Address problems cause more suspensions in this specialty than every other issue combined. Interventional psychiatry practices often share space, sublet rooms, or run sessions from a colleague office, and every one of those arrangements has rules.
The underlying principle
Google lists places a customer can visit and be served by that business during its stated hours, staffed by that business. Every rule below follows from that one idea. When you are unsure about an arrangement, ask whether a patient could arrive during your posted hours and be greeted by your staff. If not, it should not be a profile.
Suite numbers
If your office has a suite number, include it. Two reasons: it distinguishes you from other businesses at the same street address, and video verification will check that the suite on your listing matches the suite on the door.
Format consistently. Whether you write Suite 200 or Ste 200 matters far less than writing the same thing everywhere. Do not use the suite field for anything else, such as a floor description or a building name, and never put a keyword there.
Shared and sublet space
This is the grey zone most practices actually live in. The distinctions that matter:
- Your own suite in a shared building. Fine. Your own door, your own suite number, your own signage.
- A dedicated room you lease permanently with your own signage. Generally acceptable, though verification is harder.
- Rooms you rent two days a week from another practice. Not eligible. There is no staffed presence during your posted hours.
- A colleague office where you occasionally see patients. Not eligible, and it risks both profiles.
The temptation to list a part-time room is understandable, since it feels like a real place where you really see patients. But the listing implies a staffed location, and if a patient arrives on a Tuesday to find someone else practice, the listing is misleading. That is the standard being applied.
Virtual addresses and coworking
Do not use them. Registered agent addresses, mailbox services, and virtual offices are ineligible and are actively detected. Coworking is more nuanced but usually rejected unless you hold a dedicated, permanently signed office within it.
Practices sometimes list a virtual address in a city they want to serve. This does not work, it does not last, and when it is caught you can lose the profile for your real office too.
Practitioners at a practice address
For a multi-clinician practice, the pattern is one profile for the practice at that address. Individual practitioner profiles at the same address are a narrow exception, generally intended for public-facing professionals who are the practice, and they are a frequent source of duplicates. Chapter two closes with a lesson on multi-provider structures.
Hiding your address
Some clinicians prefer not to publish an address. If you serve patients at your location, the address must be shown. Hiding it converts you toward a service-area model, which reduces map visibility significantly. For a clinic where patients attend in person and sit through a monitoring period, publishing the address is both required and clearly in your interest.
A short compliance test
- Could a patient visit during your posted hours and be served by your staff? If no, do not list it.
- Is there signage with your practice name at that address? If no, expect verification trouble.
- Does the suite match the door? If no, fix it before you are reviewed.
- Do you control the space during your posted hours? If no, it is not a location.
Telehealth and service areas raise the obvious follow-up question, and that is the next lesson.