In today’s video, we talk about disclaimers for a health coaching website. You might think a disclaimer is a disclaimer is a disclaimer, but there are some nuances.

Hi, I’m Michael H. Cohen, founding attorney of the Cohen Healthcare Law Group. We help healthcare industry clients just like you, navigate healthcare and FDA legal issues so you can grow your healthcare business.

The first thing you need to know is that the disclaimer is for the customer, the client, the consumer.  It’s not necessarily convincing a regulatory board that you’re doing what you say you’re doing.  You can’t wave a magic wand before them or do a Jedi mind trick.  Of course, good disclaimer or documentation helps—but so does good legal advice focused on the nature of your business model and the services you provide.

Next, the disclaimer has to do a couple of things at once.  It has to say that your website content is health information and education and not clinical practice.  We have standard language that nothing constitutes a diagnosis, treatment or prescription.  There is no patient-practitioner relationship as a result of someone reading the content.  And so on.

There are several mini disclaimers within this general one.  Your software platform isn’t acting like a medical provider, and it doesn’t provide medical or psychological advice.  If your client has an emergency, they got to call emergency services.

You’ll want to say that you don’t guarantee that any health coaching by any individual affiliated with your site will in fact provide any treatment. You want to disclaim that.

You might also have third-party links and endorsements on your site, and you got to deal with this.  Or testimonials.  And you might want to address use of the site by minors and whether the website is or is not targeted toward minors.  There are rules in each of these areas. You’ll want to address some of these things on your social media pages as well and get robust review by a healthcare legal counsel.

Talk about use of email, and registration. Cross-reference your privacy policy.  You might have disclaimers related to taking payments online.  So, all of this is a good start into the world of disclaimers.

Thanks for watching. Please contact us with your questions. We have helped lots of healthcare industry clients just like you. We’d love to talk to you, and we look forward to working with you soon.