DC FAQs By WSCA Staff
You recently stated in a WSCA newsletter that we should be checking our websites and advertising to make sure we don’t have any prohibited advertising. Can you explain that a little further?
There are actually a lot of rules pertaining to how chiropractors can advertise, but they’re mostly contained within a small handful of WACs. Rather than restate the entire text of each, here is a list of the relevant WACs and a brief description of what each forbids.
WAC 246-808-600: Prohibits false, fraudulent, deceptive, or misleading claims. Examples include, but are not limited to—guarantees of results or cures, claims of professional superiority (be it superiority over other DCs or over other professions), failure to differentiate chiropractic from all other methods of healing, and services outside the scope of practice*. This WAC also prohibits offers of gratuitous services or discounts, unless the chiropractor provides a disclosure (which the patient must sign) stating when there will be a charge for goods and services, and/or that when the free services have been exhausted additional services will be subject to charge.
*If you have a multi-disciplinary practice where services outside the chiropractic scope are delivered by other providers, you can still advertise those services—you just can’t state, suggest, or imply that they are provided by the chiropractor.
WAC 246-808-520: Requires any listing of a DC’s name on signs, websites, business cards, letterhead, and other media use one or more of the following designations: Doctor of Chiropractic, DC, PhC, chiropractor, or chiropractic physician. It also requires all representations of your practice to be dignified and not sensational or misleading.
WAC 246-808-625: Sets the rules pertaining to testimonial advertising. It requires that testimonials relate to care provided in the preceding 5-year period, they must be documented by a
notarized statement of the patient (a copy of which must be kept by both the patient and the chiropractor), and they must be consistent with the patient’s treatment history (as documented in their patient record). This WAC also prohibits any testimonials that are exaggerated or misrepresented, that state that a technique or doctor is superior*, claims specific cures, compares one chiropractor to another, or that includes a named diagnosis.
*Your patients may give testimonial as to their experience with a particular technique or doctor, but they cannot claim one is better than another technique or doctor.
There are other WACs dealing with how you disclose the costs of services, how long you must make special offers available and to whom, the suggestion of the need for chiropractic, and how you cannot pay or give anything of value to the press or media outlets in return for publicity in a news item (as opposed to paid advertising). However, these were not the sections cited in the recent newsletter. For more information about how you can and cannot advertise your practice, please contact the WSCA at (206) 878-6055 or email us at
wsca@chirohealth.org.
Each issue of Plexus features several frequently asked questions about chiropractic in Washington. If you have any questions you’d like to see shared in the magazine, please submit them to:
Washington State Chiropractic Association
c/o Shaka Forest, Membership Director 1120 Pacific Ave., Ste. 206 Tacoma, WA 98402
wsca@chirohealth.org
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