The Twelve Practice Facts to State for AI Search, in Order
Summary
Twelve facts, one sentence each, answer what a patient asks before booking, and they are what an assistant can quote when asked whether you fit: your name and credential, what the practice does, the ages and states you serve, how you meet, the languages of a session, which plans you take, the fee, the cancellation policy, the address, the hours, and openings and how to book. State them in that order, dated, on your own site, or in your Google Business Profile with NPPES behind it.
By Gale Editorial · Updated 2026-09-15. Every figure cited to a dated source. How we write.
Which facts does an assistant need before it can say you fit?
Twelve, and they sort into three groups: who you are and whom you see, what a visit costs, and where, when and how soon. The count is this article's own. No engine publishes a list of the facts it wants from a clinician. The twelve are the questions a patient asks before booking, written out as the facts that answer them, in the order the questions arrive.
The order matters because of how the assistant is used. Google's search team wrote in May 2025 that people in its AI experiences ask longer and more specific questions, and follow-up questions to dig deeper 1Ref 1John Mueller, Google Search Relations (2025).Top ways to ensure your content performs well in Google's AI experiences on Search.That users of Google's AI experiences ask longer, more specific and follow-up questions, which is why the twelve facts are ordered as a patient's follow-ups arrive.. A patient's follow-ups run in a sequence: does this clinician see someone like me, then what will it cost, then can I get in. An assistant that cannot settle the first from your pages never reaches your fee.
What it can lift is bounded by what it can read. Google's guide to its generative features says a page must be indexed and eligible for a snippet before it can appear in them, and that responses can include information about local businesses 2Ref 2Google Search Central (2026).Google's Guide to Optimizing for Generative AI Features on Google Search.That a page must be indexed and snippet-eligible to appear in Google's generative features, that responses can include local business information, and that no special markup, AI text files or structured data are required.. Bing's webmaster guidelines say one crawling, indexing and ranking foundation serves Bing search and Copilot, and that a URL is eligible for citation when, among other conditions, it surfaces key information early, defines its entities clearly and lets a claim be verified on the page itself 3Ref 3Microsoft Bing Webmaster Tools (2026).Webmaster Guidelines - Bing Webmaster Tools.That one crawling, indexing and ranking foundation serves Bing search and Copilot, and that a URL is eligible for citation when it surfaces key information early, defines entities clearly and can be verified on the page.. One plain sentence near the top of a page does all three, and a paragraph of biography does none of them.
The twelve facts, in order
Each fact is one sentence a patient could read aloud and an assistant could quote without editing it. The table gives the shape of the sentence, the page on your own site where it belongs, and the Business Profile field that carries the same fact when there is no site. Write the sentence once, date it, and paste the same words everywhere the fact appears.
| # | Fact | The sentence, in shape | On your site | On the Business Profile |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Name and credential | Your name, your licence type, the state that issued it. | About page, first line | Business name, matching your signage |
| 2 | What the practice does | The services you offer, in the words a patient would search. | Services page | Primary category, additional categories |
| 3 | Ages | The youngest and oldest ages you see. | About page | Description |
| 4 | States | Every state where you are licensed and can see a patient who is located there. | About page | Description |
| 5 | How you meet | In person, by video, by phone, or some of each. | About page | Attributes, description |
| 6 | Languages | Every language a session can be held in. | About page | Attributes |
| 7 | Plans | Each plan you are in network with, and what happens when a patient is out of network. | Insurance page | Insurance networks accepted |
| 8 | Fee | The fee for a first visit and for a follow-up, with the date it was last set. | Insurance or fees page | Q&A, answered by you |
| 9 | Cancellation policy | How far ahead a visit can be cancelled without charge, and what a late cancellation costs. | Fees page, new-patient form | Q&A |
| 10 | Where | The street address, or the words telehealth only and the state you sit in. | Contact page and footer | Address |
| 11 | Hours | The days and the hours, including the earliest and latest visit. | Contact page | Hours |
| 12 | Openings and booking | Whether you are taking new patients, the current wait for a first visit, and the one way to book. | Home page, at the top | Description, Q&A, booking link |
Google's own editing help fixes the limits on the profile side. The business name must match real-world signage and branding, and a profile carries one primary category and up to nine more. The description holds at most 750 characters and may not contain URLs or HTML. Owners and managers can answer questions in the Q&A section where the feature is available for their category and region 4Ref 4Google (2026).Edit your Business Profile.The Business Profile fields and limits: name matching signage, one primary plus up to nine categories, full address, up to three phone numbers, website as a full URL, attributes, a 750-character description with no URLs or HTML, and owner-answered Q&A for select categories and regions.. Facts eight and nine go in Q&A because a question is the shape a fee is asked in.
