The short answer for Ohio. 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 Ohio against primary sources, and says so plainly where a question is unsettled.
Who may perform the good faith exam in Ohio
Physician or authorised licensee.
Medical director. A physician for the clinical oversight the device rules require. Ownership is not the constraint here.
Delegation and supervision. Laser is the strictest in the country: the delegate must have OBSERVED 15 and PERFORMED 20 procedures per device type under direct physical oversight, and direct physical oversight means the physician in the SAME ROOM directly observing.
The gate that catches operators in Ohio
Ablative light-based procedures may not be delegated at all. And while entities may employ physicians, they may not control clinical judgment (ORC 4731.22).
Ohio breaks the pattern in both directions: the ownership answer is the most permissive in this table and the device answer is the most restrictive.
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 Ohio as everywhere else, and they are where most exam processes actually break — not on the licence question, but on documentation nobody kept.
How Ohio sits on structure
Corporate practice of medicine. No — Ohio has ABOLISHED the doctrine. Entities may employ physicians and non-physicians may own.
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 Ohio for the structure side.
What MDside provides in Ohio
- Ohio-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 Ohio, matched to the services actually on your menu.
- A named Ohio 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 Ohio 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 Ohio
Frequently asked questions
Who can perform a good faith exam in Ohio?
Physician or authorised licensee.
Can the exam be done by telehealth in Ohio?
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 Ohio require a physician medical director?
A physician for the clinical oversight the device rules require. Ownership is not the constraint here.
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 Ohio: ORC 4731.22; ORC 4731.33; OAC ch. 4731-18. Last reviewed 2026-09-03. Corrections are welcome and get made: contact us.
General information about good faith exams and practice structure in Ohio, not legal advice. Requirements differ by state and change often. Confirm your obligations with healthcare counsel licensed in Ohio.