How Baseline works, and where our providers are licensed
Who prescribes, who does not, what a 50-state provider network means for you, and how the corporate practice of medicine rules shape the way this is built.
Key takeaways
- Baseline is a wellness and care coordination company. Baseline does not prescribe and does not practice medicine.
- Prescribing decisions are made by independent licensed providers in our partner network, who hold licenses across all 50 states and treat you under the law of the state you are in.
- That separation follows the corporate practice of medicine doctrine, which in many states reserves clinical decisions for licensed clinicians rather than for a company.
- Medications are dispensed by licensed pharmacies. Compounded preparations are not FDA approved products, and that is stated wherever they appear on this site.
- A provider can decline. If your history, your labs or your goals do not support a therapy, the answer is no, and no part of our model pays anyone to say yes.
Baseline coordinates care. We handle intake, biomarker testing, scheduling, education and follow-up. We do not prescribe, and we do not make clinical decisions.
Prescribing sits with independent licensed providers in our partner network, who are licensed across all 50 states and treat patients in the state where the patient is located.
That split is not a technicality. It is how the corporate practice of medicine rules require telehealth to be built, and it is the part most direct-to-consumer brands never explain.
Who does what
There are three parties in every Baseline program, and it is worth knowing which one is doing what on your behalf.
- Baseline coordinates. Intake, scheduling, education, check-ins, and the logistics of getting any biomarker testing you choose into one place.
- An independent licensed provider decides. They review your intake and your labs, determine whether a therapy is appropriate, and write any prescription. They are licensed clinicians, not Baseline employees making clinical calls.
- A licensed pharmacy dispenses. Medication is prepared and shipped under state and federal pharmacy oversight.
What a 50-state provider network means for you
Medical licensure is state by state. A provider must hold a license in the state where the patient is physically located at the time of the visit, which is why so many telehealth brands are quietly limited to a handful of states.
The providers in our partner network hold licenses across all 50 states, so wherever you are in the country you are seen by someone licensed to treat you there. Practically, it means your care does not stop working because you moved or because you are traveling for a month.
It does not mean every therapy is available everywhere. State rules, pharmacy rules and the provider's own clinical judgment all narrow what is appropriate in a given case, and any of them can produce a no.
The corporate practice of medicine, in plain language
Many states hold to a doctrine called the corporate practice of medicine. The idea behind it is simple: a company should not be able to override a clinician's judgment about a patient, because a company has a commercial interest and the clinician has a duty to the patient.
In practice it means the clinical entity and the business entity stay separate. The medical group employs or contracts the providers and owns the clinical decisions. Baseline provides the technology, the coordination and the education, and is paid for those things.
You see the shape of it on your invoice. The provider network fee goes to the prescribing medical group rather than to Baseline, and it is listed separately for exactly that reason.
It is also why nobody here can promise you a prescription before a provider has looked at your file. If a service tells you in advance what you will be prescribed, that is a signal worth paying attention to.
Labs, records and consent
Biomarker testing is optional and strongly recommended, and when you choose it an independent provider orders it and reviews the results with you rather than handing you a PDF you are expected to interpret alone.
Your information is handled under our privacy policy, and clinical records sit with the medical group. You can ask for a copy of your results at any time.
What we are not
We are not an emergency service, and nothing here substitutes for care from your own physician. If something is urgent, call 911 or go to an emergency department.
We are not a prescriber and we are not a pharmacy. And the educational material on this site, including this page, is not a diagnosis, a prescription, or a recommendation for you specifically. It exists so that the conversation you have with a provider starts from a better place.
What this means for you
The honest summary: Baseline builds the process, licensed providers make the medical decisions, licensed pharmacies dispense, and the structure that keeps those roles separate is a legal requirement rather than a preference. If you want to know exactly how a therapy would be handled in your state, ask before you buy. We would rather answer that question than have you guess.
Therapies discussed here
References
- Federation of State Medical Boards, Telemedicine Policy: a physician must be licensed in the state where the patient is located at the time of the encounter.
- American Medical Association, Corporate Practice of Medicine issue brief: most states restrict ownership of a medical practice and clinical decision making to licensed physicians.
- US Food and Drug Administration, Compounding and the FD&C Act sections 503A and 503B: compounded drugs are not FDA approved and are dispensed against a patient-specific prescription.