How we verify providers
Every listing shows who vouches for its information, and when. Here is what each label means. The full checklist is below.
The label above each section is the one you will see on the listing itself.
Compiled from public records
The listing was built from public records: the national NPI registry. Nobody has confirmed it: not the practice, and not us. We publish these so no category is ever empty, and we say so plainly on the profile. Call ahead to check hours, insurance and availability.
Reported by the practice
The practice claimed its profile and filled in its own details: accommodations, insurance, availability. It stays labeled not independently verified until someone on our team confirms it. If a verified practice edits its own information, the verified label comes off until we re-check.
Confirmed by our team, check by check
A person on our team completed these checks, and each one is dated on the profile:
- Identity: the provider is who the listing says they are (NPI registry, plus contact with the practice)
- License: an active state license, checked against the state licensing board
- Accommodations: reviewed item by item with the office, so we list only what they reliably do
Autism-specific training is listed only where a practice has given us documentation for it. Where nobody has, the profile says so rather than assuming it.
Verification expires, and the expiry is calculated rather than stored — so a check cannot quietly stay fresh on a listing nobody has looked at. A re-check falls due two years after the last one, and at three years the badge is demoted and the profile says so instead:
Re-check overdue
A stale “verified” is worse than none.
Visit experiences are not a verification level
One or more patients or caregivers answered the same structured questions about a real visit. Every experience is read by a person before it appears; nothing publishes automatically, and we never remove a negative experience that follows our review policy.
It sits alongside the labels above, never on top of them. Stacking it into the ladder would turn provenance into a rating. And there are no star ratings anywhere: a handful of stars cannot tell you whether an office will let the patient wear headphones.
What money can never buy
Practices cannot pay for verification, badges, or ranking. Not through subscriptions, not through sponsorships, not at all. Paid provider tools (profile analytics, photos) never affect search order or trust labels. How well confirmed a listing is does not change its position in the results either. If we ever break this promise, hold us to this page.