How Does LegitScript Certification Work for Addiction Treatment?

What this means for you

• Who qualifies: licensed addiction treatment in the US or Canada, in person or remote, including detox, residential, outpatient, counseling and medication-assisted treatment, plus mutual support groups and crisis hotlines.
• Who does not: lead generators, call centers and marketers paid to refer patients, and sober living homes without licensed clinical services.
• Fees are charged per unique facility, with lower rates at 10 and 25 facilities, and a separate tier for small individual practices.
• After certification come three more approvals: Google's healthcare certification, Meta's permission request and Microsoft's rules for recovery ads.
• Advertising treatment on Google, Bing or Facebook before certification can count against you. LegitScript says it may be grounds for denial.

MedScale Health, a paid acquisition agency for telehealth brands and clinics, prepares addiction treatment providers and behavioral health brands for LegitScript's review and files the platform requests that follow. This page explains the certification itself: who qualifies, what it costs, the standards that decide it, and what Google, Meta and Microsoft ask for afterwards. This page is marketing guidance, not legal or medical advice. Platform and certification rules change, so check the sources listed at the end before acting on a specific rule.

Addiction Treatment or Healthcare Certification?

LegitScript runs separate programs. Healthcare Certification covers businesses that sell, prescribe or facilitate prescription medications online. Addiction Treatment Certification covers substance use disorder treatment and recovery services. LegitScript's FAQ adds an important point for telehealth brands: if your website includes information about substance use disorder treatment, ad platforms may classify the business under their addiction treatment policies even if you don't plan to advertise those services, and in that case LegitScript generally recommends Addiction Treatment Certification. If you are unsure, LegitScript asks you to email its client relations team before applying.

The platform rules are narrower than "addiction" in everyday speech. Google's addiction services policy covers recovery-oriented drug and alcohol addiction services and puts impulse control disorders, behavioral addictions and nicotine addiction out of scope. Meta needs no permission for physical rehabilitation, for rehab services for non-drug and non-alcohol addictions such as cigarettes, or for ads targeting people outside the United States.

The fees, from LegitScript's live page

• One to nine facilities: $1,595 application fee and $3,095 annual fee per facility.
• Ten to 24 facilities: $1,495 and $2,775 per facility.
• Twenty-five or more facilities: $1,395 and $2,550 per facility.
• Individual practitioner tier, for one to three providers at one location with one website and no affiliation with a larger treatment organization: $535 application fee and $1,070 annual fee.
• Expedited processing: $2,500 more per application, with review started within two business days of submission.

A unique facility is a distinct location that provides addiction treatment, even under the same corporate registration. LegitScript may treat nearby locations as one facility, weighing factors such as being within a mile of each other, shared registration, ownership, management and policies, and it decides case by case. The application fee is nonrefundable regardless of outcome, annual fees are nonrefundable, and hardship waivers may be available for qualifying nonprofits. A single facility pays $4,690 in year one and $3,095 a year after that.

To turn these fees into a budget for your own websites or facilities, use the LegitScript cost calculator at medscale.health/tools/legitscript-cost-calculator.

The standards that decide it

LegitScript publishes 16 standards for this program. These are the ones that most often shape a provider's marketing:

• Website content: the site must show the physical address of every facility and the specific services provided, and every photo must truthfully show the applicant's own facilities.
• Advertising: ads must identify the provider, must not use third-party business names, and must not claim locations where no services are offered. LegitScript says applicants seen advertising on Google, Bing or Facebook without certification may be treated as trying to get around the program, which may be grounds for denial.
• Lead generators: co-ownership of, or any business affiliation with, a lead generator is prohibited, including sponsoring or answering a lead generator's hotline.
• Incentives: all patient incentives must be disclosed. Offering to pay for travel generally makes a provider ineligible, and paying rent or insurance premiums during treatment is also a problem.
• Medication-assisted treatment: only drugs permitted by regulators, and current DEA certificates for any practitioner prescribing controlled substances.
• History and partners: disclose violations and litigation from the past ten years, and use partner pharmacies that are LegitScript-certified or accredited by another recognized body, with limited exceptions.

Google

Google restricts recovery-oriented drug and alcohol addiction services, including clinical treatment providers, sober living and mutual help organizations, lead generators and referral agencies, and crisis hotlines. Approved advertisers can run in Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, New Zealand and the United States. In the US, the provider must be certified as an addiction services provider by LegitScript, and Google says services that are not eligible for LegitScript certification may not advertise addiction services on Google at all. The provider then applies for Google's own healthcare certification.

Meta

Meta allows addiction treatment ads in the United States only with LegitScript certification and Meta's permission. Eligible advertisers include certified in-person treatment centers, crisis hotlines, mutual support groups and recovery apps. Uncertified call centers and online support groups are not eligible, and neither are lead generators or sober living homes, which LegitScript's program does not cover.

• Open the Authorizations and verifications tab in Settings. Next to Addiction treatment center ads, select Request authorization and then Get started.
• Choose the country. You must hold LegitScript certification for it.
• Enter the URL LegitScript certified. If it is not certified or not in good standing, the form stops there.
• Add the business name and the ad accounts to authorize, then submit.

Meta says you are notified of the status right away. It also notes that LegitScript cannot give time estimates for its own review, and that authorization lasts only while the Addiction Treatment certification stays active.

Microsoft

Microsoft Advertising allows drug and alcohol addiction recovery ads only in the United States. Rehab facilities, group therapy, sober living, halfway houses and similar services must be certified by LegitScript, the landing pages and every URL in the ad must be certified, and lead generation ads are not allowed.

Tracking

Meta's list of prohibited information includes places of treatment and counseling, and medical conditions, so a pixel event or page address that reveals a visit to a treatment program is information Meta says it does not want. MedScale tracks server-side under a BAA with neutral event names, and no names, emails, phone numbers, IP addresses or browser IDs go to any ad platform.

What MedScale does

MedScale Health prepares treatment providers for LegitScript's review: a gap check against the 16 standards, website fixes for addresses, services and photos, the document pack, and answers to every analyst question. After approval it files Google's certification and Meta's permission request, then runs the campaigns with server-side tracking. Certification and approval are never guaranteed. Price your facilities with the calculator at medscale.health/tools/legitscript-cost-calculator, then book the free growth audit at medscale.health/audit.