Hawaii Advertising Rules for Med Spas and Medical Practices
This brief summarizes what Hawaii statutes and Medical Board administrative rules actually say about advertising by licensed health practices. Every rule below was verified against the primary statute or rule text on Hawaii DCCA sources, each cited with the date checked.
Verified against Hawaii Medical Board (DCCA Professional and Vocational Licensing) sources, 2026-07-02
Educational summary for practice owners. Not legal advice.
False, fraudulent, or deceptive advertising by physicians
HRS 453-8(a)(3) lists engaging in false, fraudulent, or deceptive advertising as a ground for revoking, limiting, suspending, or denying a medical license. The statute names three examples: making excessive claims of expertise in one or more medical specialty fields, assuring a permanent cure for an incurable disease, and making any untruthful and improbable statement in advertising one's medical or surgical practice or business. The same section, at (a)(2), makes employing any person to solicit patients for one's self a separate disciplinary ground.
HRS 453-8, Medicine and Surgery (Hawaii DCCA PVL statute text) checked 2026-07-02
Deceptive advertising ground for all DCCA-licensed professions
Hawaii's Uniform Professional and Vocational Licensing Act applies across the professions the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs licenses, which reaches nurses, estheticians, and other med spa and wellness staff in addition to physicians. HRS 436B-19(2) authorizes the licensing authority to deny, revoke, suspend, or condition any license for engaging in false, fraudulent, or deceptive advertising, or making untruthful or improbable statements. This means the deceptive advertising standard follows every licensee in the practice, not just the physician whose name is on the door.
HRS 436B-19, Uniform Professional and Vocational Licensing Act (Hawaii DCCA PVL statute text) checked 2026-07-02
Holding out as a physician without a license
HRS 453-2(a) states that no person shall advertise or announce one's self, publicly or privately, as prepared or qualified to practice medicine or surgery in Hawaii, or append the letters Dr., M.D., or D.O. to one's name with the intent to imply the person is a practitioner of medicine or surgery, without a valid license from the board. For non-physician-owned wellness and aesthetics businesses, this bears directly on how the practice names itself and describes its services in ads.
HRS 453-2, Medicine and Surgery (Hawaii DCCA PVL statute text) checked 2026-07-02
Physician assistant advertising must name the supervising physician
Hawaii Administrative Rules section 16-85-49.1(c) states that physician assistants may not advertise in any manner without the name or names of the supervising physician or physicians, or in any manner which implies that the physician assistant is an independent practitioner. The same rule section frames the PA as the agent of the supervising physician in all practice-related activities. Practices whose injectors or providers are PAs need the supervising physician identified in the advertising itself.
HAR Title 16, Chapter 85 (Medical Examiners), section 16-85-49.1 checked 2026-07-02
Dental advertising: fraudulent statements and specialty titles
HRS 448-4 makes it unlawful to publish or circulate, directly or indirectly, any statements relating to one's practice of dentistry that are or tend to be false, fraudulent, or misleading. HRS 448-17(b)(14) adds a specific advertising discipline ground: advertising as practicing a dental specialty, or using nine listed specialty terms such as endodontics, orthodontics, or periodontics, without completing the ADA-specified education, unless each advertisement contains a prominent disclaimer that a general dentist provides the services. Section 448-17(b)(8) separately prohibits misrepresentations or false promises made to influence, persuade, or induce dental patronage.
HRS Chapter 448, Dentistry, sections 448-4 and 448-17 (Hawaii DCCA PVL statute text) checked 2026-07-02
Chiropractic advertising restrictions
HRS 442-9(a) lists several advertising-specific grounds for chiropractic license discipline: making any untruthful statement in advertising one's practice or business, false, fraudulent, or deceptive advertising generally, and obtaining a fee on the assurance that a manifestly incurable disease can be permanently cured. The statute also prohibits employing what it calls a capper or steerer to bring in patients, and bars advertising the treatment or cure of certain named conditions.
HRS 442-9, Chiropractic (Hawaii DCCA PVL statute text) checked 2026-07-02
Corporate practice of dentistry
HRS 448-15 states that no corporation shall practice dentistry, hold itself out as entitled to practice dentistry, advertise under the title of dentist, or advertise that it owns a dental office or can furnish dental services, with stated exceptions including professional corporations under chapter 415A and charitable arrangements. The section reaches advertising conduct directly: soliciting dental patronage through corporate agents or employees for an employed dentist is within the prohibition. Hawaii's published board materials state this posture for dentistry specifically; the medical statutes reviewed for this brief do not contain an equivalent advertising-facing corporate practice section.
