Telehealth Affiliate Marketing Compliance Guide

What changed in 2025–2026

Telehealth marketing became an enforcement priority. These actions targeted companies, not affiliates, but publisher content that repeats the same claims carries the same risk.

This table is a history. For where each open item stands today, see the telehealth regulation tracker.

Disclosure

The FTC's Endorsement Guides, revised in 2023, require you to disclose a material connection to a brand when your audience wouldn't expect it. Earning a commission is a material connection. The disclosure has to be clear and conspicuous: easy to notice, easy to understand, and placed where people will see it before they act.

Copy-ready examples

Health claims

Health claims must be truthful, not misleading, and backed by competent and reliable scientific evidence. The FTC's Health Products Compliance Guidance explains the standard. In practice, publishers on MarketHealth use the claims each advertiser has substantiated and approved, and nothing beyond them.

Reviews, testimonials and before-and-after content

• Only real reviews and testimonials from real customers. No AI-generated, purchased or invented ones.
• Don't pay or reward people for positive sentiment, and don't suppress negative reviews.
• If you run a comparison or review site that earns commissions, say so. Don't present it as independent if it isn't.
• Before-and-after images: real, unedited, consented, with the timeframe stated, a results-vary note and advertiser approval.
• Personal experience must be your own and typical results made clear.

GLP-1 rules

FDA's March 2026 letters objected to marketing that implied compounded GLP-1s were the same as FDA-approved drugs or equivalent to generics, and to private-label names that obscured who compounded the drug. FDA has stated that compounded drugs aren't reviewed by FDA for safety, effectiveness or quality.

• Never say or imply a compounded medication is the same as, a generic of, or "the same active ingredient as" a brand-name drug, unless the advertiser supplies approved wording.
• Don't use brand-name drug names to sell a compounded program.
• No specific weight-loss amounts, timelines or guarantees.
• Show pricing only in the advertiser's approved wording, with full terms.
• Make clear a clinician decides whether medication is appropriate.

See the GLP-1 category page for content angles.

TRT and testosterone rules

Testosterone is a Schedule III controlled substance. Telemedicine prescribing without an in-person evaluation currently relies on DEA flexibilities that run through December 31, 2026.

• Lead with testing and clinician evaluation; never encourage self-diagnosis.
• No muscle, performance, bodybuilding, libido or anti-aging promises.
• Don't promise "no in-person visit" unless the advertiser has approved the wording, and expect it to change after 2026.
• No physique before-and-after images.

See the TRT category page.

HRT and menopause rules

• Present hormone therapy as one option a clinician may recommend, alongside non-hormonal and lifestyle approaches.
• Never call hormone therapy safe or risk-free.
• FDA's 2026 boxed-warning changes apply to specific FDA-approved products. Don't extend them to all HRT or to compounded hormones.
• Don't claim compounded or "bioidentical" hormones are safer or more natural without approved, substantiated wording.

See the HRT category page.

Peptide rules

Peptide regulation changed twice in 2026. In April, FDA announced it was removing 12 peptides from Category 2, but removal doesn't place them on the list of substances pharmacies may compound. In July, an FDA advisory committee recommended six peptides, including BPC-157, for that list. The recommendation is nonbinding, and FDA must complete rulemaking before anything changes. None of these is an FDA-approved drug.

• Promote only licensed telehealth programs where a clinician prescribes and a licensed pharmacy dispenses.
• Never link to, mention or compare with "research use only" sellers. FDA has found these labels don't protect products marketed for human use.
• Never describe a panel vote or a Category 2 removal as FDA approval, and never call compounded peptides "FDA-approved".
• No healing, injury recovery, anti-aging, muscle or performance claims.
• No dosing, "stacks," protocols or reconstitution instructions.
• Date and source every statement about regulatory status, because it's still changing.

See the peptides category page.

