Pennsylvania good-faith exam for med spas

Good-faith examination in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania approaches the pre-treatment question from the DELEGATION side: the physician has to make a patient-specific judgment before anyone else touches the patient, and some services cannot be handed over at all.

• A medical service may not be delegated where it is sufficiently complicated, difficult or dangerous that it requires knowledge and skill possessed by medical doctors but not commonly held by non-physicians, or where potential adverse reactions may not be readily apparent to someone without medical doctor training.

  49 Pa. Code §18.402(b) · verified Aug 17, 2026 · read at Cornell Legal Information Institute

• A physician may not delegate a procedure they are not themselves trained, qualified and competent to perform. The ceiling on what can be handed to staff is the delegating physician’s own competence, not the staff member’s.

  49 Pa. Code §18.402 · verified Aug 17, 2026 · read at Cornell Legal Information Institute

• The physician must determine that no undue risk exists for the specific patient before the delegated service is performed — a patient-by-patient judgment, not a standing clearance for a class of procedure.

  49 Pa. Code §18.402(a) · verified Aug 17, 2026 · read at Cornell Legal Information Institute

• Pennsylvania answers it in one sentence and sets no lower bar for the remote visit. “a health care provider providing health care services through telemedicine shall be subject to the same standard of care that would apply to the health care services in an in-person setting.” Telemedicine is defined as delivering care to a “patient by a health care provider who is at a different location, through synchronous interactions, asynchronous interactions or remote patient monitoring”, and a synchronous interaction is “A two-way or multiple-way exchange of information between a patient and a health care provider that occurs in real time via audio or video conferencing.” The Act carries no separate examination rule for cosmetic medicine — what governs the remote encounter is whatever would govern it in the room.

  2024 Pa. Act 42, §§ 4702, 4705 (Telemedicine — definitions; standard of care) · verified Sep 8, 2026

Recent Pennsylvania changes

• PA HB1881: Further providing for pharmacy technician and pharmacy technician trainee registration, qualifications and supervision; providing for administration of injectable medications, biologicals and immunizations, for clinical laboratory certificate and for report on pharmacy-administered vaccines; and making a repeal.Dec 16, 2025