Is an exam required before a patient can be treated in Illinois?
Intake · part of The Practice Perimeter
Short answer
Yes — a physician must examine the patient and set a course of treatment before any laser procedure; no repeat exam per procedure under an established plan, and since 2025 an APRN may do that exam for delegated non-ablative lasers if four conditions are met.
The physician has to examine the patient and set a course of treatment before any laser procedure — with one carve-out, new in 2025, letting a non-ablative laser proceed on an APRN examination and a physician reachable by phone. ⚠️ the carve-out carries four conditions, and dropping any one of them puts the procedure back under the general rule.
Drawn from 5 verified rules in this section · regulatory monitoring, not legal advice
- 68 Ill. Adm. Code 1285.336(b) · Aug 17, 2026
- 225 ILCS 60/54.2(e) · Aug 17, 2026
- 68 Ill. Adm. Code 1285.336(b) · Aug 17, 2026
- 68 Ill. Adm. Code 1285.336(b), (b)(1) · Sep 8, 2026
- 68 Ill. Adm. Code 1285.336(b)(2)–(3) · Sep 8, 2026
Related Illinois rules
The physician must examine the patient and determine a course of treatment appropriate to that patient before any procedure. A repeat examination is not required for each of several procedures carried out under an already established treatment plan.
68 Ill. Adm. Code 1285.336(b) · verified Aug 17, 2026
Effective January 1, 2025, an on-site physician examination before a non-ablative laser procedure is not required where four conditions are met: the facility follows a physician delegation protocol available to the Department on request; the examination is performed by an advanced practice registered nurse; the procedure is delegated by a physician and performed by an RN or LPN with documented training in each system; and a physician is available remotely by telephone or other electronic means to respond promptly to questions or complications.
225 ILCS 60/54.2(e) · verified Aug 17, 2026
How other states answer this
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Related Illinois questions
- Can the pre-treatment exam be done by telehealth in Illinois?
- Who may perform the pre-treatment exam in Illinois?
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← All Illinois rules and changes · MedSpaRadar is regulatory monitoring and reference: it summarizes public laws, regulations and agency actions and links each to its source. It is not legal, medical, or compliance advice, and using it creates no attorney-client relationship. A summary can lag its source or leave out detail, and monitoring itself can be interrupted — so an absence of alerts means nothing reached you, not that nothing happened. Read the cited source, check its effective date, and confirm any change to your operations or clinical practice with qualified health-law counsel and your medical director. Legislative data via LegiScan (CC BY 4.0).