North Carolina healthcare advertising rules the checker applies

Rules for North Carolina

1. CG-NCS-001 · Warns · Citation checked against stored text

   North Carolina requires substance use disorder treatment marketing to be accurate and makes it a crime to knowingly make a false or misleading statement, with intent to defraud, about the rate of recovery or success. A violation is also an unfair or deceptive trade practice.

   Source: N.C. Gen. Stat. 90-113.151(c)(2)c ("The rate of recovery or success in providing services")

   Safer wording: Give a recovery or success rate only with its source, how it was measured and the period it covers. Drop best and highest claims.

   N.C. Gen. Stat. 90-113.151 · Needs counsel review

2. CG-NCS-002 · Warns · Citation checked against stored text

   North Carolina makes it a crime for a treatment provider or its marketers to knowingly make a false or misleading statement, with intent to defraud, about whether the provider is in-network or out-of-network. Accepts-all-insurance claims are the usual form and are rarely true.

   Source: N.C. Gen. Stat. 90-113.151(c)(2)a ("The treatment provider's status as an in-network or out-of-network provider")

   Safer wording: Name the plans you are in-network with and tell people to verify benefits before admission.

   N.C. Gen. Stat. 90-113.151 · Needs counsel review

3. CG-NCS-003 · Warns · Citation checked against stored text

   North Carolina makes it a felony to offer, pay, solicit or receive anything of value, or to split fees, to induce or in return for referring a patient to a substance use disorder treatment provider or laboratory.

   Source: N.C. Gen. Stat. 90-113.152(a)(1) ("to induce the referral of a patient or patronage to or from a treatment provider or laboratory")

   Safer wording: Remove any payment, bonus or fee tied to admissions or referrals. Counsel must review any marketing or referral arrangement with a treatment provider.

   N.C. Gen. Stat. 90-113.152 · Needs counsel review

4. CG-NCS-004 · Warns · Citation checked against stored text

   North Carolina lets the Board of Dental Examiners discipline a dentist who publishes or disseminates an advertisement for professional patronage that is untruthful, fraudulent or misleading, or that breaks the Board's rules on time, place or manner. Painless, guaranteed and best-dentist claims are the usual targets.

   Source: N.C. Gen. Stat. 90-41(a)(18) ("published or caused to be published or disseminated any advertisement for professional patronage or business which is untruthful, fraudulent, misleading")

   Safer wording: Describe services, credentials and comfort options factually. Drop painless, guaranteed and best-in-town claims.

   N.C. Gen. Stat. 90-41 · Needs counsel review

5. CG-NCA-001 · Warns · Citation checked against stored text

   North Carolina bars unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce. Absolute outcome promises are the classic example, and a physician who makes false representations to obtain money or anything of value faces Medical Board discipline.

   Source: N.C. Gen. Stat. 75-1.1(a) - unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce are unlawful; N.C. Gen. Stat. 90-14(a)(8) - false representations to obtain practice, money or anything of value

   Safer wording: Describe what the service involves and what patients have typically experienced, with a source. Do not promise a result.

   N.C. Gen. Stat. 90-14, N.C. Gen. Stat. 75-1.1 · Needs counsel review

6. CG-NCA-002 · Warns · Citation checked against stored text

   North Carolina lists a physician advertising or publicly professing to treat human ailments under a system or school of treatment other than the one the physician was educated in as grounds for Medical Board discipline.

   Source: N.C. Gen. Stat. 90-14(a)(9) - advertised or publicly professed to treat human ailments under a system or school of treatment other than that for which the physician has been educated

   Safer wording: Describe only treatment within the licensee's education and licence, and avoid condition claims for alternative systems.

   N.C. Gen. Stat. 90-14 · Needs counsel review