Increase In GBP Medicaid Calls For Dental Clients

[KristiSimone]

We have several dental clients, and we are seeing a significant increase in patient calls across the board asking if these dentists take Medicaid. We weren't seeing this many calls previously, but have noticed the increase during the month of April. Is anyone else seeing this issue? And, are there any strategies you are incorporating in your GBP and local SEO effort to minimize these calls.

For a few of our clients we did see that Medicaid was somehow added as an accepted insurance. So, we removed that. However, this isn't the case for all of our dental clients.

Thanks so much.

 

[ElizabethRule]

hey there!

This looks like it's due to the medicaid/care filter Google recently added to the local pack, see screenshots. Not sure what else you can do to mitigate these types of calls besides making sure your client's listing is not showing up when this filter is selected.

 

[KristiSimone]

Thanks, Elizabeth. We see that as well. I think you're right that we still can't do much about it. We have confirmed that Medicaid is not checked in the "insurance offered" section of GBP. Thanks!

 

[ElizabethRule]

If you're client doesn't offer it at all and it's still showing on the GBP, make sure it's not anywhere on the website then maybe Google will get the hint.

 

[KristiSimone]

I think we figured out the problem that seems to be universal rather than location-specific.

I would love guidance on how to report this issue to Google. Should we go through our regular support channels inside our GBP, or is there a better way to report it?

Google recently changed how the Map shows how medical and dental offices accept Medicaid/Medicare when someone searches for dentist/doctor + city, near me, etc. Google added a drop-down at the top of the map pack that a person should check to search for practices that accept Medicaid/Medicare.

But what we are seeing is that our clients that rank in the local 3 pack see an increase in Medicaid calls because people see that drop-down and call without realizing they need to click the drop-down to find the practices that actually accept Medicaid.

We have even called other practices in the 3 pack who are not our clients to ask if they have faced the same issue, and they said they have.

Would love insight on the best way to get this universal issue to Google.

Thanks!

 

[ElizabethRule]

I would report this via the normal support channels and see what they say. I have a feeling the drop down, and those filters at the top, are related to GBP but I don't think support teams can fix them or would even know much about them.

However, you can log it with them and get a Case ID, then go to the GBP forum and post about it there. I have a feeling this is a product feature that would need to go through 1 or more specialist teams at Google to "fix". I am not sure if this is even on Google's radar, but I think it should be as it would be a much better UX.

If you post about it on the forum, after going through support first, feel free to DM me the thread and I can look into it/maybe escalate to Google. But first try support the normal way!