Telehealth State Licensure Policies (Red vs. Green States)

Estimated read time: Less than 10 minutes

We want to make sure everyone is fully aware of all established rules and regulations regarding state licensing laws and availability for Nourish dietitians and patients.

Telehealth is an ever-changing landscape, and rules and regulations often struggle to keep up. Our compliance & legal team is constantly monitoring all state regulations to protect our RD licenses, and will continue to do so going forward.

Licensing requirements for dietitians vary by state. Currently, 23 states—referred to as "Green States"—do not require a state-specific license. In these states, holding a Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR) credential is sufficient to practice, including seeing patients who live there.

The remaining states are considered "Red States." These states typically define the location of practice based on where the patient is located, not the provider. Therefore, to see patients in Red States, you must be licensed in that specific state—even if you're physically located elsewhere. However, many of these states offer temporary practice allowances if you hold a CDR and have applied for a license. There's also an effort underway to establish an interstate licensure compact for dietitians.

Our scheduling system is designed to account for state licensure laws. You will not be scheduled with patients residing in Red States unless you hold an active license there.

If the patient makes you aware they are located in a red state, you are not able to see them unless you are licensed in the state. If a patient is traveling or moving to a red state and you would like to continue seeing them, please review our licensure reimbursement policy for license requests and renewals (at the bottom of this article).

The location of the provider does not matter for telehealth licensing laws so long as you're in the United States; only that of the patient. If you are permanently moving to a new state, however, the best practice is to get a new license to match your address.

Whenever you obtain a new license, please upload it to your Nourish Provider Portal and CAQH so you can start seeing patients with that license.

Until you upload your license to the Provider Portal, patients from these states will not be scheduled with you, so ensure all your licenses are listed within your Provider Portal. If needed, you can review adding licensure to the portal here: Upload your State Licensure.

Please Note: Nourish dietitians cannot see patients located outside of the United States. If your patient is traveling and makes you aware that they won't be located in the country during your session, please re-schedule your appointment for when they have returned from abroad and are back in the U.S.

In addition, Registered Dietitians at Nourish cannot conduct sessions while outside of the United States.

• We will fully reimburse initial licensure and renewals for states that the Nourish team specifically requested (or requests) you apply for licensure in (whether during onboarding or while at Nourish). We will also reimburse for red state licensure. Please submit your reimbursement requests via Ramp.

• At this time, Nourish is approving all red state requests (as well as green states that the Nourish team has requested that you get). Other green state requests, that Nourish did not ask you to apply for or renew, will not be approved.

• If you have any questions on this, feel free to reach out to people@usenourish.com