ABA Family Legal Guide

Health-Care Law

Regulating Health-Care Professionals

Licensing of Doctors, Nurses, and Hospitals

What is "the unauthorized practice of medicine"?

Each state has laws that forbid anyone but licensed doctors from practicing medicine. The practice of medicine by unlicensed doctors is known as the unauthorized practice of medicine. How these laws define "medicine" varies from state to state, with most states using a broad definition. For example, the Pennsylvania Medical Practice Act defines medicine as "the art and science of which the objectives are the cure of diseases and the preservation of the health of man, including the practice of the healing art with or without drugs, except healing by spiritual means or prayer."

Usually, home remedies, the self-injection of insulin, tattooing, the sale of books that discuss healing, or the sale of vitamins or nutritional substances are not considered to be unauthorized practices of medicine, as long as those activities do not involve making a diagnosis of a patient.

However, prescribing vitamins to cure an illness is practicing medicine and someone would need a license to do that. The same is true of taking blood or urine samples for analysis in order to diagnose or treat an illness or injury.

The unauthorized practice of medicine occurs when an unlicensed person does something that is part of the legal definition of "medicine." This does not include simply offering general advice (as, for example, in a magazine article for the general public), or offering informal advice about a coworker's cold, but it does involve holding yourself out as a licensed doctor when in fact you do not have a license to practice medicine. For instance, if you diagnose a person as having cancer, but you are not a doctor, you engaged in the unauthorized practice of medicine and you may be prosecuted in a criminal court. If you prescribe a healing salve for a skin condition or give obstetrical examinations, but you are not a licensed health professional, you engaged in the unauthorized practice of medicine and you may be prosecuted in a criminal court.