Men's health, ED, women's health and dermatology

The same core rules apply to every category: a licensed clinician decides what's appropriate, claims come only from the advertiser's approved wording, and pricing appears with full subscription terms. A few points are specific to the newer categories:

• ED and sexual health: no performance, size or duration claims; no sexualised creative; never imply a guaranteed prescription. See the ED rules.
• Women's health: don't advise which contraceptive someone should use, and don't describe hormone therapy as risk-free. See the women's health rules.
• Dermatology: keep prescription care and cosmetic skincare separate, and treat progress photos as testimonials. See the dermatology rules.
• Subscriptions: the Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act requires clear terms and consent before a recurring charge, and a simple way to cancel. Never hide auto-renewal.

Category boundaries and referral-payment rules

Some telehealth services can't be promoted on a pay-per-referral basis at all. MarketHealth's marketplace rules:

• Cash-pay programs only. Paying for referrals of services billed to Medicare, Medicaid or other federal programs can violate the federal Anti-Kickback Statute (42 U.S.C. §1320a-7b). We don't run affiliate payouts on insurance-billed services.
• Labs and treatment facilities. The Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act (18 U.S.C. §220) makes it a crime to pay for referrals to laboratories, recovery homes and clinical treatment facilities when services are covered by private or public insurance. Lab and testing programs need a legal review before they're accepted.
• Categories we don't accept: addiction treatment, psychiatry or other controlled-substance prescribing such as ADHD stimulants, medication abortion, and "research use only" products.

These are marketplace rules, not legal advice. Advertisers are responsible for their own legal review.

Privacy and tracking

The FTC's July 2026 action against Hims & Hers centered on health information shared with advertising platforms through customer lists and tracking technologies. Affiliate tracking must never carry health information.

• Use server-to-server postbacks with click and order IDs only.
• Never put conditions, medications, quiz answers or intake data in URLs, sub-IDs or pixels.
• Don't upload customer or subscriber lists built from health interests to ad platforms without legal review and consent.
• Email and SMS need documented consent; SMS is prohibited unless a brief allows it.

Paid platforms

Google requires telemedicine advertisers in the United States to hold LegitScript Healthcare Merchant Certification and Google's own healthcare certification. Meta and other platforms also restrict prescription drug and telehealth ads. Because certification belongs to the provider, paid search and paid social are approval-required on every MarketHealth telehealth offer. Brand bidding is prohibited unless the brief says otherwise.

Platform-by-platform rules, ad copy examples and a pre-launch checklist are in telehealth ad platform rules.

Publisher compliance checklist

Run through this before anything goes live.

• DisclosureClear disclosure near the first recommendation, in every placement.
• Approved claimsEvery health, price and eligibility statement matches the brief's approved wording.
• No sameness claimsNothing implies a compounded drug equals a brand-name or generic drug.
• No promisesNo results amounts, timelines, guarantees, or "safe" and "risk-free".
• Clinician in chargeContent says a licensed clinician decides whether treatment is appropriate.
• Real reviews onlyTestimonials and photos are real, consented, unedited and typical results are clear.
• Approved trafficOnly the sources, GEOs and landing pages in the brief.
• Clean trackingNo health data in URLs, sub-IDs or pixels.
• Creative approvalAds, advertorials and emails approved where the brief requires it.
• Dated and sourcedRegulatory or research statements link to their source and carry a date.

Sources

• FTC: FTC and states act against Hims & Hers (July 29, 2026)
• FTC Healthcare Task Force summary (March 2026)
• FDA: FDA warns 30 telehealth companies against illegal marketing of compounded GLP-1s (March 3, 2026)
• FDA approves removal of boxed warnings for six menopausal hormone therapies (February 2026)
• Federal Register: Fourth temporary extension of telemedicine flexibilities (December 31, 2025)
• FTC: Health claims enforcement, including the NextMed order
• FTC: Final rule banning fake reviews and testimonials (August 14, 2024)
• FTC: Endorsement Guides, what people are asking
• Google Ads: Healthcare and medicines policy
• Orrick: FDA announces removal of 12 peptides from Category 2 (April 2026)
• AJMC: FDA panel backs 6 peptides for compounding (July 2026)
• FDA warning letter: "research use only" peptides (December 2024)

This guide is educational and isn't legal advice. Platform rules and regulations change often. Advertisers should have qualified healthcare advertising counsel review their programs.