What US licensing boards say about healthcare advertising

Key numbers

• Of the 158 rules, 79 (half) are general bans on false, misleading or deceptive advertising. Our pages cite one for 44 of the 51 jurisdictions. The other seven (Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Mississippi, New Jersey and Tennessee) may well have one too; their pages cite other rules instead.
• Of the 158 rules, 26 require an ad to say who the practitioner is, usually by license type, title or degree. Eight of them are statutes that apply across a state’s health professions rather than to one board, and four also require the license number in the ad.
• Of the 158 rules, 22 bar guarantees or claims likely to create unjustified expectations of results, and 11 bar unsupported claims that a treatment cures or works. Two rules do both, and 10 of the 11 cure and efficacy rules come from medical boards.
• Of the 158 rules, 16 limit testimonials. Seven of them come from psychology boards.
• Of the 158 rules, 10 make the licensee answer for ads that staff, paid representatives or affiliates make or place for them. The official texts add more rules like this (see below).

These count the rules our state pages cite. They are not counts of what every state requires: a state missing from a count may still have such a rule. For the federal and ad-platform rules that sit on top of these, see our guide to healthcare advertising rules.

The categories

We read all 158 summaries first, then wrote categories that the summaries themselves support. A rule can carry more than one: 87 rules have one category, 44 have two, 20 have three, six have four and one has five. The code is the one used in the data file.

Counts by category and by board type

Board entries are the boards and cross-profession statutes our pages list, 124 in all. Jurisdictions are the states, and DC, where our pages cite at least one rule in that category, so every jurisdiction count is a floor.

By category

Rules can carry more than one category, so the rules column adds up to more than 158.

By board type

Medical boards lean on general bans most: 30 of the 40 medical board entries have one. Board certification is mostly a medical-board topic too (9 of 13 rules), and so are rules on fees and free offers (6 of 9).

Rules worth knowing

Ten rules, quoted from the official text, each with a link to the source and to its state’s page.

1. New Jersey counselors: the license number goes in every ad. All ads, including directory listings, must show the license title “followed by the 12-digit license number”, plus “The street address and telephone number of the practice location.” (N.J.A.C. 13:34-29.3; New Jersey page)
2. Texas LPC Associates: the supervisor goes in the ad. “the Associate’s name must be followed by the name of the supervisor.” (22 TAC 681.49(h); Texas page)
3. Tennessee counselors: responsibility stays with the licensee. Licensees “who engage others to create or place public statements that promote their professional practice ... retain professional responsibility for such statements.” (Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 0450-01-.21(5)(a); Tennessee page)
4. New York mental health professions: no made-up testimonials. Portrayals need the client’s written authorization, and “fictional client testimonials are not permitted.” (8 NYCRR 29.1(b)(12); New York page)
5. New Jersey physicians: paid testimonials are labeled. The ad must state “COMPENSATION HAS BEEN PROVIDED FOR THIS TESTIMONIAL.” (N.J.A.C. 13:35-6.10(n)(2); New Jersey page)
6. Mississippi physicians: testimonials need context. Ads must disclose “what the generally expected outcome would be in the depicted circumstances”. The board adds that testimonials “are inherently misleading to the lay public”. (30 Miss. Admin. Code Pt. 2635, R. 12.3(E)(8); Mississippi page)
7. Ohio counselors, social workers and MFTs: client images need written consent. Licensees “should not use identifiable information, any videos or pictures of clients ... in advertisements, social media, or other promotional materials without the written consent of the client or guardian.” (Ohio Adm. Code 4757-5-02; Ohio page)
8. Oregon: “Doctor” must name the profession, social media included. The rule covers “electronic or printed matter, social media, advertising, billboards, signs, professional notices and professional name badges”. The profession must be in print “at least one-fourth the size of the largest letters”. (ORS 676.110(2); Oregon page)
9. Pennsylvania psychologists: no fear appeals. Public statements may not include “A statement intended or likely to appeal to a client’s fears, anxieties or emotions concerning the possible results of failure to obtain the offered services.” (49 Pa. Code 41.61, Principle 4(f); Pennsylvania page)
10. Florida and West Virginia: “free” has strings. Florida ads for free or discounted services must carry a capital-letter notice that the patient “HAS A RIGHT TO REFUSE TO PAY” for other services within 72 hours (Fla. Stat. 456.062; Florida page). West Virginia’s medical board bars “Any charges or fees for any type of service rendered within seventy-two hours of the initial visit” after advertising a free service (W. Va. Code R. 11-1A-12.2.e; West Virginia page).

What the official texts add

We coded the summaries our pages show, not the full texts. Reading the sources turned up duties the summaries leave out, so several categories are undercounted:

