North Carolina at a glance
| Rule | North Carolina | Checked |
|---|---|---|
| PSYPACT (psychologists) | Yes | 8 October 2026 |
| Counseling Compact (counselors) | Yes, not live yet | 8 October 2026 |
| Social Work Licensure Compact | Enacted, not issuing licenses yet | 8 October 2026 |
| Health-data or health geofencing law | None | 30 September 2026 |
| Privacy law treating health data as sensitive | None | 30 September 2026 |
North Carolina licensing boards’ advertising rules
Ads, websites and directory profiles all count as advertising to a licensing board. These are the North Carolina rules we check copy against, with links to the official text. Boards update their rules, so read the current version before you rely on a summary.
North Carolina Medical Board
- The board may discipline a physician who has advertised or publicly professed to treat human ailments under a system or school of treatment or practice other than the one in which the physician was educated. (N.C. Gen. Stat. 90-14(a)(9))
North Carolina Social Work Certification and Licensure Board
- Social workers may not engage in any advertising that is false, fraudulent, deceptive or misleading, and may neither solicit nor use recommendations or testimonials from clients. (21 NCAC 63 .0509(c))
- When announcing availability for professional services, a social worker must use their name and the type and level of their certification and licensure. (21 NCAC 63 .0509(b))
Telehealth across North Carolina's borders
North Carolina is a PSYPACT state. A psychologist whose home license is in North Carolina can apply for PSYPACT's telepsychology authorization and then see clients by telehealth in the other PSYPACT states, so ads can reach clients there too.
North Carolina has enacted the Counseling Compact, but it wasn't live here yet when we checked. Once it is, a licensed professional counselor based here can apply for privileges to practice in other member states instead of a separate license in each.
It has also enacted the Social Work Licensure Compact, which isn't issuing multistate licenses yet; the compact's commission expects its licensing system in 2027.
For physicians, psychiatrists included, North Carolina is in the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact, which speeds up getting a license in other member states but doesn't replace it.
Telehealth ads should only reach places where the clinician can legally treat: see PSYPACT and Counseling Compact states.
Practices near a state line often see clients from next door. Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia and South Carolina each have their own page.
Health data, tracking and North Carolina law
North Carolina has no comprehensive consumer privacy law or consumer health data law in effect as of 30 September 2026. Federal rules and a practice's own HIPAA duties still apply.
This is not legal advice.
How the states compare: state health-data laws.
What patients search for in North Carolina
Searches a month that name a North Carolina city, with the average cost per click, from Ahrefs (checked between 30 September and 5 October 2026). A dash means too few to measure; “near me” searches aren't counted. The Statewide row is searches that name the state.
| City | Therapist | Psychiatrist | Ketamine | IOP | Weight loss | Functional med. | Concierge | GI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wilmington | 450 $6.00 | 400 $3.00 | 50 $5.00 | 30 | 60 $1.80 | 20 | – | 200 $1.70 |
| Raleigh | 150 $3.50 | 100 $9.00 | 100 | 50 | 70 | 50 $1.00 | 10 $2.00 | 200 $1.60 |
| Asheville | 200 $5.00 | 200 $4.50 | 100 $4.00 | – | 50 | 10 | – | 80 $1.20 |
| Winston-Salem | 200 $5.00 | 100 $3.50 | 70 | – | – | – | – | 200 $0.60 |
| Charlotte | 200 $10.00 | 100 $4.50 | 60 | 10 | 10 $3.00 | 40 | 30 $1.50 | 100 $1.50 |
| Statewide | 100 $3.00 | 40 $3.00 | 150 $5.00 | 70 $3.50 | – | – | – | 10 $1.10 |
| Durham | 150 $8.00 | 100 $2.50 | – | – | – | – | – | 20 $1.30 |
| Fayetteville | 80 $4.00 | 20 | – | – | 60 | – | – | 10 |
| Cary | 90 $5.00 | 50 $3.50 | – | – | 20 | – | – | – |
| Greensboro | 60 $3.50 | 50 $3.50 | – | – | – | – | – | 10 $1.30 |
Of the cities measured, Wilmington gets the most of these searches. Its biggest single search, “therapist wilmington nc”, gets about 450 a month. To turn a cost per click into a cost per booked patient, put your own numbers into the patient acquisition cost calculator.
Across the searches measured here, North Carolina patients look most for therapists (about 1,680 a month), then psychiatrists (1,160). Wilmington alone accounts for 25% of them. A click on a therapist search here costs about $5.78 on average, above the $4.00 median across the 306 therapist searches measured on our state pages.
Fill The Lobby is a remote US healthcare marketing agency; the ads and pages we write for practices are checked against rules like these. See how we handle compliance.
Sources
- PSYPACT, compact map, checked 8 October 2026
- Counseling Compact, member map, checked 8 October 2026
- Counseling Compact, 10 states now offering privileges, checked 8 October 2026
- Counseling Compact, Pennsylvania becomes the 40th member, checked 8 October 2026
- Social Work Licensure Compact, enacted in 35 states, checked 8 October 2026
- Interstate Medical Licensure Compact, participating states, checked 14 October 2026
- IAPP, US State Privacy Legislation Tracker, checked 30 September 2026
- Ahrefs Keywords Explorer, US search volumes and cost per click, checked 30 September 2026
- North Carolina Medical Board, checked 5 October 2026
- North Carolina Social Work Certification and Licensure Board, checked 5 October 2026