Google Ads Adds NABP Route to Telemedicine Certification

Google will let telemedicine advertisers in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom qualify for Google Ads certification through the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP). In a policy notice posted November 4, 2026, Google said the three countries’ sections of its Healthcare and medicines policy will be updated in November so that advertisers accredited through NABP’s Healthcare Merchant Accreditation Program can apply.

The change has not taken effect yet. Google said advertisers “will be able to apply for Google certification once the policy is published,” and it gave no publication date beyond the month. As of November 13, the live Healthcare and medicines policy still names only LegitScript’s Healthcare Merchant Certification Program for telemedicine providers in all three countries.

A second route, not a replacement

Google described NABP as “an additional certification option” that “doesn’t impact the existing certification options available to advertisers in these countries.” LegitScript certification keeps working for telehealth companies that already hold it.

NABP is not new to Google’s healthcare rules. In the U.S. and Canadian sections, Google already accepts NABP’s Digital Pharmacy Accreditation and a .pharmacy domain held under Healthcare Merchant Accreditation for online pharmacies. What the November update adds is the same NABP program for telemedicine, the category covering sites that offer virtual care and facilitate prescribing. In the United Kingdom, where online pharmacies qualify through registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council, telemedicine has been a LegitScript-only category.

NABP comes first, then Google

Google’s notice sets the order. “Advertisers must be NABP-accredited before applying to Google,” it says. The policy page also tells healthcare advertisers they “must also be certified with Google,” so third-party accreditation alone does not switch on ads. A telehealth company that picks NABP will go through two reviews, NABP’s and then Google’s own certification application.

What NABP accreditation costs

NABP’s fee policy charges by the number of websites an organization enrolls. One website costs $1,075 and three cost $3,225. The first-year payment is an application fee that, if NABP approves the business, covers its first year in the program. After that, the same amount comes due each year as a participation fee. NABP does not refund either fee.

A .pharmacy domain is also required, and accreditation begins only after an approved business obtains and activates one through NABP’s .Pharmacy Registry. That domain is bought from a registrar, not from NABP. NABP’s support page puts the typical registrar price at about $1,000 per domain and estimates the total at roughly $2,000 a year for a single website.

The program page says applicants must meet eligibility requirements and 10 standards, that NABP may ask for more information during review, and that accredited merchants face yearly compliance reviews and continued monitoring of licensing and legal compliance. NABP does not publish a review time on those pages, so how long accreditation takes from application to approval is not stated.

Where LegitScript still decides

Google’s change does not reach other ad platforms. Meta’s Drugs and Pharmaceuticals policy lets telehealth providers and online pharmacies promote prescription drugs only if they are actively certified by LegitScript and authorized by Meta. Pharmaceutical manufacturers have an internal Meta review as an alternative; telehealth providers do not. A brand that runs prescription drug ads on both Google and Meta would still need LegitScript after Google’s update.

Inside Google, the NABP route is limited to the three named countries. Telemedicine sections for other markets, including Australia, still list LegitScript.

The card network question

NABP says merchants typically use Healthcare Merchant Accreditation to meet requirements set by advertising platforms such as Google and Bing and by card networks such as Visa and Mastercard. Neither Google’s notice nor NABP’s page says whether a particular acquirer treats NABP and LegitScript as interchangeable, so a telehealth brand that holds only the NABP listing still has that question to settle with its own bank, or with a specialty telemedicine provider such as Organic Payment Gateways, before its processor file relies on it.

Accreditation also does not change what a site is allowed to say. Google’s policy still bars prescription drug promotion in ads and landing pages in several markets, and FDA has kept up its scrutiny of telehealth marketing claims, as EC4IM reported in FDA Warns RonanRx Over American-Made Claims for Compounded GLP-1s.

What is still unknown

The publication date. Google has said only “November 2026,” and the policy text had not changed as of November 13.
The final wording. The notice does not say whether Google will attach new conditions to NABP-accredited telemedicine advertisers once the country sections are rewritten.
NABP’s turnaround. NABP publishes fees but not a standard review time for Healthcare Merchant Accreditation.

Two certifiers for Google, one for Meta

Google’s November 4 notice gives U.S., Canadian and U.K. telemedicine advertisers a choice between LegitScript and NABP’s Healthcare Merchant Accreditation, at a published NABP cost of $1,075 per website a year plus a .pharmacy domain. The option opens only when Google publishes the revised policy, which it had not done by November 13. Google’s own certification step stays in place, and Meta still accepts only LegitScript for telehealth prescription drug ads.

Google Ads Will Accept NABP Accreditation for Telemedicine Certification