Las Vegas may be the land of unrealistic expectations, but Nevada legislators appear to be working hard to keep overstatement and extravagance out of medical marketing. Medical website design in Nevada needs to take care not to publish false claims or claims of professional superiority. Of course, you should always clear your advertising with your legal counsel to ensure full compliance with all relevant laws.
More Information
Oversight Body:
State of Nevada Board of Medical Examiners
Reference Citation:
NV ADC § 630.190
Selected Excerpt:
Prohibited advertising.
1. A physician shall not advertise the practice of medicine in such a manner that the advertising:
- (a) Claims that a manifestly incurable disease can be permanently cured;
- (b) Includes any false claim of a licensee’s medical skill, or the efficacy or value of his medicine or treatment;
- (c) Claims or implies professional superiority of the performance of any professional service in a manner superior to that of other practitioners;
- (d) Guarantees any professional service or the results of any course of treatment or surgical procedure, or the performance of any operation painlessly;
- (e) Includes any statement which is known to be false, or through the exercise of reasonable care should be known to be false, deceptive, misleading or harmful, in order to induce any person to purchase, utilize or acquire any professional services or to enter into any obligation or transaction relating thereto;
- (f) Includes any extravagant claim, aggrandizement of abilities or self-laudatory statement calculated to attract patients, and which has a tendency to mislead the public or produce unrealistic expectations in particular cases; or
- (g) Is false, deceptive or misleading in regard to the price, cost, charge, fee or terms of credit or services performed or to be performed.
2. It is sufficient for disciplinary purposes that any statement or other advertising described in paragraph (e), (f) or (g) has a tendency to:
- (a) Deceive, mislead or harm the public because of its false, deceptive, misleading or harmful character; or
- (b) Produce unrealistic expectations in particular cases, even though no member of the public is actually deceived, misled or harmed, or no unrealistic expectations are actually produced by the statement or other advertising.
Sample Best Practices
We’ve developed some sample best practices to help you get started discussing your medical marketing with your legal counsel in more detail. Find out if you need to take steps to avoid the following:
- Claiming that a manifestly incurable disease can be permanently cured.
- Making any false claim of a licensee’s medical skill, or the efficacy or value of your treatments.
- Claiming or imply professional superiority or that you perform any professional service in a manner superior to that of other practitioners.
- Guaranteeing any professional service or the results of any course of treatment or surgical procedure.
- Guaranteeing that an operation will be performed painlessly.
- Making any statement which is known to be false, or through the exercise of reasonable care should be known to be false, deceptive, misleading or harmful, in order to induce any person use your services.
- Making any extravagant claim, aggrandizement of abilities or self-laudatory statement calculated to attract patients, and which has a tendency to mislead the public or produce unrealistic expectations.
- Making any claim that is false, deceptive, or misleading in regard to the price, cost, charge, fee or terms of credit of services performed.
- Making scientific claims that cannot be substantiated.
- Showing patient before and after photos without indicating that results vary and the results shown are not a guarantee.
- Showing models without clearly indicating that the photos are not of actual patients.
- Saying you are board-certified without including in any advertising the name of the board that has certified you.
Is your website following best practices when it comes to medical marketing? Find out by downloading our free Website Compliance Checklist!
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