Accepted insurance has a slot of its own. The Business Profile API for a health care location carries a health-provider attribute record whose only data field, beyond the location identifier, is an optional list of insurance networks accepted at that location 5Ref 5Google (2026).HealthProviderAttributes | Google Business Profile APIs.That a health care location's Business Profile carries a health-provider attribute record whose only data field beyond the location identifier is an optional list of accepted insurance networks.. A plan name entered there is data. A plan name buried in the description is a string to guess at.
Write each fact so it can be quoted
One sentence per fact, dated, in the words a patient would use, and the same sentence on every page that carries it. That is the whole technique. No markup is required for it to work: Google says structured data is not needed for its generative features, and that it ignores AI text files and special markup 2Ref 2Google Search Central (2026).Google's Guide to Optimizing for Generative AI Features on Google Search.That a page must be indexed and snippet-eligible to appear in Google's generative features, that responses can include local business information, and that no special markup, AI text files or structured data are required.. The sentence is the format.
On the practice website, the about page carries who you are and whom you see, the services page carries what the practice does, the insurance or fees page carries the plans, the fee and the cancellation policy, the contact page carries the address and the hours, and the openings sentence sits at the top of the home page because it is the one that changes. The FAQ page is where the same facts reappear as questions in the patient's phrasing (do you take my plan, how soon can I be seen), each answered with the identical sentence. The five-page website holds all twelve with room left over.
The sentence goes above the biography, which is the plain version of Bing's instruction to surface key information early: the fact comes before the paragraph about your training 3Ref 3Microsoft Bing Webmaster Tools (2026).Webmaster Guidelines - Bing Webmaster Tools.That one crawling, indexing and ranking foundation serves Bing search and Copilot, and that a URL is eligible for citation when it surfaces key information early, defines entities clearly and can be verified on the page.. It carries a date, because an undated fee reads as current whether it is or not, and the date is what lets a routine notice when the sentence has aged. And it is the same sentence everywhere. An assistant reading your site, your Business Profile and a directory that copied an old record will find three versions of your hours if you wrote them three times, and the same words across the five sources an assistant can reach are what let it repeat the fact instead of choosing between versions.
What stands in for a website when there is none?
Two public records and, where you have one, a first-party page you control. The Google Business Profile carries hours, address, categories, a description and a Q&A section in fields an assistant can read. Your NPPES record carries the identity behind them: the name, credential and practice address that directories copy. Neither holds all twelve facts on its own, so something else has to.
The Business Profile does the most work. Its fields include the name, a full and accurate address, up to three phone numbers, a website entered as a full URL, attributes as factual details, and the description and Q&A already described 4Ref 4Google (2026).Edit your Business Profile.The Business Profile fields and limits: name matching signage, one primary plus up to nine categories, full address, up to three phone numbers, website as a full URL, attributes, a 750-character description with no URLs or HTML, and owner-answered Q&A for select categories and regions.. At one short sentence each, the description holds most of the twelve, and Q&A takes the rest. Claim the profile before you write any of this.
