WebMD Care Physician Directory: Profiles, Ratings, and Reviews

By the Expert Reputation team · Updated September 30, 2026

WebMD's physician directory, branded WebMD Care, gives most US providers a profile whether they have signed up or not. Patients can leave star ratings and written reviews there. Doctors can't edit or delete those reviews, and removals happen only after WebMD's own customer service team reviews them. This guide explains how to claim the free profile, how ratings work, what the review guidelines prohibit, and how to raise a correction or review concern properly.

Why WebMD Care matters for your practice

WebMD's help center tells providers they most likely already have a WebMD Care Directories profile. The directory is also connected to Vitals.com, which WebMD has owned since 2018. WebMD says a free basic profile appears on both the WebMD and Vitals.com directories, and the paid Featured Profile is syndicated onto Vitals. For the Vitals side, see our Vitals guide.

WebMD says its provider data "is sourced from the physicians themselves as well as publicly available databases." If you haven't claimed your profile, what patients see comes from those databases, not from you.

How to claim your WebMD Care profile

Each WebMD Care profile page has an "Is this you? Claim your profile" link. WebMD's help center also links to a free sign-up for the basic profile.

WebMD says: "Any doctor or provider who claims their profile by verifying themselves can update their information." Once you claim it, you can add:

• Specialties, education, medical degrees, certifications, and credentials
• Accepted insurance
• Conditions you treat and procedures you perform

Free profile versus Featured Profile

Our earlier post on why you need a WebMD Enhanced Profile covers this kind of paid upgrade. WebMD's help center now calls it the Featured Profile, so check WebMD's current terms for today's features and pricing.

You don't have to pay to be listed, claim the profile, or correct it. The upgrade is a marketing decision, not a requirement for managing your reputation.

How WebMD Care ratings and reviews work

A WebMD Care profile shows:

• An overall star rating, with the number of ratings and written reviews.
• Average wait time, as reported by reviewers.
• "Patients' Perspective" tallies. Each item shows "Did Well" and "Needs Improvement" counts. Items include Explained conditions and treatments, Answered my questions, Provided follow-up as needed, Gave a thorough exam, Gave clear instructions, Staff was courteous, and Flexible scheduling.
• Sort options, including Most Recent, Oldest, Highest Rated, Lowest Rated, and Most Helpful.

Staff courtesy, scheduling, and wait time are part of the rating. That means front-desk operations affect your WebMD score directly, not just clinical care.

What WebMD says about moderation

WebMD's profile pages carry this statement: "Doctors cannot alter or delete the reviews on WebMD Care." WebMD describes "an open review environment so patients can see a range of opinions, even negative ones, which cannot be filtered out by providers." It says it "scrutinizes all reviews to ensure they comply with our guidelines." Reviews that don't comply "will not be published or can be removed by WebMD Care." WebMD also says: "Reviews can only be removed after an internal review by our customer service team."

What WebMD's review guidelines prohibit

Everyone who submits a review agrees to WebMD's Terms and Conditions and its review guidelines. WebMD "reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to remove reviews that do not meet these guidelines."

Note the health-detail rule. WebMD's guidelines tell reviewers not to include their own symptoms, diagnoses, or prescriptions. A review that does is a legitimate thing to raise with WebMD.

How to correct your listing or raise a review concern

WebMD's help article is titled "Updating/Correcting Physician Directory Listing or Review Concern." That one process covers both listing errors and review problems:

1. Go to WebMD's Contact Us page and choose "Directory Profile & Reviews for WebMD/Vitals." WebMD warns that if you pick "WebMD Customer Care" instead, it won't have the information it needs.
2. Provide your NPI, first and last name, and the direct URL to your listing. For address issues, include current and changed addresses.
3. Add verification if you can, such as your practice website or phone number. WebMD says this can "speed things along."
4. One doctor per request. WebMD says multiple doctors on one request are not allowed and "the requests must come from the doctor themselves."

For a review concern, identify the exact review and quote the guideline it breaks. For example: "This review describes a condition and medication, which the WebMD review guidelines prohibit." Or: "The reviewer states they were never seen here; the guidelines require the reviewer's own experience." Include records only if you can do it without disclosing protected health information in the request itself.

WebMD's customer service team decides. Nobody, including Expert Reputation, can guarantee a WebMD removal. See can you remove a review? for how to set expectations across platforms.

Responding to WebMD reviews within HIPAA

WebMD's help center lists responding to patient reviews, with suggested reply templates, as part of its paid Featured Profile and Reputation Management service. However you reply, the HIPAA rule is the same.

The HHS Office for Civil Rights settled with New Vision Dental, a California practice, in December 2022 after the practice disclosed patient information in public replies to reviews. According to the resolution agreement, it sometimes revealed full names where reviewers had used only screen names and discussed visit and insurance details. HHS called the practice "illegal under HIPAA." The practice paid $23,000, agreed to a corrective action plan, and had to take down the posts.

Rules for any WebMD reply: Don't confirm the reviewer is a patient. Don't mention any condition, treatment, visit date, or billing detail, even if the reviewer already did. Move the conversation offline.

Example reply to a negative review:

Thank you for taking the time to share this. We can't discuss any individual's care publicly, but we take this seriously and would like to talk. Please contact our practice manager, [Name], at [Phone]. — [Practice Name]

Example reply to a positive review:

Thank you for the kind words. We'll share them with our whole team. — [Practice Name]

See also how to respond to negative reviews.

Getting more WebMD reviews the right way

• Ask every patient, not just the happy ones. Pre-screening patients before sending them to a review site distorts your rating.
• No sentiment-linked rewards. The FTC's Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials (16 CFR Part 465, effective October 21, 2024) bans incentives conditioned on a positive or negative review.
• No staff or owner reviews. WebMD requires the reviewer's own experience with the provider, and Part 465 restricts undisclosed insider reviews.

If you'd rather run one compliant request flow across WebMD, Google, and Healthgrades than rely on WebMD's paid tools alone, Review IQ can do that.

Common WebMD Care mistakes

• Assuming you have no profile. WebMD says most providers already have one.
• Choosing the wrong contact option, which delays your request.
• Filing for several doctors at once, which WebMD won't accept.
• Complaining that a review is unfair instead of naming the guideline it breaks.
• Replying with clinical details, the mistake HHS has penalized.