all of the details in place for someone to create an entirely new profile. While the technical implementation is not difficult, we would like there to be some verification that the provider actually exists and is properly licensed. For those who aren't listed on our site and would like to be, the easiest way is to first get listed in the National Provider Identifier database.)
I hope that clears up some of the confusion. If not, please let us know.