Friday May 12, 2023

How Wellness Law Can Help You Practice Safely and Compliantly

“Wellness, because it's the Wild West, there are no black and white answers oftentimes when it comes to, ‘Can I do this? Or can't I do this?” explains Barbara J. Zabawa, JD, MPH. Barbara is the founder and president of Wellness Law, a legal services company dedicated to improving wellness law compliance for health and wellness professionals and companies. She is also the founder of Pursesuitz, a mission based fashion company, and Lemon Spark, a movement and podcast celebrating the sparks that lead people to meaningful pursuits after experiencing life's lemons. Today, Barbara joins host Lara to discuss how wellness law can help you to practice safely and compliantly.

Barbara started her company because she saw a gap in the market for providing legal services to those outside of the scope of traditional health law. Much of wellness law is less regulated as practitioners tend to not be licensed and governed in the same way as traditional healthcare providers. It’s possible to unintentionally break the law by providing professional health services to people in states where you are unlicensed. If you are marketing yourself as a coach, but you really emphasize your credentials as a doctor or a nurse, that could end up being seen as a violation of the law. It is important to really keep your wellness business separate from any professional license you hold in order to not run into compliance issues.

With the increase in telemedicine availability, more and more healthcare providers are offering services to people outside of their home state. This can cause legal complications if you are not licensed in the state where your clients reside. Since wellness professionals often do not require licensure to practice, they have the benefit of a bit more legal flexibility. Even so, you still have to be cautious of how you market your services.

Quotes

• “Even though there may be technical violations of the law, there's not a lot of appetite at this moment from some of the licensing boards to do anything about it.” (21:30-21:40 | Barbara)

• “The more you emphasize that credential, the more likely it is that you will be held to that standard.” (24:55-25:02 | Barbara)

• “Wellness, because it's the Wild West, there are no black and white answers oftentimes when it comes to, ‘Can I do this? Or can't I do this?’, when it comes to legal questions.” (25:33-25:48 | Barbara)

• “You need to be licensed where your patients are. It's not enough that you have a license in the state where you reside.” (28:38-28:48 | Barbara)

• “In order to really satisfy the market need for cross border practice, the laws are going to have to accommodate that. Otherwise, I think the licensed professions will suffer.” (33:14-33:30 | Barbara)

Links

Connect with Barbara J. Zabawa:

Website: www.wellnesslaw.com; www.pursesuitz.com; www.lemonspark.com

Twitter: @wellnessatty; @puresuitz; @lemonsparkstories

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/barbarazabawa

Instagram: @wellnessattorney; @pursesuitz; @lemonsparkstories

Facebook: @centerforhealthandwellnesslaw; @pursesuitz; @lemonspark

Connect with Lara:

Functional Medicine Micropractice Checklist: https://healthinnate.activehosted.com/f/47

Catalyst Studio Mentorship: https://drlarasalyer.com/catalyst

Website: https://drlarasalyer.com

Instagram: @drlarasalyer