The short answer for North Carolina. Physician or authorised licensee.
A good faith exam is a clinical evaluation by a licensed provider, before treatment, establishing that the treatment is appropriate for that patient. What differs between states is who is allowed to perform it, whether it may happen remotely, and what has to be documented. This page sets out what we have verified for North Carolina against primary sources, and says so plainly where a question is unsettled.
Who may perform the good faith exam in North Carolina
Physician or authorised licensee.
Medical director. An active North Carolina licensee. The business must be owned in its entirety by licensees — physicians, or physicians together with NPs or PAs.
Delegation and supervision. Standard delegation, read against NCMB position statements.
The gate that catches operators in North Carolina
The straw-director pattern is named in the board’s own disciplinary commentary: a physician paid $2,000 a month, told he need not attend, over a med spa owned by a non-licensee — characterised as aiding the unlicensed practice of medicine.
North Carolina is the clearest published description of what a signature-only directorship looks like from the regulator’s side.
What makes the exam defensible
Nobody is ever asked to produce a good faith exam on a good day. The request arrives after a complication, a board complaint, an insurance audit or a buyer’s diligence. Five things decide whether what you hand over helps you:
- A qualified practitioner, permitted in that state, actually performed it.
- A real evaluation happened — history, indications, contraindications, and a decision.
- The treatment plan and the order are specific: drug or device, site, dose or settings.
- Informed consent was taken and recorded before treatment, not after.
- The record still exists, unaltered and retrievable, two years later when somebody asks.
Only the first of those is state-specific. The other four fail in exactly the same way in North Carolina as everywhere else, and they are where most exam processes actually break — not on the licence question, but on documentation nobody kept.
How North Carolina sits on structure
Corporate practice of medicine. Yes, and strictly.
The exam and the structure are separate questions and they fail separately. A perfectly documented exam performed inside an entity that may not lawfully deliver the service is still a problem, and a clean entity does not save a rubber-stamped exam. See medical direction in North Carolina for the structure side.
What MDside provides in North Carolina
- North Carolina-licensed physicians performing the exam themselves — not a queue of signatures.
- A written evaluation, treatment plan and order per patient, in a record you keep and can export.
- Protocols and delegation written to North Carolina, matched to the services actually on your menu.
- A named North Carolina medical director doing the work, where your structure needs one.
- 503A and 503B pharmacy relationships and in-house lab draws where the treatment calls for them.
Book a call and we will read your current exam process against the five tests above, in North Carolina and any other state you operate in. The review is free and you are not obliged to use us for the fix.
Read the detail on North Carolina
Frequently asked questions
Who can perform a good faith exam in North Carolina?
Physician or authorised licensee.
Can the exam be done by telehealth in North Carolina?
That depends on the state rule above and on the treatment. Where we have verified a restriction it is stated on this page; where the position is unsettled we say so rather than guess, and we confirm it with the board before you build a remote funnel.
Does North Carolina require a physician medical director?
An active North Carolina licensee. The business must be owned in its entirety by licensees — physicians, or physicians together with NPs or PAs.
What happens if the exam is not documented?
The exam effectively did not happen. In a complaint, an audit or a sale, an undocumented evaluation is treated as no evaluation — which is why the record, not the call, is the thing you are actually buying.
Primary sources for North Carolina: NCMB Position Statement 10.1.2; NCMB disciplinary commentary. Last reviewed 2026-09-03. Corrections are welcome and get made: contact us.
General information about good faith exams and practice structure in North Carolina, not legal advice. Requirements differ by state and change often. Confirm your obligations with healthcare counsel licensed in North Carolina.