HRS 448-15, Dentistry (Hawaii DCCA PVL statute text) checked 2026-07-02
What this means by practice type
Med spas
Hawaii publishes no med spa specific advertising rule; the operative standards are HRS 453-8(a)(3) for the medical director, HRS 436B-19(2) for every other DCCA licensee on staff, and HAR 16-85-49.1(c) if injectables or treatments are delivered by a physician assistant, whose ads must name the supervising physician and must not imply independent practice. Business names and ad copy that imply physician-level care also need to clear the holding-out prohibition in HRS 453-2(a).(HAR 16-85-49.1 (Medical Examiners rules))
Dental
Hawaii's dental chapter is the most prescriptive of the professions reviewed. Beyond the general false or misleading ban in HRS 448-4, the statute enumerates nine specialty terms a general dentist cannot use in advertising without either the ADA-specified specialty education or a prominent general-dentist disclaimer in every advertisement, and HRS 448-15 restricts corporate entities from advertising dental services at all outside the stated exceptions.(HRS Chapter 448, sections 448-4, 448-15, 448-17)
Chiropractic
Chiropractors face the same untruthful-statement and deceptive-advertising grounds as physicians, plus two provisions that matter for wellness marketing: taking a fee on an assurance that a manifestly incurable disease can be permanently cured is a discipline ground under HRS 442-9(a)(3), and paid patient-solicitation arrangements (cappers or steerers) are prohibited under HRS 442-9(a)(2). Outcome-guarantee language in chiropractic ads sits directly against the statute's text.(HRS 442-9, Chiropractic)
Longevity and GLP-1 programs
Hawaii's telehealth section states that issuing a prescription based solely on an online questionnaire is not treatment and does not constitute an acceptable standard of care, and requires a documented patient evaluation adequate to establish a diagnosis and identify contraindications. Longevity or weight-management programs advertising quick online GLP-1 access should compare their intake funnel against that text, and claims of permanent results run against the cure-assurance and untruthful-statement grounds in HRS 453-8(a)(3).(HRS 453-1.3 (Hawaii DCCA PVL statute text))
Telehealth posture
HRS 453-1.3 requires a Hawaii medical license before telehealth is used to establish a physician-patient relationship with a patient in the state, and holds treatment recommendations made via telehealth, including electronic prescribing, to the same standards of appropriate practice as comparable in-person settings. The section requires a documented patient evaluation with history and discussion of symptoms adequate to establish a diagnosis, and states that a prescription based solely on an online questionnaire is not treatment and does not constitute an acceptable standard of care.
HRS 453-1.3, Medicine and Surgery (Hawaii DCCA PVL statute text) checked 2026-07-02
Common questions
Can a Hawaii med spa advertise discounts or promotional pricing?
The statutes and Medical Board rules reviewed for this brief do not address fee, discount, or promotional-pricing advertising directly. What applies is the general standard: HRS 453-8(a)(3) and HRS 436B-19(2) make false, fraudulent, or deceptive advertising and untruthful or improbable statements grounds for license discipline, so a promotion is a licensing issue when its terms are inaccurate or misleading rather than because it is a discount.
Are patient testimonials and before-and-after photos allowed in Hawaii?
The board's published rules and the statutes reviewed do not address testimonials or before-and-after photos directly. They are evaluated under the general prohibitions: an untruthful and improbable statement in advertising a medical practice is a discipline ground under HRS 453-8(a)(3), as is assuring a permanent cure, so testimonial and photo content that overstates or guarantees outcomes carries the risk, not the format itself.
Who can own and advertise a healthcare practice in Hawaii?
For dentistry, HRS 448-15 states that no corporation shall practice dentistry, hold itself out as entitled to practice, or advertise that it can furnish dental services, with exceptions including professional corporations under chapter 415A. For medicine, HRS 453-2(a) prohibits any person from advertising themselves as qualified to practice medicine without a Hawaii license, but the medical statutes reviewed do not contain an ownership provision equivalent to the dental corporate-practice section; ownership structuring is a question for Hawaii counsel.
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