LegitScript
LegitScript certification for telehealth
LegitScript certification is required for telehealth payment processing, so nothing in your launch can bill a patient until the entity operating the program is certified. These pages cover who applies, what the review covers, what it costs, how long it takes, and what happens if you skip it.
Why does certification come first in the launch?
Certification is the longest single item in a launch, and everything downstream waits on the payment account. Your site, your brand and your provider network can all be ready while it runs. None of them can bill a patient until it clears.
Do you need LegitScript certification?
If you read one page, read this one. It explains what the review actually examines and why the payment account depends on it.
What does the application involve?
Certification is an application rather than a purchase. The review reads the business behind the offer, so the work is assembling accurate detail rather than writing anything persuasive.
How does certification connect to payments?
The certification exists because processors will not underwrite a telehealth program without it, and the requirement follows the program rather than the acquirer.
What does keeping certification require?
Certification renews, and material changes have to be reported. Most trouble at this stage comes from a change nobody reported.
What does the certification actually verify?
It is a verification credential. An outside reviewer examines a business in a regulated or high-risk category and confirms three things. First, that it complies with the laws covering it. Second, that it meets the consumer safety standards for its category. Third, that it follows the advertising policies of the platforms it uses.
It is not a licence, a membership or a trade mark. It is a review of one business against a published standard, and it has to be maintained.
Which categories does it cover?
Three matter to anyone reading this site.
- Healthcare and telemedicine. Online pharmacies, telehealth providers, medical spas and sellers of prescription products. This is the category a med spa falls into.
- Addiction treatment. Rehabilitation and recovery providers.
- CBD and supplements. Sellers of restricted wellness products.
Who runs the certification?
An independent certification body. It is not a processor, a platform or a regulator. It does not take a position on whether your business should exist. It confirms that the business matches what it claims to be.
What does the review examine?
The standards cover the business rather than the website, though the site is part of the evidence. Five areas come up in every application.
| Area | What the reviewer looks for |
|---|---|
| Ownership | Which entity operates the offer, and who is behind it. |
| Licensure | Which providers are licensed, and in which states. |
| Pharmacy | Who dispenses, and under what arrangement. |
| Advertising | What the site claims, and how it sells the offer. |
| Complaints | How a patient raises a problem, and who answers it. |
A gap in any one of those holds the application. The reviewer compares what you submitted against what the site says, so inconsistency is the usual reason an application runs long.
What does certification enable?
Two things, and both sit in front of revenue.
A payment account approved for prescription charges. Underwriters treat pharmacy-shipped medication as a distinct risk class, and certification is the evidence they ask for before they open an account.
Advertising on the major platforms. Google and Meta restrict promotion of prescription products, and both accept certification as the credential for healthcare advertisers. Without it, a prescription program cannot be promoted on either.
What happens if you launch without it?
The program can be built and cannot bill. That is the short version. The cost is the revenue that does not arrive while everything else is already ready.
Some med spas launch the non-prescription parts of the business first and add prescription programs later. That works, and it pushes the larger revenue line back.
Where should you start?
With the timeline, because it sets the launch date. Certification is the longest single item, so starting it last is the most common way a launch slips.