• Keeping copies of ads. Massachusetts physicians may advertise in any medium if they keep a reproducible copy for three years (243 CMR 2.07(11)(c)). New York’s rule for its licensed professions requires “an exact copy of each advertisement” for one year after its last appearance (8 NYCRR 29.1(b)(12)). New Jersey physicians keep a copy of every ad, and their testimonial records, for three years (N.J.A.C. 13:35-6.10(k) and (n)(3)). Tennessee’s medical and counselor boards require a copy of every ad for two years after it last runs (0880-02-.13(5)(c); 0450-01-.21(4)(c)), and Virginia group practices keep a record of who is responsible for an ad for two years (18VAC85-20-30).
• Hired marketers. Texas counselor rules say “A licensee who retains or hires others to advertise or promote the licensee’s practice remains responsible for the statements and representations” (22 TAC 681.49(c)).
• Proof in hand when the ad runs. The Colorado Medical Board and Tennessee’s medical and counselor boards require the licensee to have the substantiation when an ad is placed (3 CCR 713-1, Rule 1.24(E); 0880-02-.13(5)(d); 0450-01-.21(4)(d)).
• Models and paid content. Texas physicians must identify models or actors as such, disclose payment for testimonials and disclose “paid for” presentations (22 TAC 164.3). Pennsylvania psychologists must label a paid advertisement as one (49 Pa. Code 41.61).
• Address and phone. New Jersey counselors must show the practice’s street address and phone number in every ad, and the board can waive the street address for safety (N.J.A.C. 13:34-29.3).
• Past performance. Tennessee physicians may not use past-performance statistics that create unjustified expectations (0880-02-.13(4)(g)). Mississippi requires scientific evidence behind any claim of success or cure, and an advertised fee must be honored for 90 days (30 Miss. Admin. Code Pt. 2635, R. 12.3(E)).

Method and limitations

Source. The rules are the ones our 51 state pages cite: 158 rules under 124 board entries. 107 entries are licensing boards. The other 17 are statutes, or in DC municipal regulations, that apply across a state’s health professions rather than to one board, such as Arizona’s A.R.S. 32-3213. Each rule has a plain-English summary on its state page, a citation and a link to the official text or a free copy of it. Thirty-nine jurisdictions have three rules, six have five (Arizona, Colorado, Montana, Nevada, Ohio and Pennsylvania), five have two (California, Hawaii, New Hampshire, New York and Texas) and Illinois has one.

Coding. Rules were coded from the summaries our pages show, not from the full official text, so the counts stay tied to what the pages say. One person did the coding, with no second coder. Close calls follow the definitions above: “assuring a permanent cure”, for example, counts as both a guarantee and a cure claim.

Board type. Each board entry got one type, from the professions in its name: medical (medical and osteopathic boards, including Kansas’s Board of Healing Arts), psychology, counseling, social work, marriage and family therapy, combined behavioral health (boards that cover two or more of psychology, counseling, social work, MFT and addiction counseling) and all practitioners (statutes or rules that cover licensed health practitioners across professions). Several boards license more professions than their names say; Louisiana’s counselor board, for example, also licenses MFTs.

Checking. On 29 October 2026 we compared each summary with the passage it cites; the sources for 12 rules could not be reached that day. On 4 November 2026 we checked all 158, those 12 included. 156 matched as published. One summary was corrected: the earlier check of California’s 16 CCR 1811 had read the board’s May 2025 draft, not the adopted rule. One link was replaced: the Texas Medical Board citation pointed to the board’s rules index, and now points to the text of 22 TAC 164.3. Where an official site blocked us or failed to load, we didn’t get around it; we read another copy of the official text instead: the Cornell Legal Information Institute’s copies for Delaware, Montana, New York and Wisconsin, the California Board of Behavioral Sciences’ own book of statutes and regulations for Business and Professions Code 651, and the Florida Legislature’s Online Sunshine site for Florida Statutes section 456.072. The note column in the data file says which copy each of those rows was checked on.

Limitations.

• This is a sample, not a census. Our pages cite a medical board rule for 39 jurisdictions and a psychology board rule for 20, and most boards have more advertising provisions than the one or two we cite.
• Coded from summaries, so many categories are undercounted, as the section on the official texts shows.
• Jurisdiction counts are floors. A state missing from a category has no such rule on our page, which doesn’t mean it has none.
• Rules change. The counts describe the rules as we read them on 4 November 2026.

Fill The Lobby is a marketing agency for cash-pay and private-pay practices of every size, from a solo clinician to a large group practice. The ads and pages we write are checked against rules like these; see how we handle compliance.

The full table

All 158 rules, in the same order as the data file. Each state links to its page, which has the plain-English summary, and each citation links to the official text or a free copy of it.

Sources and corrections

Checked 4 November 2026. Every rule’s official source is linked in the full table, and each state page lists its boards with the date they were checked.

Not legal advice. Boards amend their rules, so read the current official text before you rely on a summary, and ask your own counsel how a rule applies to your practice.

Download the data (CSV): 158 rows, one per rule, with the state, board, board type, citation, link, categories, check result and notes. You may reuse this data with credit to Fill The Lobby, under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.

Cite this dataset: Fill The Lobby, “What US licensing boards say about healthcare advertising: 158 rules from 51 jurisdictions, coded”, version 2026-11, checked 4 November 2026, https://fillthelobby.com/licensing-board-advertising-rules.

Corrections. If you work for a licensing board or a professional association and a rule here has changed, or we’ve summarized it wrongly, email sales@fillthelobby.com and we’ll correct it and record the change here.

• 4 November 2026: California, 16 CCR 1811. The summary now follows the adopted rule (first and last name, license or registration title and number) and links the Office of Administrative Law’s notice of approval. Texas Medical Board: the citation is now 22 TAC 164.3 and 164.4, linked to the rule text.
• 29 October 2026: Ohio, Ohio Adm. Code 4757-5-02. The summary now says licensees “should not” use client information or images without written consent, matching the rule.

Updated November 2026.