The NPPES record is the identity every directory reads. CMS describes the NPI as a 10-digit number that carries no location or specialty information, is assigned through NPPES, and stays the same when a provider changes name or address 6Ref 6Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (2026).NPIs.That the NPI is a 10-digit number carrying no location or specialty information, assigned through NPPES, and unchanged when a provider changes name or address; the identity record directories read.. A covered provider must report a change of address to NPPES within 30 days of the change, online at nppes.cms.hhs.gov or on form CMS-10114, and CMS encourages providers who are not covered entities to do the same 7Ref 7Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (2026).Unique Identifiers FAQs.That a covered provider must report an address change to NPPES within 30 days, online or on form CMS-10114, and that non-covered providers are encouraged to do the same.. When the address on your profile and the address on NPPES disagree, an assistant has two facts where you meant one.
A first-party page fills the rest. Gale publishes a provider's gale.care profile page carrying the twelve facts, in the profile's own fields where one exists and in reviewed Q&A capsules where none does, the identity matched to NPPES, and announces the page to Bing through IndexNow the day it changes. Any page you can edit and a crawler can reach does the same job.
But a profile page anywhere is still a page someone else hosts. Decide the trigger for building your own now: online booking, intake forms, a second clinician, or a payer that requires a URL. Any one of the four is the day the site stops being optional, and the twelve sentences already written are its first draft.
Keeping every copy of the twelve in step
Check quarterly that the twelve facts read the same on your site, your Business Profile and the directories that list you, and refresh openings whenever that sentence is older than 30 days. The facts that drift are the ones that change: the wait, the fee, the plans. A quarterly read of all twelve, one copy against the next, catches the drift before a patient does.
The check has a tool side. Put the twelve questions, in patient words, into the monthly prompt panel and read which fact each assistant got wrong; a wrong fact tells you which copy it read. A routine can read your own pages: a weekly gap report drafted into the weekly review pen names which of the twelve fields are still empty, and an openings-refresh prompt appears there when the openings date passes 30 days. Nothing posts from the pen. You approve each draft or discard it.
The stop list says what to leave off a practice site; this list is what to put on it. Between the two, a solo practice with an hour a week can keep an assistant supplied with a sentence it can quote, dated.
Common questions
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- 1.John Mueller, Google Search Relations (2025). Top ways to ensure your content performs well in Google's AI experiences on Search. Google Search Central Blog. link ✓That users of Google's AI experiences ask longer, more specific and follow-up questions, which is why the twelve facts are ordered as a patient's follow-ups arrive.
- 2.Google Search Central (2026). Google's Guide to Optimizing for Generative AI Features on Google Search. Google Search Central documentation (developers.google.com). link ✓That a page must be indexed and snippet-eligible to appear in Google's generative features, that responses can include local business information, and that no special markup, AI text files or structured data are required.
- 3.Microsoft Bing Webmaster Tools (2026). Webmaster Guidelines - Bing Webmaster Tools. Bing Webmaster Tools Help Center. link ✓That one crawling, indexing and ranking foundation serves Bing search and Copilot, and that a URL is eligible for citation when it surfaces key information early, defines entities clearly and can be verified on the page.
- 4.Google (2026). Edit your Business Profile. Google Business Profile Help (support.google.com). link ✓The Business Profile fields and limits: name matching signage, one primary plus up to nine categories, full address, up to three phone numbers, website as a full URL, attributes, a 750-character description with no URLs or HTML, and owner-answered Q&A for select categories and regions.
- 5.Google (2026). HealthProviderAttributes | Google Business Profile APIs. Google for Developers (developers.google.com). link ✓That a health care location's Business Profile carries a health-provider attribute record whose only data field beyond the location identifier is an optional list of accepted insurance networks.
- 6.Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (2026). NPIs. CMS.gov, Administrative Simplification, Unique Identifiers. link ✓That the NPI is a 10-digit number carrying no location or specialty information, assigned through NPPES, and unchanged when a provider changes name or address; the identity record directories read.
- 7.Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (2026). Unique Identifiers FAQs. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Administrative Simplification. link ✓That a covered provider must report an address change to NPPES within 30 days, online or on form CMS-10114, and that non-covered providers are encouraged to do the same.
https://www.gale.care/for-providers/aeo-twelve-practice-facts · 7 sources. Competitor details are cited to dated public sources and maintained as they change; figures are estimates, not commitments. Synthetic demonstration.