In today’s video, we discuss key legal issues facing a multidisciplinary healthcare center that includes a medical doctor, a chiropractor, a health coach, a nurse, psychologist, behavioral health counselor, nutritionist, physical therapist, and other practitioners.

I’m Michael H. Cohen, founding attorney of the Cohen Healthcare Law Group. We help healthcare industry clients navigate healthcare and FDA legal issues and launch, or keep scaling, their health and wellness product or service.

Let’s say you’ve got someone named Bob, he is a professional trainer, personal trainer who went to school and became a registered nurse, got a certificate in nutrition, and then started recommending supplements and nutritional recipes for family and friends.  He’s interested in IBS and low-FODMAP foods, lots of things.  He’s got a YouTube channel, it grew into a huge success and he began selling his supplements and at-home lab tests online.

Now there’s lots of people like Bob, they have different combination of skills, they’re terrific at marketing.  Maybe it’s you, and let’s say that Bob wants to build up a health coaching business, expand the brand, and create certifications to teach health coaches under the brand.  The health coaching includes reviewing the do-it-at-home lab tests, advising on the menus and food plans, and talking about functional medicine, improving lifestyle.  The health coaches would live all over the U.S. and so the digital platform would reach customers across all the states.

One huge legal challenge here is that Bob is an RN, and, he is the one putting the business together.  In the clinical domain, an RN has a certain scope of practice but they cannot supervise or direct, a licensed MD.  There are some rules that might apply to Bob’s business model, having to do, depending on whether or not he includes an MD. Also, RNs have a certain scope of practice and standardized procedures between the nurse and an MD can be developed, but not with the chiropractor.

The biggest challenge here is that the health coaches, and the company, could be seen as engaging in unlicensed and corporate practice of medicine.  As takeaways, the company needs to have their business model reviewed, because it sets up what the health coaching is all about and what’s included; and the website, because it’s going to make promises to customers about what the company means by health coaching.  There are other rules that the nurse practitioners can’t furnish drugs and devices for patients of the chiropractor, so there’s all sorts of lines that could be crossed.

The line between mere coaching on one hand, and clinical advice on the other, prosecutors can look at the whole package and they could be very selective in who they target for enforcement.

Also we mentioned reviewing lab tests, even if the tests are do-it-yourself-at-home, that’s on the riskier end of the activity or services spectrum.  Talking about goals and motivation, and setting goals, that’s on the less risky end.  A medical intake, going back again, is on the risky end; but if you have a bland questionnaire, that could lower your risk profile.  So, it’s very nuanced.

As a law firm, our approach is practical.  You could see that we can talk through the issues and tick them off and spot them but we don’t necessarily need to write a huge memo looking at all 50 states, researching the practice of medicine, because we know the concept, we know the business models, we know the hot buttons and we can assess regulatory risk and then we can craft the documents that you need to operationalize the model.

Also, we can give you some critical early input, during a Legal Strategy Session with a member of our Legal Team, which can read more about on our website.

As a law firm, we’re looking to enjoy a long-term relationship and to provide you with value right at the start.

Thanks for watching. If you still have questions, click on the link below, cohenhealthcarelaw.com/contact, to send us a message or book an appointment. Here’s to the success of your healthcare venture, we look forward to speaking with you soon.